Wise Women and Their Gifts
How rich the Church would be if only the blessed gifts outlined by poet, Jan Richardson below – and so many, many more that you could name – from all genders – were permitted. I’m not telling you here anything you don’t already know, but sometimes, I think, in this week of the celebration of the Epiphany, we have to celebrate ourselves, too.
Wise Women Also Came
The fire burned
in their wombs
long before they saw
the flaming star
in the sky.
They walked in shadows,
trusting the path
would open
under the light of the moon.
Wise women also came,
seeking no directions,
no permission
from any king.
They came
by their own authority,
their own desire,
their own longing.
They came in quiet,
spreading no rumors,
sparking no fears
to lead
to innocents’ slaughter,
to their sister Rachel’s
inconsolable lamentations.
Wise women also came,
and they brought
useful gifts:
water for labor’s washing,
fire for warm illumination,
a blanket for swaddling.
Wise women also came,
at least three of them,
holding Mary in the labor,
crying out with her
in the birth pangs,
breathing ancient blessings
into her ear.
Wise women also came,
and they went,
as wise women always do,
home a different way.
Jan Richardson
2 Responses
Mary, wise women. Joseph, wise men. Adam and Eve. New Adam and New Eve. Matriarchy would be as defective as patriarchy. We need both. We celebrate one flesh!
Thanks to Luis Gutierrez for providing the sense of balance. The Church needs to move from patriarchy to co-operation and equality. The hierarchy needs to move not to pander to feminism but to balance and freedom of human rights as Vat. II recommended.