By: Unknown Centurion
We are in post-Christian, neo-pagan times. If we truly are in Apostolic times where the culture is disordered and decadent, and practicing Christians are a persecuted minority, the Acts of the Apostles, which documented the original apostolic times should be somewhat of a roadmap for us. As faithful and important women were in the Early Church, their role according to sacred Scripture, for the most part, was one of support, not primary. The names of those who left their lands, livelihoods, and even their lives behind to spread the gospel were men.
True, holy women did provide much needed support (financial, food, lodging, faithful witness, etc.), but men risked their lives to go forth and convert others, according to the final commandment and commission of Christ (Matthew 28:18-20). St. Luke records that men were the ones who became bishops, deacons and priests, and who set up churches and Christian communities in distant lands. Men were the ones chosen by Christ to die as He died. For what kind of faith would ask its women to go out in a dangerous world to suffer rejection, hardship abuse, torture and even death, while its men remained behind in the safety of their homes?
But sadly, in our feminized Church today, the women who are far more plentiful and involved, seem to be the ones doing most of the work, because men have abdicated their duty to tend, defend and rebuild. And if there is a woman-led renewal, what would that look like, in our overly tolerant, politically-correct, culture where everyone is a victim and easily offended? Women by nature are more intuitive, sensitive, emotional, and empathetic, thank God, so they probably shouldn’t be the ones to draw the hard lines that need to be drawn, and they shouldn’t be put on the front lines to be the Enemy’s cannon fodder. Many if not most of the brave female martyrs of the early Church were not killed for their in-your-face preaching, their confronting heretics or pagan authorities, or their active evangelization in faraway lands, as were the Apostles, their companions, and their successors. Men according to our sacred duty are to be the ones who protect our wives, daughters, and mothers, we guard their purity, keep them safe from danger, and defend them with our lives. Men aren’t supposed to just sit back in a comfortable chair with a beer and let them fight our battles for us.
Mother Church didn’t always used to be a mother. It was established to be a patriarchy, but today, in line with the times, it has transitioned into a matriarchy. While I cannot speak to the supernatural ramifications of making the Body of Christ female, the symbolic effect and all leading indicators are beyond catastrophic. Completely contrary to its conception from the visceral, violent piercing of the Heart of Christ, the Church is soft, sensitive, permissive, and effeminate, run to a great degree by fancy, feminine bureaucrats in chanceries and frustrated church ladies in the pews. Where are the
Peters, Pauls, Barnabasses, and Batholomews, the last of whom was martyred by being slowly skinned alive, while he manfully kept the faith. We do have more than our share, however, of Uncle Teds and whiny Karens.
Gone are the days when courageous, faithful, manly men led and set the tone for the universal Church by word and example. If men who were ordained to courageously lead this sacred Divine/Human institution don’t, then they create disorder, feminizing the very Body of Christ. And if there is disorder in the Body of Christ then it will not function as it needs to do, and is opened to diabolical attack. One remedy for our spiritual sickness and the prerequisite for any renewal is for men to act manfully, and to step up to our God-given roles as the leaders and defenders of the Church. The Church can no longer cower and coddle as overindulgent mothers, We must call out and correct as disciplinary fathers.
We need to reclaim the use of words such as heretic and anathema, replacing the overused words of accompany and pastoral. We need to preach fearlessly about issues of sin, hell, homosexuality, abortion, effeminacy and the devil, rather than Milquetoast messages of tolerance diversity, social justice, cheap mercy and all are welcome. We need to remember that we are a Church that condemned heretics, called for Crusades, conducted inquisitions, and stripped erring and enemy clerics of their titles, ensuring that the Church would remain strong, pure, and solid against the unceasing attacks of the Enemy. Today we concede, compromise, capitulate and cede ground to the world and its Prince at almost every turn, opening our gates, laying down our arms, disbanding our military, and letting the enemy have his way with the souls we are supposed to protect.
There is a legend, and I hope it is true, that we even had the original Arian Bishop getting punched in the face by Santa Claus, St. Nicholas himself. While I no way intend to advocate violence, but perhaps if we treated the heretic and schismatic Luther in a similar, masculine fashion, the Body of Christ would not have been torn into tens of thousands of different pieces. Have you ever heard of St. Peter Damien? He was a zealous priest so incensed with the festering evil among his fellow clerics that he wrote the Book of Gomorrah which railed against the concentric crises of clerical effeminacy, homosexuality, and worldliness. His solution to address the homosexual priests who prey upon the young and vulnerable, was not to transfer them from parish to parish as a lenient mother, but to publicly beat and bind in chains as a disciplinary-minded father to punish, deter, and potentially to correct the abhorrent behavior.
