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FEAST OF THE NATIVITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARYSACRED SCRIPTURE, SACRED TRADITION AND HOLY MOTHER CHURCH ARE PRO-WOMEN  Today is the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. For my Protestant friends, this day (September 8th) is when the Church as part of Her 2000 years of Sacred Tradition celebrates the birthday of the Mother of God. The Gospel reading for Holy Mass on this day is the genealogical record of Jesus Christ given in Matthew chapter 1. An important thing to note in both this genealogical record and in the celebration of the birthday of the Theotokos, the Dei Genetrix, is the marked difference between the way in which women have been treated by pagan cultures, and the way in which the status of womanhood has been elevated and respected in both Judaism and Christianity. The ancient pagan Canaanite religions marginalized and denigrated the status of women, making them little better than slaves of their husbands. Today’s Islam in Shiite Iran, Wahabi Saudi Arabia, and Taliban Afghanistan does the same to women. The atheism of Western Civilization is no better, telling women that to have dignity they must be equal to men in function and murder their own offspring – that which makes them uniquely women and (in raising the next generation) more powerful than any man could ever be. But Christianity is uniquely different inasmuch a woman – NOT a man – gave us God Incarnate (Galatians 4:4). We see in Matthew chapter 1 this unique aspect of recognizing the distinct role that women – particularly the marginalized and rejected ones – played in the birth of Jesus Christ. Matthew mentions only FOUR women in the genealogical record of Jesus and each one of these would by the standards of the time NOT be regarded as “ideal” persons. Interestingly, the wives of Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Sarah, Rebecca, and Rachel respectively) are NOT mentioned. Nor are any other women mentioned except these four who would normally be spurned by polite society: 1. Tamar who played the harlot with Judah in Genesis chapter 38.2. Rahab, the harlot who hid the Israelite spies in Jericho in Joshua chapter 2.3. Ruth, a woman of Moab (which was Israel’s mortal enemy) in the book by her name.4. The wife of Uriah the Hittite, a foreigner, who committed adultery with King David in 2nd Samuel chapter 11. Each of the stories of these four women deserves an essay by itself. Tamar outsmarted Judah when Judah refused to provide a husband to care for her, placing her in a dangerous position in the ancient Middle East where to be unmarried could mean starvation and death. Rahab risked her life and that of her family to hide the spies whom Joshua sent to Jericho to learn about the enemy. Ruth gave up everything she knew and all her friends in Moab, taking a risk in going to Bethlehem with Naomi, her stepmother, knowing that as a Moabite (an enemy), she could have gotten killed. And Bathsheba, while having committed adultery with King David, went on to become the Queen-Mother to David’s son Solomon and Matriarch of the Davidic and Solomonic Kingdom. Each of these women was in the direct line of the birth of Jesus Christ. Their placement in the genealogical record of God Incarnate shows that God has a very different regard for rejected, marginalized, and denigrated women than man has. This ostensibly Jewish respect for womanhood has its climax in the special place that the Blessed Virgin Mary (herself a Jew) occupies in Christendom. To NO man did the Angel Gabriel say, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee” (Luke 1:28). To NO man did Elizabeth say, “Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of Thy womb” (Luke 1:42). And of NO man was it every said, “For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed” (Luke 1:48). It is in Christianity (and in Judaism, its predecessor) that a woman’s equality in dignity and superiority in function were clearly established and recognized. In Western Civilization this changed with the rejection of the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Mother of God, as a historical consequence from the so-called “Reformation” 500 years ago (though that was intended by NONE of the “Reformers,” all of whom had a deep respect for the Mother of God). Without that role model for women, little girls grow up to have no reason to become princesses of virtue, nobility, and honor, instead turning into baby-murdering feminist tramps. And without that example for men, little boys grow up to have no reason to become knights in the shining armor of Christian morality who defend goodness and righteousness, instead turning into gangsters and hoodlums. More than ever today’s society needs women like Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba – women who had the courage to overcome their defects and shortcomings, changing from tramps, whores, enemies, and adulteresses to become a foreshadowing of the Immaculate Blessed Virgin Mary. This is what little girls need to become princesses, and little boys to become knights.