"Train the young women..."

What if I said that married women have to love their husbands and children? Would anyone of my readers disagree with me? What if I said that married women are required to have wisdom and self-control in sexuality? Probably fairly safe there as well. How about if I told them that they had to make the home their primary duty and responsibility in life? I suspect that I might get a few grumblers who say that I have "crossed a line". Yet, what if I went all out and said that they have to be in joyful submission to their husbands? I suspect that most of my regular readers would be on the same page, but some "passers-by" might very well be planning my demise at this point. What if I told you that this is exactly what St. Paul said in today's first reading at Mass?

train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be sensible, chaste, domestic, kind, and submissive to their husbands

The Church has not cut out this passage and removed it from our Lectionary. We are still supposed to read it, hear it, and follow it. I am not making this stuff up; it comes from the word of God. In fact, the Church traditionally teaches this exact thing. Look at what is written in the Catechism of the Council of Trent (part 2, chapter 8, question 27):

It should also be a principal study of [wives] to train up their children in the practice of religion, and to take particular care of their domestic concerns. Unless compelled by necessity to go abroad, they should willingly keep themselves at home; and should never venture to leave home without the permission of their husbands. Again, and in this the conjugal union chiefly consists, let them always remember that, next to God, they are to love no one more than their husband, to esteem no one more highly, yielding to him in all things not inconsistent with Christian piety, the most willing and cheerful obedience.

This is something many today do not want to talk about. It appears that they have been frightened by feminists to the point of where they neglect (or outright deny) the truth. We have come a long way when you realize that just one hundred years ago, I could have spoken this without a pause, and today eyebrows go up just at the mere mention of women's submission to their husbands. It is not, however, just a matter of "controlling women" (as a feminist once told me), it for the sake of a much larger good. The rest of passage from today's first reading is as follows:

that the word of God may not be discredited

You see, the Apostle is arguing that if our homes are not ordered rightly, then the world will have reason to distrust God and what He says. We are always giving an example to the world; either a good example (of exactly what God says) or a bad example (contradicting what God has said). In fact, in the same passage when the Apostle is encouraging faithfulness among young men (which is just as important!), he says there that the reason why the family is to be ordered according to God's rules is,

so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say of us

This is not merely an issue for the first century that no longer applies. Disorder in the home can be seen by everyone. If the world is disordered, and our families are equally disordered, then we merely look just like them and have no grounds to encourage repentance. If, however, our families are ordered rightly while the world is messed up, then they will look at us and see that God must be doing something in us for us to be able to stand faithful in these difficult times. What example are you giving in your home?

Ladies, I know you have been told by the world to pursue feminist ideals, and reject the Church's historic positions regarding the distinctive roles of male and female in the world. Stop listening to them; I plead with you, stop now. Seek to learn what the Church has always held to, and seek to see the beauty in it. Parents, teach this to your children, boys and girls both. Help them to see that the order that God lays out for us is a wonderful grace that should not be forgotten. We must live as God's holy people in a dark and foolish world. As St. Paul said at the end of the reading, we are,

to live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world, awaiting our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