Authority
Authority sharply contrasts with power or empowerment. The later indicates capacity to force, to coerce, to dominate. The former, from the Latin "augeo," to grow or increase, is the capacity to give life, as in "author." An authority is one who gives life, as with a mother or a father. Such authority originates not in the self, but in a transcendent source beyond the ego. So, for example, an authority in some science is steeped in that objective field and so transparent of it: the ego recedes so that the material may manifest. Personal authority inherently is informed by a prior humility, an openness to the True, the Good or the Beautiful.
Religious or spiritual authority comes from God. It is a visitation of the heavenly to us here on earth. It is the embodiment, representation or manifestation of the holy, the transcendent, the eternal.
Much of what passes for "spiritual but not religious" is void of authority: a feeling or dimension of the Sovereign Self, a communion with nature, a passing euphoric or ecstatic experience, a satisfying human experience.
For example, the current Catholic cult of "synodality" is ambiguous. It is, on the one hand, an admirable call to a spirituality of listening as compassion, reverence, and reception, including of those distanced from Catholic life. On the other hand, institutionalized in some bureaucratic protocol, it masquerades as a novel, false source of authority.
Genuine authority can be institutional or charismatic. It comes first through inherited, communal institutions which express and preserve a definitive, primitive visitation of the divine. In the second, it comes to us directly, in the present, in an extraordinary, gifted person or group open to and representative of a new visitation of heaven on earth. Within Catholicism the two blend together in a marvelous, mutually enriching synergy. The charismatic, of course, always flows from and into the inherited, the given, the Tradition, which it refreshes and renews.
Since masculinity/paternity as representational/authoritative has been treated in this blog frequently, this essay will consider maternity as virile and authoritative. Then we will identify significant voices of authority, masculine and feminine, over the last 80 years.
Virility of the Maternal
Who was the most virile person I have ever met? Senator John F. Kennedy, 1957, comes to mind. But no! It is not even close: St. Mother Theresa of Calcutta.
Jersey City, 1973. She entered the room, surrounded by her sisters in their white saris. Purposeful. Petite, she looked well under 5'. Slight: the strange thought occurred that I could pick her up with one hand and throw her across the room like a pillow. Bent over towards the floor with osteoporosis. An aura of gravitas, as if she could at any second manifest Jedi powers. She asked the family about the condition of her quadripelegic-friend-prayer-partner in bed. She leaned over and spoke to her quietly, tenderly. Introduced to me as religion teacher of sons Michael and Donald, she bent her head back, looked up at me calmly and said with authority: "I hope you are teaching the right things." I froze, speechless in awe and uncertainty. My wife, holding our infant oldest daughter in her hands, came to my defense.
She radiated toughness, strength like steel, compactness, definition, identity-mission-destiny, authority, clarity, certitude, and an inner integrity and serenity that no force on earth could threaten. The most virile person I have ever met, without a doubt. The most authoritative person I have ever met. Authoritative as Mother.
Think of the nun principal of your Catholic grammar school (if you were so blessed)! How would you rate her, in toughness, against: Mike Tyson? General Patton? Kaiser Souci? Darth Vader? Hannibal Lecter? Genghis Khan? If your Principal was like the ones I have known, it is not close.
Mother Teresa. Mother Angelica. Mother Francis Xavier Cabrini. Mother Katherine Drexell. Actually, all the Catholic "mothers" who served the poor, taught the ignorant, founded orders, fought with bishops: as a group they are the toughest...tougher than navy seals, Russian mafia hitmen, bare knuckle fighters, KGB operatives.
Consider: Who is the singular human person who crushed the head of Lucifer, the most intelligent, powerful and magnificent of all creatures, human and angelic? Our Blessed Mother Mary. She is superior in the combat with the dark kingdom even to St. Michael the Archangel. She is superior of course, not in power, but in humility, over the "power" and pride of Satan.
