Wednesday 25 November 2009

Can Christians be pagans?

Practically speaking, yes. Paganism is essentially about me; old-fashioned selfishness, me first. Christianity on the other hand, is about God and what He is doing. Being a man or being a woman is a part of what God has done and is doing. There is no difference between the dignity of man and of woman, but both express, and are called to express, the way in which we relate with one another and with God. Men, by being masculine, express the way in which God relates with man; women, by being feminine, express the way in which man relates with God. Which is it better to be: man or woman? This question is, of course, absurd. The one doesn't have a dignity greater than the other, but both are called to submit themselves to the order which the Creator has established. According to Brant Pitre, the most masculine words ever spoken were: "This is my body, given for you", and the most feminine words ever spoken were: "Be it done unto me according to your word". Christ, in these words, reveals what it is to be a man. Mary, in her words, reveals what it is to be a woman. The love God has for us He has inscribed in our very nature. Women seeking the priesthood is like Eve reaching out to take the Divine Life for herself rather than waiting to receive it. Taking it for herself, rather than receiving it. The contemporary confusion over what it means to be a man or a woman, especially with regard to the question of women priests and civil unions, is a form of paganism, for it is a rejection of the prerogative of God and of His plan of love for us. The mission that men have to image God, and the mission that women have to image humanity, goes right to the heart of human life before God. To do away with these missions is to set ourselves up in defiance of God and to live in way which does not image God's plan for us, but our own plan, which of old set us against Him.

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