If the Church Won’t Censor It, Just Turn Off Your Hearing Aid!
Mary Anne Sonnenschein, contrary to her surname, has been in an unsunny mood of late. In the letters section of the National Catholic Reporter (Sept. 15), she tells about how upset she is that Ephesians 5:21-32 is read in church. She quotes it as follows: “Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the church…. As the church is subordinate to Christ, so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything.”
She tells us that “Each time this is read in church, many women in the congregation, including myself, cringe and become amazed at how insensitive the liturgists are in putting this text before them….” Insensitive! Oh, perish forbid that the Bible should be insensitive!
But at last there’s a sunshiny outcome for Ms. Sonnenschein: “This year when this text was read, I felt fortunate to be wearing hearing aids. I could just turn them off….”
You May Also Enjoy
Christian teachers who feel overwhelmed can remember that, if they are using well the gifts God has given them, good things are being done amid their busy-ness.
Heretics and schismatics today do not leave the Church to form their own separate bodies. They stay inside the Church and demand their ideas be included.
If liturgical music returns to praising and glorifying God, our focus has a better chance of returning to the Eucharist and the Word.