On Marital Submission...

{referring to Ephesians 5:21-32 Women, submit to your husbands...}:

"Reading Paul's words with modern eyes, one immediately sees a difficulty. Paul recommends to husband that they "love" their wives (and this is good), but he also recommends to women that they be submissive to their husbands, and this -- in a society strongly (and justly) conscious of the equality of the sexes -- seems unacceptable... On this point St. Paul is conditioned in part by the mentality of his age. However, the solution is not in eliminating... the word "submission," but, perhaps, in making it mutual, as love must also be mutual... not only must husbands love their wives, but wives must also love their husbands. Not only must wives be subject to their husbands, but also husbands to their wives, in mutual love and mutual submission.

In this case, to be subject means to take into account the wishes, opinion and sensitivity of one's spouse; to discuss, not to decide on one's own; to be able to give up one's own point of view. In short, to remember that both are "spouses," that is, literally, persons who are under "the same yoke," freely chosen. The Apostle gives Christian spouses as model the relationship of love that exists between Christ and the Church, but he explains immediately in what such love consisted: "Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her." True love is manifested in "giving" oneself to the other."
Fr Raniero Catalamessa, preacher to the Pontifical Household, 25 August 2006, as quotes at http://www.zenit.org/english/

posted by Holly at 4:26 PM