At the very source of all religions, as well as in their
subsequent history, women find a place to fill and a part to
perform. At one time they constitute the material and furnish the
ornament of licentious systems of mythology. At another, on the
contrary, they are, for the heroes of those religions, objects
either of pious horror or of observances at once rigorous and
austere: women are considered by them as creatures full of evil
and of peril; and they are accordingly thrust from their lives as
men thrust from them what is a temptation and an impurity.
Voluptuous pictures and adventures on the one hand, and zealous
impulses of rigid asceticism on the other, constitute the two
extremes to which religions in their ages of youth and of vigour
are alternately prone.
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Sometimes--and it is more fortunate for women when it is the
case--they are described in the narrative of these religions,
such as they really are in human life, charmers and at the same
time charmed, seducers and seduced, idols and slaves; at first
votaries of the enthusiasm, the victims of the errors and the
passions which they at once inspire and feel. Whether Asiatic or
European, rude or refined, such are the striking features with
which all systems of religion, excepting Christianity, have
characterised the women whom they have introduced in their
narratives.
Neither of these characteristics, nor anything analogous, is met
with in the Gospel and in the relations of Jesus with women. They
seem irresistibly attracted towards Him, with hearts moved,
imaginations struck by his manner of life, his precepts, his
miracles, his language. He inspires them with feelings of tender
respect and confiding admiration. The Canaanitish woman comes and
addresses to Him a timid prayer for the healing of her daughter.
The woman of Samaria listens to Him with eagerness, though she
does not know Him: Mary seats herself at his feet, absorbed in
reflections suggested by his words; and Martha proffers to Him
the frank complaint that her sister assists her not, but leaves
her unaided in the performance of her domestic duties.
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The sinner draws near to Him in tears, pouring upon his feet a
rare perfume, and wiping them with her hair. The adulteress,
hurried into his presence by those who wished to stone her in
accordance with the precepts of the Mosaic Law, remains
motionless in his presence, even after her accusers have
withdrawn, waiting in silence what He is about to say. Jesus
receives the homage, and listens to the prayers of all these
women, with the gentle gravity and impartial sympathy of a being
superior and strange to earthly passion. Pure and inflexible
interpreter of the Divine law, He knows and understands man's
nature, and judges it with that equitable severity which nothing
escapes, the excuse as little as the fault. Faith, sincerity,
humanity, sorrow, repentance, touch Him without biassing the
charity and the justice of his conclusions; and He expresses
blame or announces pardon with the same calm serenity of
authority, certain that his eye has read the depths of the heart
to which his words will penetrate.
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In his relations with the women who approach Him, there is, in
short, not the slightest trace of man; nowhere does the Godhead
manifest itself more winningly and with greater purity. And when
there is no longer any question of these particular relations and
conversations, when Jesus has no longer before him women
suppliants and sinners, who are invoking his power or imploring
his clemency; when it is with the position and the destiny of
women in general that He is occupying himself, He affirms and
defends their claims and their dignity with a sympathy at once
penetrating and severe. He knows that the happiness of mankind,
as well as the moral position of women, depends essentially upon
the married state; He makes of the sanctity of marriage a
fundamental law of Christian religion and society; He pursues
adultery even into the recesses of the human heart, the human
thought; He forbids divorce; He says of men, "Have ye not read,
that he which made them at the beginning made them male and
female? ... For this cause shall a man leave father and mother,
and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh.
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Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore
God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. They say unto
him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement,
and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses because of the
hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but
from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, Whosoever
shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall
marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which
is put away doth commit adultery." [Footnote 121]
[Footnote 121: Matthew xix. 4-9; v. 27, 28 Mark x. 2-12.
Romans vii. 2, 3. 1 Corinthians vi. 16-18; vii. 1-11.]
Signal and striking testimony to the progressive action of God
upon the human race! Jesus Christ restores to the divine law of
marriage the purity and the authority that Moses had not enjoined
to the Hebrews "because of the hardness of their hearts."
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