Using words such blunt words as the “cancer of sodomic impurity” which was “raging like a cruel beast within the sheepfold of Christ” earned Peter Damien an archbishopship and elevation as the Pope’s number two, and eventually sainthood. Today any priest speaking less direct words with a far less challenging tone would find himself immediately cancelled and sidelined in almost every diocese requiring public repentance, renunciation, and reprogramming at some secular psychological institution before he would be allowed to return to active ministry.
Yet the same petty and effeminate men who cancel and sideline priests for being orthodox and outspoken seem to be the same ones who continue to coddle, as lenient, permissive mothers, the liturgically lax, the active homosexuals, the heterodox and heretics. And to think some frustrated feminists who advocate for women priests still decry the Church as a male- dominant, misogynistic, patriarchal institution. It may in a very technical sense be led by biological males who occupy its highest positions of power, but even so, it is much more of a matriarchy in her governance, as most of the males in charge are anything but manly. While the Church truly benefits in ways we may never know from the feminine genius and spiritual maternity, especially from the growing, vibrant, Eucharistic-centered religious orders, we don’t need spiritual maternity from our priests and bishops.
Men first reclaim right order in family as spiritual fathers and protectors rejecting the chaos, disorder, and diabolical ramifications which flow from this original abdication. Exorcists say that demons exploit weaknesses and enter families where men abdicate their duties to defend, protect, and lead in spiritual matters. Husbands can’t expect their wives to lead in spiritual matters and think everything will somehow work out alright. They can’t rely on their wives’ prayers alone, or their wives alone taking their children to Mass and expect that the Enemy will not exploit his spiritual weakness and infiltrate into the family home. This is why the faith is passed down to the children in a much higher percentage when men actively practice their faith and are the spiritual fathers they were created to be. Such families are rightly ordered and well positioned against the attacks of the Enemy. When they are not rightly ordered spiritually, the Enemy can and will enter, and it will be our fault, for failing to be the leaders and defenders we were created to be.
So too for the sacred institution of the Church. If the Body of Christ is similarly disordered where those ordained men are effeminate, homosexual, capitulate, abdicate, allow the feminine to lead, and otherwise fail to act manfully, then the Enemy will easily enter within our undefended gates, and spread his errors and influence like a spiritual poison. The Evil One encourages such diabolical disorder and spiritual chaos, because in it he thrives and is at his most effective. What is true for fathers who fail to sacrifice, lead and protect is also true for the Church which is experiencing a similar absence of spiritual fatherhood and authentic masculinity, resulting in its children being left without masculine models, mentors, abandoned and uneducated in the things that matter most.
We shouldn’t be at all surprised. Before we can reclaim the masculine spiritually of the Early Church, we must reclaim masculinity. Before we can restore authentic Christian manhood among bishops, priests, and lay and religious men, we must restore manhood itself. As grace builds upon nature, when the nature of modern man is soft, weak, fearful, and feminine, it can only accomplish so much. The main reason why there is so much confusion, chaos, disorder and division in the Church and the world is because there is so much confusion, chaos, disorder and division in manhood itself, from where
those who have been entrusted and ordained to lead guide protect and defend it necessarily come. Bishops, priests, and popes abdicate, vacillate, and capitulate, because that is the sad state of modern manhood.
To withstand the attacks of the Enemy, the Church Militant must adhere to the structures of the institution established by Christ, and priests and bishops must be rightly-ordered in order to act in persona Christi. Popes and bishops can’t abdicate their authority, or act contrary to it, and think that the divine/human institution they oversee will not be undermined, divided, and attacked at every turn. When Christ established His Church, He did so not haphazardly but with a definitive structure, order, and masculine hierarchy to keep it protected from the gates of hell. Such a masculine religious
structure was also established by the Father in the Old Testament, which was not, as critical theorists claim, based on male-dominated, cultural determinants. For other peoples of that era had women priestesses, but God chose otherwise.
When those established patriarchal structures break down, and the men in charge fail to defend and protect her, allowing feminine men and women to rule, the smoke of Satan easily enters, divides, disorients and overwhelms. It’s the same tactic he exploited in corrupting all humanity – getting Adam to abdicate his duty to defend and allowing his wife to lead him away from the will of God. Because it’s been so successful, he employs this same strategy of getting men to abdicate and forcing the women to lead, where he and his fallen angels then attack her and her children with impunity without the protection of her husband. This may be why the devil hates and fears the Blessed Mother so much, because this strategy will never work against her, and it humiliates him to lose to a human girl. Let us pray for the intercession of the Virgin Mary, St. Michael the Archangel, and St. Joseph, the terror of demons, and act, and encourage men to act manfully, while holding those who fail to account.
