Our Church calls November 5th, 2024 “The Tuesday of the Thirty-first week in Ordinary Time.” For me, it is much more. I am now 73 years old with a variety of medical issues and a family history of only moderate longevity. I had reconciled myself to not living to see a woman becoming President of the United States of America and certainly not one representing such diversity. That might change this November 5th.
Here we are in a land that is truly a great marker for democracy with only a history of male presidents while other democratic and parliamentary governments have long had women in leadership roles. We lag behind. And while seats are admittedly held by women in various local, state, and federal government levels, and women fulfill judicial roles, I see women’s rights to health care and basic respect and privacy issues that I perceive as being especially unique and significant to women, and in some cases children, being torn asunder in our recent past in our nation.
For me this goes so against the core of my faith. The tide is seemingly turning again simple kindness, mercy, and goodwill to humankind. Was it just a fluke that Christ’s ministry included the act of benevolence to the woman at the well? The woman from Samaria. Someone who was different. From what we see in our Gospels, Christ ministered to all, traveled with all, and that is through the lens of writers during a very patriarchal period. They acknowledged his outreach to all. And on November 5th, the Church reminds us subtly of this in the reading from Philippians.
As a woman, a mother and grandmother, this is a day that could truly be so impactful. What will our future bring? Joy and hope? I certainly pray so. May we all resolve to be kind and merciful.
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