Feminism and Motherhood

Feminism and Motherhood

During the 1970s the feminist movement raged through college campuses and marched through American streets seeking release from the male dominated society, as they viewed it. I suppose it was an inevitable consequence of giving women the vote. Next women wanted equal pay for equal work. Rosie the Riveter from World War Two had been sent back to the kitchen after making a desperately needed contribution to the war effort. Some degree of discontent was inevitable.

 Unfortunately, a movement that could have had immense potential for good, became filled with diminishing men to the point of emasculating their roles as leaders of the family, protector of the home and hearth. TV sitcoms played fathers as weak, effeminate and powerless against the sharp, sarcastic domineering wife. Children no longer respected their fathers because mothers demeaned them. Mom was no longer the comforter, the teacher, and homemaker.  She was the boss in the home and soon left her children to be brought up by daycare agencies so that she could have a career and become a boss in the marketplace. Eventually, children became a burden rather than a gift so entered contraception and abortion to eliminate the inconveniences of parenthood. Women accepted the lies that the fetus was just a clump of cells, not a child, not a person.

Fifty years later science vindicates what was always truth. Life begins in the womb from the moment of conception. There's a new three-minute video available on YouTube called “Baby Olivia”. It is one of the most beautiful instructive, presentations on the origins of life  that even a child could view it. Slowly women are realizing the beauty of motherhood. Only a woman can carry that tiny one celled child into a fully developed human, being looking so much like herself. God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. Bring into being many souls that will one day populate heaven. God is love and Love has chosen humans to be the full object of that love. The more the merrier!

 Catholics have traditionally had larger families to fulfill God's directive to be fruitful and to bring the fruits of their love to the throne of God. So many have forgotten that this life is not all there is. We have an eternal home and we are charged with bringing as many souls as possible to heaven with us. First our spouse, then our children. That's our life purpose.

Family life is to resemble God's family life. It is our safe haven where we are always welcome and loved despite our bad habits or big mess ups. Granted some families have become so broken that it is more like hell than heaven but with prayer and a will to change there is always hope.

A good mother is not a perfect one. She is the heart of the home. She feeds and clothes her husband and children. She binds up the wounds of body and spirit she is everyone's cheerleader. She teaches her children to pray, recognize God at work in life. She is the support, encourager and lover of her spouse. She helps everyone to be the best they can. She works hard and deserves the respect that is owed her by being a great role model.  I truly believe that a good mom will have a high place in heaven. Happy Mother's Day!