Femininity at its epitome is superior as authoritative in two ways. First, as maternal, the feminine is closer, more intimate with us, the recipients. Secondly, less powerful, empowered-NOT, (Please: lets NOT empower our girls, or our boys, and especially not our men!) the feminine is more receptive of the Transcendent, God and also of created illuminations of the True, the Good, and the Beautiful. And so, as receptive the feminine is also reflective, like the full moon reflects the light of the sun.
Maternity/Paternity
And so, maternity and paternity in distinctive ways are both authoritative: receptive of the Transcendent and then representative of it. This is NOT-POWER. It is iconic or sacramental: humble, certain, efficacious, charming, life-giving.
In the Uber-Event of the Spousal Drama, the embrace of bride and groom...erotic, romantic, complementary, synergistic, agonistic, excruciating, purgative, ecstatic, abusive, sacrificial, contrite, forgiving, fruitful...the feminine and the masculine, asymmetrically receptive and donative, purge and inflame each other into maternity and paternity as vessels of life-giving authority...embodying the Holy, the True, the Good and the Beautiful.
Today, All Saints, let us consider in our time (1945-2025) the voices, sacramentals, icons of just such authority.
PATERNAL
John Paul II
Kiko Arguello (with Carmen Hernandez)
Pope Benedict
Hans Urs von Balthasar (with Speyr)
Ralph Martin and charismatic companions.
DeLubac, Danielou, Congar, Boyer, Phillips, Suenens and Vatican Council Fathers and Periti
David L. Schindler and Communio colleagues
Cardinals Mueller, Arinze, Sarah, Burke, George, O'Connor
Archbishop Chaput, Bishop Baron, African bishops
Maritains (Jacques/Raissa) and Hildebrands (Dietrich/Alice)
MATERNAL
St. Mother Theresa
Chiara Lubich
Mother Angelica
Dorothy Day, Catherine Doherty, Madeleine Delbrel
Carmen Hernandez (with Kiko Arguello)
Adrienne von Speyr (with Hans Urs von Balthasar)
Flannery O'Connor, Sigrid Undset
Elizabeth Anscombe
Sisters of Life
Caryll Houselander
Honorable Mention:
Knights of Columbus and other men's groups active in the Church.
Jesuits: Avery Cardinal Dulles (my model theological model) and Joseph Whelan (my spirituality mentor), John Wrynn and Neil Doherty (my spiritual directors) and Fessio, Schall, Baker, Paqwa, Oates, Spitzer, Mankowski, Koterski, and others.)
EWTN, Communio Journal, First Things and other
Franciscan University of Steubenville, Benedictine, Ave Maria, University of Dallas, Thomas Aquinas Academy and other strong Catholic colleges.
Erika Kirk, Mary Anne Glendon, Amy Comey Barrett, Heather King, Tracey Rowland, Helen Andrews, Debra Herbeck, Janet Smith, Mary Healy, Patricia Snow, Kimbely Hahn, Abigaile Favale, Anne Eberstadt, Helen Andrews, Helen Alvare, and so many other.
Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, Missionaries of Charity, Little Sisters of the Poor and so many other.
Charlie Kirk, Etienne Gilson, Scott Hahn, Monsignor Luigi Giussanni, Bill W. and Doctor Bob and all the anonymous compulsives grateful in recovery, and so many others.
Conclusion
The women above all are feminine specifically in their receptivity to God in prayer, but also welcoming of the masculine in all its created valor. These women are delighted in their own femininity as they cherish the masculine received from father, Church, husband, brothers, and friends. As women, they interiorize the masculine and reflect it; as men do with the feminine. Such women are content, grateful, serene: neither envious, self-pitying, or resentful. Likewise, authentic men are not effeminate but confident in their virility, delighted in femininity and therefore open to its influence.
These, the Church Militant, all sinners-in-recovery, are the definitive answer to Cultural/Theological Progressivism, the unholy union of envious feminism and effeminate masculinity.
And so, femininity and masculinity, in the dance of asymmetric reception/donation, open to the Transcendent, abide in and with each other, thrive and become fruitful and authoritative.
Thank God for our abiding Motherly Church, for our authoritative hierarchy, and the holy messengers from heaven in our time.
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