Unknown Centurion
18 thoughts on “Is the Body of Christ Male or Female?”
“bevy of body building bishops”
That was pretty funny…I laughed out loud. if nothing else, I appreciate your humor.
Have a good night!
Joe,
Congratulations on your (nearly) 37 years of marriage 👏🏼
I’m sorry that my point was not clear.
Obviously for purposes of pro-creation masculinity and femininity are necessary. However, if we are spending our time focusing on our identity, we are becoming more distant from God. For example, compare a man who exercises a little each day to stay healthy vs. a man who spends many hours each day to build a “manly” physique. The latter may be at risk of making themselves an idol if they are obsessing over their appearance. The same can be said for someone who is overly obsessed over their spouse or really anything else (car, manhood, etc).
The author mentioned Bartholomew’s gruesome martyrdom of being flayed alive, and he seemed to imply that only men should be facing such extreme physical trials, yet Joan of Arc was burned alive at the stake. I think there is a scent of pride coming forth when lamenting over “what it means to be a man”. Even though the author did mention some praise for women with a few examples, the overall message I perceived from this article was advocating for specific roles and/or behaviors for men. I think this kind of approach causes us to regress to a more primitive state. If you look at the ingredients that make a good father and a good mother, they are really the same. Patience, kindness, firmness, diligence, humility, endurance ….and those qualities are not affiliated with gender, they are gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Pax Vobiscum,
-Steven
“If you look at the ingredients that make a good father and a good mother, they are really the same.” Sorry Steve, not so. If that was true, moms and dads would be interchangeable.
Let’s move on.
Initially I thought I’d let Joe respond to your comments, especially because he was far more patient and charitable than I would have been. But when your takeaway (or one of them) is that I’m calling for bevy of body building bishops, I couldn’t remain silent. If anything, I’m arguing the opposite. In fact, I’d even say it’s far more likely that a cardinal who is a bodybuilder would likely be the opposite of authentic masculinity, and would be more of an emblem of an effeminate Church or even an enemy within. Plus, my pointing out the masculine martyrdom of Bartholomew was by no means to falsely claim that many women didn’t suffer the most gruesome martyrdoms (which of course they did), but to pose the question as to how many of his apostolic successors (or the men in and formerly in the pews) would do likewise?
Steven, I’m sorry I can’t get on board the non-binary, androgynous utopia train, but that seems to where the anti-Christian culture may be heading without divine intervention. The enemies of God and His Church would be the ones to benefit if that were to occur, because there would be so few brave and selfless men willing and able to defend it. And it’s likely by diabolical design that all resistance and adversity, which builds perseverance, character and courage, have been removed by our antichristian culture of comfort and consumption that gives everyone a trophy, a handout, and a grievance. No longer do men take risks or aspire to be saints or heroes, because it requires work, one might fail, and it’s a whole lot easier to be selfish and safe, or a victim which is of higher status than being holy. Many men have jettisoned the once masculine attributes of sacrifice and suffering with modern comforts of personal care and loungewear, never before known until this wicked, godless, gender-confused generation. But Joe, likely is right, (not just about Theology of the Body) it’s probably past time to move on.
Joe,
I have been married to a wonderful woman for nearly 27 years, so I can attest to the blessing of being married in the Catholic Church. My points were never about discrediting the institution of marriage, I was focusing on the unnecessary and divisive focus on masculinity and femininity.
Pax et Bonum,
-Steven
27 years is just getting started (said the man who will celebrate his 37th this year.). Congratulations.
“My points were never about discrediting the institution of marriage, I was focusing on the unnecessary and divisive focus on masculinity and femininity.” Not clear at all as to what you mean by that.. Marriage without the masculine and feminine is simply NOT marriage.
