Every year at this time teenagers write a formal letter to their pastor asking to receive the sacrament of Confirmation. One such letter came to me asking why girls can't be priests. Here's what I wrote back to her:
Girls and the priesthood – Back in the days of the apostles, Jesus broke down barrier after barrier, bringing all kinds of people together. There is no sexism or prejudice in Jesus. Jesus included women more than anyone in His time; and He used images of women in His parables and teachings. He had a very profound understanding of the role of women, especially by his unique name (in the Gospel of John) that He used for Mary, His Mother: woman! He saw Mary as the New Eve, the new woman who would be mother to everyone in the Church. Think of when from the Cross He said to the Beloved Disciple (who represents every disciple of Jesus), “Behold your mother.”
The image of mother and father are very strong in Jesus’ teachings about who God is and who we are. He reveals to us that we have such a loving and strong relationship with God that we can call Him, Abba (which means Daddy or Father). And He reveals to us that we, collectively, are His (Jesus’) bride and together we can call Mary our Mother.
All of this is involved in the ministry of priesthood. The priest at Mass stands before the community “in the person of Christ.” And the assembly stands together as the Bride of Christ. If we confuse things and choose at this late date (2000 years into our being Church) to mess with these primordial images of God as Father, Jesus as Groom and us as the Bride, and Mary as our Mother, then we wind up creating our own religion, not the religion that was started by Jesus. I hope this helps enough to show there’s more to the priesthood than being old fashioned.
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