Friday, January 3, 2025

The High Feminism of Marian Catholicism

Mainstream feminism exploded upon our society in the sixties and has in large part informed our culture since. At its best, it was a liberating and refreshing release of women's energies across the culture, beyond the restrictive, (in my opinion) mostly wholesome and fruitful, limits of the postwar period of 1945-65. At its very best it recognized the feminine genius that enriches us in all areas of life. At its worst, it was the firstborn of the cultural/sexual revolution: an imitation of toxic/dysfunctional machismo as sexually liberational, careerist, techo-fanatic, individualistic. At its very worst, it vacated of any meaning the very concept of femininity, leaving Supreme Court Justice Brown incapable of describing "woman."

By contrast, consider the esteem for femininity inherent in the Catholic cult of Mary, Mother of God. 

The very early and decisive definition of Mary was that she was Mother of God, not merely of Jesus in his humanity. From this flows a litany of maternity: From the cross Jesus entrusts John, representing the Church, to her and establishes her as Mother of the Church. Beyond that, she is considered Queen of Angels and Saints. As such, she is the supreme creation, "nature's solitary boast," the incomparable high point of history and the universe.

Two Catholic dogmas defined authoritatively from the chair of Peter are the Immaculate Conception (1854) and the Assumption (1950). Both are celebrated by holy days of obligation. We see here the Petrine or Papal (which is to say masculine) dimension of the Church deferring in reverence to the holiness of a singular woman. We see clearly that within the Catholic Church the Petrine-priestly-hierarchical-apostolic dimension of the Church is subservient to the Marian, feminine, Church of holiness.

From Genesis we know that she would crush the head of the serpent, Satan, and so by her "fiat" or "yes" at the Annunciation she (cooperating with grace flowing from the subsequent Passover of her Son) decisively defeated (or "pre-defeated") Lucifer and the kingdom of darkness.

The forth of the Marian doctrines (along with the Immaculate Conception, Motherhood of God, and the Assumption) is her perpetual virginity: that she conceived Christ by a miracle of the Holy Spirit, and that she was preserved eternally in her physical virginity with all its spiritual significance. 

An idea congenial and obvious to the Catholic mind, but incoherent/ridiculous/sentimental to the secular intellect, is that of "the Eternal Feminine." In Genesis we see that "male and female He created them." Clearly, the ideas of masculinity/femininity were already in the mind of God prior to his creation of Adam and Eve. Since God is eternal, this form-essence-substance-logos of femininity existed intellectually prior to creation, history and the universe. As a divine idea, it is eternal. The perfect instantiation of the "eternal female" is, of course, the Immaculate One. But every specific woman...however wounded and disordered...is an expression of this "idea of God."

We do not speak of the "eternal masculine."  The masculine, as a form, is inherently inferior, diminished, and largely void of inherent value. The purpose of the masculine, in its very poverty and vacuity, is to represent another: the Father. The feminine, by contrast, is not primarily representative, but holds within herself her own value, preciousness, and worth...for eternity.

The purpose of the masculine is to be poor and humble, to revere the feminine in the mode of the Divine Bridegroom, and to provide and protect, in imitation of the eternal Father, the little ones, in need of such strength and mercy.

When the Father-Son-Holy-Spirit envisioned Creation...infinitely before time, history, or this universe...They fell in love...with the entirety of Creation...but specifically with its climax, the feminine as Mary. No, Jesus is not the high point of creation: he is an anomaly, a hybrid, both God and Man. Within Creation, it is Mary, the woman, who is the goal, the fulfillment, the climax. Jesus is the one who came from heaven to save us from sin and death and bring us into Eternal Life. He is the fireman who storms into the building, kicks down the doors, saves the Woman and her children, and dies heroically. His life is disposable, there to be given away, to save the Woman and her children. 

The Catholic lives an enchanted reality, inaccessible to modernity as cultural liberalism and techno-mania. We move from the comfort of the womb, to that of the breast, into the arms of Mother Church, within a Motherland, always on Mother Earth, which is part of a universe held by the Mother of God.

With Don Quixote, the Catholic man  sees in every woman, however wretched, Dulcinea, a creature of unspeakable loveliness. Yes, this can be in part a hallucination, a projection of insatiable desire. But no, at its heart it is a glimpse of the "eternal feminine" ... of the radiant, even salvific splendor inherent to femininity as created, and then redeemed, in Mary, by God.

In the real world that makes us Catholic men vulnerable to the seduction, the manipulation, the allure of the "femne fatale," the Jezebel, the Sirens, the temptress. No, we cannot blame Adam, or Ahab, or so many who have surrendered to temptation.  It is the weakness of the male and the inherent enchantment of the feminine that set up this dangerous drama. The strongest antidote to this temptation is, of course, closeness to the feminine in it integrity, dignity and holiness: that is, close, chaste, enduring friendship with good, holy women.  Here I pause to make a personal boast: I doubt there is a man on earth who has been so well loved by so many good, lovely, holy women as have I. I think God realized I needed this, as my personal weakness is so pronounced.

This is why I must praise and honor the Beauty, the Truth and the Goodness of the feminine: in our Mother, the ever-Virgin Mary, and in so so so many women close to me!

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