A disciple is a student, not a teacher

Yesterday, I explored the paper trail of TIME "reporter" Tim Padgett and his questionable objectivity in covering matters pertaining to the Catholic Church. A degree in theology is not a requirement for a religion reporter, of course, but a rudimentary knowledge the Bible should be a minimal expectation. In the closing paragraph of his obnoxious screed against the Vatican, Padgett demonstrates that his understanding of biblical texts is more informed by his revisionist agenda than by even the most casual amount of actual study.

My daughter happened to be serving as an altar girl at Mass on Sunday. She was smart enough to sense that in the gospel reading, Jesus was relating to Mary as if she were a disciple. And she'll learn that the New Testament is full of other passages that indicate Jesus believed women could be alteri Christi, or "other Christs," as priests often call themselves. Real Catholicism encourages that kind of enlightened thinking — and it certainly doesn't call it, as the Catholic Church does, a crime.

The overall picture which Padgett is trying to paint is one in which Mary becomes a biblical proof-text for the ordination of women. But the road from discipleship to ordination is a far more arduous one than Padgett might have us believe. Padgett, as we have seen, is a sloppy journalist. But he is an even sloppier exegete. In his zeal to justify his revisionist agenda, he has conflated the roles of discipleship and ordination. Ironically, the passage he cites with such fanfare (Luke 10.38-42) actually mitigates against his argument. Consider:

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

Here is Jesus, indeed, "relating to Mary as if she were a disciple." No one has ever disputed this or that women were included among Jesus' disciples. Padgett's insinuation that church hierarchs would deny this is a red herring. But a disciple is a student, not a teacher! Jesus commends Mary for her humility, quietly sitting at his feet and listening to his teaching. When Martha disrupts the meeting, Jesus (gently) rebukes her. The woman who remains quiet in order to learn is commended; the woman who speaks and attempts to exercise authority is rebuked. Does this not sound very much like Paul's instructions in 1 Timothy 2.11-12?

Let a woman learn quietly and with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather she is to remain quiet.

It would be incorrect to argue that this specific instruction by Paul to a specific congregation is sufficient, in and of itself, to support a blanket prohibition against women's ordination (I will delve into this further in an upcoming post on the differing understandings of women's ordination within the various Christian traditions). But, considered alongside Jesus' words of commendation to Mary, it can be seen in a far more positive light than many revisionists would see it. Throughout the New Testament, it is women, often moreso than men, who are held out as the model of humble, obedient discipleship which all followers of Christ--women and men, alike--ought to emulate. Women do not need the burden of ordination in order to be alteri Christi. They hold a place of honor in the church which revisionists like Padgett, blinded by their upside down worldview, fail to recognize.