Women in society
In manifestations of morbid self-love and the desire to enjoy, at all costs, earthly glory on par with fathers, husbands, sons, and brothers, and to revel in their influence, greatness, and power, at least within some societal circle, many mothers and girls abandon the modesty inherent to women, arbitrarily cast off their sacred duties, and throw themselves into a life foreign to them—be it secular, artistic, political, governmental, social, or scientific-philosophical. In doing so, they forcibly violate everything—Christian institutions, public opinion, and their own nature—while simultaneously destroying family life, motherhood, childhood, patriotism, morality, and spirituality, which contributes to the degeneration of human life into a bestial, criminal, and insane life.
In their fervor and passion, these women know no bounds in their enthusiasm, and imitating men in appearance, they rush to take their positions, they clamber even up onto their pulpits, orating, preaching new teachings, and calling for the struggle against and overthrow of age-old Christian institutions.
How infinitely far they are from understanding the true glory and majesty of the mother of a family who raises her son in truth, in selflessness, and in obedience, instilling in his heart unshakable faith and a living, active love for God and men as the foundation of life, Christianity, virtues, strength, and patriotism.
How far they are from understanding mothers who live in hope for the future of the son they’re raising, seeking glory nowhere but in their own family and dreaming only of his virtues and greatness as the ultimate goal of their labors and their own honor.
How inaccessible to them is the idea of the greatness and glory of a kind, loving, and honest wife who preserves the means and strength of her hardworking husband, serving him with support and inspiration, delving into all his affairs and cares in order to offer timely warnings about any oversights or mistakes.
How far they are in their egotistical nature from understanding wives who sacrifice themselves for the happiness of their husbands, who work together to achieve good, social, and national goals, to earn a good name, respect, and honor!
In their complete blindness and delusion, these unfortunate women and girls, captivated by the hypocritical favor of people who are corrupt in both body and spirit, who have lost a sense of decency and morality, don’t notice the disrespect, condemnation, and disapproval they receive from the bulk of mankind for having lost the image of a Christian woman.
Be careful and prudent, beloved Christian mothers! Rear your daughters more in church, praying with them on all the prescribed days that even the modern teaching in schools would bring them understanding and benefit. Enlighten and strengthen them in the truth of life, and more by your own example than by much talking. Teach them to delve with their heart into the strictness of the Christian spirit of the Mother of God, who serves as the prototype of glory and majesty.
Christian women
Let’s focus our attention on the importance of women in the original Christian community.
At the very moment when the first Christian community, consisting mainly of the Apostles and disciples of Christ, wavered in its basic foundations of the faith, at a time when the Apostles were ready, for fear of the Jews (Jn. 20:19), to renounce their Divine teacher, it was the women who became the bonding cement for the entire Christian community, revealing the full greatness of the religious strength of their spirit.
The more zealous and strong-spirited disciples of the Savior followed Him from afar from the Garden of Gethsemane, though only John dared to ascend to Golgotha. But look at what a crowd of Christian women stood at the Cross at the feet of the crucified God-Man.
Obviously, Christian women decided it’s better to suffer for the name of Christ than to leave the Divine Sufferer in these terrible, fatal moments, to renounce their Heavenly teacher, and thus further intensify the spiritual anguish of the One Who always healed the wounds of their hearts.
But then the act of Christ’s death, which regenerates all of mankind, took place on Golgotha. Who went there to give their last respects to the departed Savior? The timid, weak Myrrh-bearing Women and secret disciples of Christ. This is a clear sign that the love of Christ had conquered all fears and poured new, regenerating strength into their souls.
Which members of the first Christian community appeared early, when it was yet dark (Jn. 20:1) at the tomb of Christ? The same Myrrh-bearing Women who stood at Golgotha and mourned the death of the Messiah.
Who were the first to be accounted worthy to hear the joyous news of the Resurrection of Christ from the angels? The same pious women.
To whom did the resurrected Lord appear first? To Mary Magdalene, who under the shade of Palestinian olive trees and cypresses shed bitter tears at the thought that the Lord had been taken away and she didn’t know where they had laid Him.
It’s clear that Christ was close to the heart of the first Christian women. Appreciating the importance of their cleansing and regenerating faith and love, He also appeared to other myrrh-bearing women.
A certain period of time passed after the solemn moment of the Resurrection of Christ and the Savior ascended into Heaven, and then the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles. Since then, endowed with power from above, they have been true followers and preachers of Christ. But even then, Christian women followed a parallel path with the other followers of Christ. Christianity gave women a place of honor for their work for the benefit of the Christian community.
I won’t talk about the holy female martyrs who suffered for faith in Christ; I’ll just point to the institution of the so-called deaconesses that existed in ancient Christian churches. This is a clear indication of the great mission that was given to Christian women in the first community.
Years passed, and the forms in which the doctrine and sensibility of Christian women were expressed changed, but they still held high and carried the Christian banner along the path of revival.
The Myrrh-bearing Women
Christ didn’t choose the Myrrh-bearing Women and didn’t call them to follow Him like He did with the Disciples and the Seventy Apostles, but they themselves followed him as the sole purpose of their regenerated life, as eternal truth, as their Savior and Son of God, despite His apparent poverty, simplicity, and the obvious hostility towards Him from the high priests and leaders of the people. They themselves left their homes, affairs, possessions, and families and followed the Lord, rejoicing that they could be of some use to Christ and His community.
During Christ’s procession to Golgotha with the Cross, only the Myrrh-bearing Women wept and mourned. The Lord heard the cry of the women and addressed them with a word of comfort. What must these loving women have experienced, standing at the Savior’s Cross and seeing all the shame, horror, and finally, the death of their beloved teacher?! All the disciples fled in fear, even the Apostle Peter, who had promised to die with Jesus and then thrice denied Him; only the Mother of God and John the Theologian and the Myrrh-bearing Women remained at the Cross itself. Then the Mother of God was borne away, having fainted, but Mary Magdalene and the other Myrrh-bearing women, whom the crowd pushed away from the Cross, stayed there until the very end.
When the Son of God gave up His spirit, the same Myrrh-bearing Women hurried home to prepare spices and myrrh, and Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses beheld where the body of Jesus was laid in the tomb. They left only after the onset of complete darkness, in order to come back to the tomb before dawn. And for their zeal for the Son of God, for their determination to honor Him at burial, for their unshakeable faith, these holy women were the first to receive an assurance of the Resurrection of Christ and became the first and most powerful preachers, as they learned it from the mouth of an angel.
They’re all the dearer to us and closer to our hearts because they were simple people like us, with all human weaknesses and shortcomings, but out of boundless love for Christ they were completely reborn, were morally changed, and achieved righteousness and justified every word of the teaching of the Son of God.
By this rebirth, the Myrrh-bearing Women irrefutably proved to all followers of Christ that the same saving rebirth is not only possible, but necessary, given sincerity, and that it’s accomplished by the grace-filled power of the Gospel enlightenment, strengthening, inspiration or motivation to spiritual feats, and that ascetics acquire the Kingdom of God, which is truth, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
To be continued…
