Last Thursday, the 20th of August, was the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, granting the women the right to vote. It all came down to Tennessee’s ratification, which was achieved with effort, determination, and belief that the vote would bring women to a new moment in the national move toward equality of women with men.
Last week was also the virtual Democratic Convention which confirmed Kamala Harris as Joe Biden‘s vice presidential running mate.
Both of these were key elements in moving toward life to the full for American women.
But the story leading up to the ratification of the 19th Amendment and the choice of a woman of color seem to have no clear overt reference to the Gospel which undergirds and sustains our faith lives. Is there none? Do believers find cause to support women’s issues, women’s presence in shaping the life of our nation politically? Yes. Just take a long loving look at Jesus.
In a time when men only counted, Jesus interacted with both Jewish and Gentile women…the Samaritan woman at the well, with her many layers of experience, the Canaanite woman in last week’s Gospel, strongminded Martha and Mary, and the woman with the unending hemorrhage. Jesus touched the dead body of the daughter of Jairus and was touched by the woman who anointed him at the table of Simon the leper. Jesus had a group of disciples who were women, who did not run away in the face of his death, but stayed with him at the tomb when his male disciples did not. The most notable of the women disciples was Mary Magdalen. Mary, his Mother, was the first beloved woman in his life.
Jesus learned fresh, clear lessons from interacting with women – his mother whose awareness of a wedding need moved him to turn water into wine. He came to a new sense of ministering to foreigners because the Canaanite woman wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Jesus told stories about resourceful women – the persistent woman who stood before a judge until she got a satisfactory answer and the woman who swept and swept until she found the missing coin.
There are other women who might be your personal favorites.
All of them, partners of Jesus in daring, steeped in the depth of compassion, mercy and love, witnessed by their lives the love of Jesus for women. Later the church suffered from a convenient amnesia. It forgot that women were not second class in the eyes of Jesus. He accepted them and their lessons, their capabilities and faithfulness.
As women today go on to seek equality in all spheres of life possible, we have an indefatigable, faithful partner in Jesus – our God, yes, and our brother as well.
~Sister Joan Sobala
