God Gave Marital Headship to Men, part 3 of 5

Continuing St. Paul’s teaching of marriage as a sign of the Church, the maleness of the priesthood is a further sign of male headship in marriage. The priest is the leader of the parish and this parallels marriage. If gender were irrelevant, then there could be female priests—which is not the case. Going further, a parish has a pastor who is the ultimate and final head. There may be multiple priests but there is one pastor. There are no co-pastors, co-bishops, or co-popes. Marriage is similar. Headship is singular. With aforementioned religious leaders having grave responsibility in relation to their charges, the same is mirrored in a husband’s headship.

Genesis states that Adam is the head of Eve and he will rule over her. This is further punishment from the Fall, that Adam has the burden of having that much more work to do by way of marital headship. (In light of Christ’s teachings and how Christ treated women as seen in Scripture, it should go without saying that Adam being made to “rule over” Eve, when contemplating marriage, is not to mean that Adam should treat Eve as his footstool, but that he is benevolently responsible for her.) Genesis shows that male headship in marriage is Scriptural.

The secular message that “male headship in marriage is wrong or evil,” sadly and sexistly assumes that men would be tyrannical, abusive, incapable, or untrustworthy as heads in marriage. Such a sad and sexist assumption undermines the humanity and dignity of men as created in the image and likeness of God. Gospel morality manifests in love. Morality is predicated on freedom. The Gospel notion of freedom is not the secular notion of freedom. The Gospel notion of freedom is about the freedom to will the good and to love God. Pope John Paul II wrote in Familiaris Consortio:

"…there frequently lies a corruption of the idea and the experience of freedom, conceived not as a capacity for realizing the truth of God's plan for marriage and the family, but as an autonomous power of self-affirmation, often against others, for one's own selfish well-being." (Pope John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, 6.)

The secular notion of freedom is a “false freedom.” For example, “freedom” to hire a prostitute, buy heroine, or pour gasoline in the ocean, is not true freedom. “Freedom” from constraints or rules is not necessarily true freedom. Two key components of the false sense of freedom that is the secular sense of freedom, is freedom-from-objective-truth (i.e. subjective morality) and freedom-from-authority. It is secularism that says that husbands-should-not-have-headship-in-marriage, or that marriage should be defined and redefined as people wish. This is “freedom” from objective truth that comes from the false sense of freedom that is the secular sense of freedom.

The secular sense that husbands should not have headship in marriage, is part of the freedom-from-authority that is a product of the secular false sense of freedom. It is the false secular sense of freedom that says that one is free when one is free from authority. This goes in multiple directions. It is secular to say that wives are free when they are free from husbands’ authority and it is Scriptural that male headship (with God’s grace) in marriage is a blessing to women and a sign of Christ’s sacrificial love for his church. “Following Christ, the Church seeks the truth, which is not always the same as the majority opinion.” (Pope John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, 5.)

Part 4: https://www.catholic365.com/article/36898/god-gave-marital-headship-to-men-part-4-of-5.html