“How can it be a large career to tell other people’s children about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one’s own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone?” ~G.K. Chesterton
There was once women who loved their husbands, and children, with a fierceness that we now only spot in female politicians, in the women on The View, and in female clerks defending the knick- knacks on their desks. It is no longer fashionable, even within Catholic circles, to simply be a wife and mother. While introducing themselves, women must always add a statement about what their Real Job is; for being a wife, and mother, are not considered Real Jobs, and certainly not occupations to be proud of (yes, there is such a thing as good pride). The Real Job is now the identity of the modern woman; and, again, even Catholic women fall prey to this error. It does not help that churchmen spend time lauding the female at the office, never mentioning the devoted wife and mother of the family, for fear of the feminist church attendees, who are typically more dogmatic in their feminist beliefs than the churchman is on dogmatic church teachings.
Anyway, back on topic: as Catholics, we need to make a start against the cultural denigration of wifehood, and motherhood, by encouraging women who choose to stay at home with their children. We need to remind them that their work is honorable, and extremely valuable to the life of any functioning society. We need to stop pressuring them to find their fulfillment in their financial income, which view of life stems from a utilitarian outlook on life, and relationships. We need to remind them, though they know this when their baby is placed in their arms, that babies are born completely defenseless, and are fashioned in such a manner, that they need their mothers to nurture and sustain them during their infancy, and childhood. And, let’s say this, let us remember that there are women who enjoy taking care of their husbands, and families, they truly do; and they should not be denied this healthy age-old love just because a vocal disgruntled bunch have had the public microphone for the past sixty years.
Old age creeps up on women, just as it does for men, and the children of one’s youth are irreplaceable treasures around one’s proverbial table. Purely material things come and go, but family stays. Investing in your children, and in your family, is a good investment for women.
So, let’s return, as a society, to a love for motherhood, and family life. Let us be counter-revolutionaries, and defend women, and their right to be contented wives and mothers. The Church has elevated matrimony to a sacrament. This was not an accident, but reflects God’s view on the importance of marriage and family life, a holy estate.
May the Blessed Virgin Mary, model of motherhood, pray for us. And, may we have a resurgence of men such as St. Joseph, who nurtured and protected his family, a difficult task, but an honorable and holy one.
~SCF