Give the TOB a try (WWW.piercedhearts.org/jpii/theology_body_audiences/a_theology_body.htm)
Steven,
There is a long history of clericalism in the Church that failed to appreciate the magnificence of man and woman joined in marriage. All of us can benefit from greater familiarity with Saint Pope JP II’s Theology of the Body (piercedhearts.org/jpii/theology_body_audiences/a_theology_body.htm)
Joe
When the Sadducees were talking with Jesus and told the story about the woman who was married to a man and then to each of his brothers when each died in succession they asked Him whose wife would she be in the afterlife. Jesus told the Sadducees that they had misinterpreted scripture. He told them that we would be like the angels, and would not take a wife or husband in Heaven. In essence, gender really does not matter in Heaven. For us to focus on masculinity and femininity does not seem in the spirit of what Jesus taught us when He corrected the Sadducees. Each of us has talents that God has provided us to serve Him and each other here on earth. It is our responsibility to use our talents to glorify God. If a specific woman has more physical strength than a specific man, then she would be better suited to tasks requiring physical strength than that man. If that man had more physical strength than he would be the one better suited for tasks requiring physical strength. This is all common sense. Obviously, there are certain things that only a woman can do, a man cannot give birth nor can he provide milk from his breasts. Aside from these obvious biological norms, I see no reason why women cannot actively serve in the Church in various roles, even as deacons. However, it would be best to keep the role of priest, bishop, cardinal, and Pope restricted to men barring some message from Mary or Jesus that says otherwise. I believe that many women served the equivalent role of deacon in the early days of the Church. Our goal should be to take the talents our Lord has given us and multiply them (as in the parable of the merchant), so that we are not lazy, useless servants.
Steven,
“For us to focus on masculinity and femininity does not seem in the spirit of what Jesus taught us when He corrected the Sadducees.” You need to be cautious of adding apples 🍎 and oranges🍊 and coming up with bananas 🍌!
Genesis clearly says that He made us male and female. While we are told that there will not be marriage in Heaven, the marriage of a man and woman is a vehicle to grow in holiness and get us to Heaven.
Joe
Hi Joe,
Obviously marriage is a Sacrament, and it is one vehicle on the path of holiness. However, Genesis did not instruct us to revel in our masculinity or femininity, otherwise by doing so we are making ourselves idols. Anything that glorifies the creature is antithetical to forming a close relationship with God, and the same can be said for the relationships we form with other creatures on earth. Whereas it is right to serve and love others, we must not become obsessive with such love. If anything, obsessiveness should only be a characteristic of our love for God. The frequent use of variations of the word “manly” in this article seemed to condemn those individuals who do not conform to a specific view of masculinity adopted by the author. My point is that focusing on this is not really conducive or constructive on our path to holiness. If the author were to focus more on the problem of self centered behavior evident within all humans (regardless of gender or role) I would have no disagreement. The inherent problem is that many who purport to be religious find convenient scapegoats to affix blame for the woes of society and the Church, and surely this is not the path to holiness. As Mother Mary had said, we should seek humility. As Jesus has said, we should seek to be merciful. I would also add that we should seek to be grateful.
May God Bless you!
-Steven
Thanks to those who left a comment. Responding with the same brevity, and in order:
Crisis: to the extent that was an actual question and not a troll which has become your trademark, no. I have no issue whatsoever with women occupying any secular occupation. They clearly can be doctors, lawyers, and indian chiefs; they just can’t be bishopettes, priestesses, or shecons in the Catholic Church
Papist: thanks for the inquisitor compliment. But know that I wasn’t advocating any public, semi-public, or private beatings of sodomic predators within; I was merely reciting what a great saint once said. Though if truth be told, I would be more closely aligned with his corrective measures approach (sans the violence), than running these enemies within through different parishes without restriction or warning to the flock.
FrPHD: thanks for kind of agreeing that the above is an “article”. But no I don’t pretend or claim to know more than all Christian “theologians” since the Ascension – just the heterodox and heretical Rhineland ones in the last few centuries, but then again so does almost anyone else.
Sailing: Amen. And BXVII is obviously excluded from the Rhineland theologians mentioned immediately above.
re: you last sentence – but of course that should always be the case
“bishopettes, priestesses, or shecons”
Not respectful.
“We see how the power of the Antichrist is expanding, and we can only pray that the Lord will give us strong shepherds who will defend his church in this hour of need from the power of evil.” Pope Benedict XVI , 2015
This “article” is the current in a line of homosexual propaganda and pretends to know more than all Christian Theologians since Christ’s ascension.
” . . .but to publicly beat and bind in chains as a disciplinary-minded father to punish, deter, and potentially to correct the abhorrent behavior.”
You would make a great inquisitor.
Are you opposed to women having their own careers? Earning equal wages with men? Being in executive positions? Being President?
“Let us pray for the intercession of the Virgin Mary, St. Michael the Archangel, and St. Joseph, the terror of demons, and act, and encourage men to act manfully, while holding those who fail to account.” Amen!