Gender and Holiness

"I believe in the resurrection of the body..."

So we say when reciting the Credo of our faith.  I always think back to the debate we had among a group of seminarians back during my college years upon if we would have clothes on in heaven.  While this type of debate might seem a bit silly and for those too involved in the theology of their faith, debates like these cut to very important beliefs that we hold.

Believing in the ultimate resurrection of our bodies sets the stage for a whole theology wrapped around this belief.  For instance, why would God want us to have our bodies back at the end of time, and for eternity?  Why did God assume Our Blessed Lady into Heaven, body and soul?  Why did Christ rise in His Body, and why did the wounds remain for Thomas to put his hands into?  

These beliefs are rooted in our pre-fallen goodness, that belief that in our original state, all was good.  It is also rooted in the fact that as humans we are body and soul, not just soul as are angelic spirits, and not just bodies, as are animals.  We are created as body and soul unities and at death this unity is broken.  Once broken, it is considered incomplete, and thus, we believe, that on the last day our bodies will be resurrected and united once again with our soul.

Why does this matter to us souls who are still united to our "mortal coil"?  It matters because, as man and woman, God created us.  The modern world tries to convince us that we are all equal and the same.  What foolishness!  Any person with eyes and half-a brain can observe, yes, observe scientifically, that there are major differences between the sexes.  It remains that God has created us male and female for a purpose.  This purpose shows itself most profoundly in our procreative roles.  These procreative roles are God-given, but our God-given roles don't end at the procreation of little Catholics.    These gender differences also cut right to our call to holiness.  In fulfilling God's procreative plan we are truly men and women.  In fulfilling God's calling to us in our gender, we doing what is spoken of the wise farmer in Psalms, that in due time, the seed will flower and fruit.

Our gender determines much of who we are to be in God.  By being a true man or a true woman, we are living how God wants us to live.  Practically speaking this means living out of traditional gender roles.  

Here are a few for modern men:

1. Establishment of Christian patriarchy in the home, and ultimately in the world through our home.  This means not only being the decision maker, but having the prayer life and holiness to give a foundation to one's leadership.

2. Being the protector and provider for our family - physically, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually.

3. Embracing a penitential lifestyle - thus giving a holy basis for our role of leadership.

4. Embracing and promoting purity of life - as married men this means exclusive devotion to one's wife, remaining pure oneself, and militantly protecting the purity of one's wife and children.

5. Magnanimously giving of oneself for a higher calling as opposed to what is witnessed today as modern men are often self-absorbed and stuck in perpetual adolescence.

The more and more we are able to embrace and life out these callings, the more we are imit