1. The power of love
There are few natural powers in this world as strong as a woman’s love. And while this love is often charged with emotion, it is much deeper. It is passion, but not in the sense of a lower appetite. Rather it’s passion in the sense of a firm decision and a determination to work for some cause or some person. It is rooted in the will.
And when a woman truly loves, her will is firm. She can overcome any obstacle. No sacrifice is too great. She is constant. She suffers. But in the process her love endures; she is faithful. And once decided, there are no limits as to what she can achieve: Amelia Earhart’s passion for flight, Florence Nightingale‘s passion for curing the sick, Marie Curie’s passion for science are only a few examples. Once decided upon love, the woman does not easily give up; she intuitively gives her all.
And for this self-giving to be feminine it must somehow be life giving, whether that be biological, spiritual or social. This is the woman’s fundamental vocation. Naturally, a woman’s love is all the stronger when she either first receives that love, or when her initiative of love is responded to in kind. But even when not reciprocated, she can often show love to a heroic degree – as many wives and mothers do.
This is the woman’s power.
2. A wounded Love
But like any other capacity of the human person, this passion has been affected by original sin. It can be weakened by inconsistency and emotionalism. It can become bitter when she thinks her love is not returned. It can become controlling. And it can become vengeful:
“Hell hath no fury like the scorn of a woman.”
Think of Herodias and John the Baptist. Or, this passion to love can simply despair of loving: the single woman’s fear of marriage or of never getting married; or the wife who fears her fertility; the mother who fears her unborn child; or the consecrated virgin who fears missing out on love. Such a frustrated love, such a wounded passion for love is destructive. Such a passion for love is in need of redemption. You have need of redemption.
3. Charity: a love elevated by grace
In the gospel we read that, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men.” Christ’s redemptive work is meant to be a healing balm poured upon our sins, weaknesses and fears so that we can truly experience the freedom of the children of God. And this freedom for the woman should enable her to be joyfully life giving – a woman’s fundamental vocation. This freedom now enables her to love with the power of God’s love working in her soul. His charity unites her love into His – purifying, elevating and strengthening it. What was woman’s incredible natural power to love has now been inserted into the divine power. Catherine of Sienna, Hildegard of Bingen, Teresa of Avila, Teresa of Lisieux, Edith Stein and Teresa of Calcutta are only some examples of the power of women united to Christ. Every woman can have this grace and power.
4. Regnum Christi: a vocation to love
And this grace has a particular vocation, a mission given to woman by God. Her husband, her children are essential parts of her vocation. The circumstances in which she lives are part of her vocation.
And Regnum Christi is also a vocation – a gift from God – a means and a context a woman to live her vocation as a daughter of God, a wife, a mother. Regnum Christi doesn’t exist for itself, but as a means to love. But as a gift from God to you it must be joyfully embraced, lived and shared. This is how all God’s gifts must be treated. Love Regnum Christi without apologies. Allow its gift – with its spirituality, its formation and its missionary challenge –to transform and elevate your love so that you give life, supernatural life, to all those you encounter. This is the Christian woman’s vocation.
The renewal process that we are going through will affect the structures, but it must primarily affect the heart. Now is the time. God’s grace is present, His call is clear. You have this call. It is up to you to respond.
