Today’s second reading is one that many people do not understand or like. Indeed, if you look carefully at the way the shorter reading is marked out in your book, you can see that the whole concept of wives being submissive to their husbands is left out, so we do not have to address it.

But I chose to have the full passage read, so that we can address it properly.

Some take this passage about wives being submissive to their husbands as in the form of a command where the man sits with his can of Billy Beer on a Sunday morning. While he prepares to watch a day of football, he demands that his wife brings him another brew just after she returns from Church with the children. Every time I read this passage, I am reminded of countless episodes of the honeymooners where Ralph Kramden reminds his wife that He is the king of the castle, only to learn that without the queen he is nothing.

Indeed, any man who takes this passage incorrectly, will find himself to be an outsider quite quickly. In many cultures, there are women who are strong leaders in the community, while the man is the strong leader in interaction with the world. So there are women who are strong leaders in the neighborhood and the t. They are town. They are also the ones who are the teachers of the children in the homes especially in their younger years. You will find these special leaders in many communities, women who are the domestic leaders of the household and in the community they are always to be respected and will always be respectful of priests and others as well. Men are the leaders outside the community and on the farm. This is true in many cultures. I warn priests and deacons that if you walk into a parish where the predominant culture adheres to that structure and you have that I attitude of I am priest or deacon and you will do what I say to the women, you will find yourself outside on your butt pretty quickly.

Then, what is this passage teaching? Look carefully. One of the things we can learn from scripture is not only from what it says, but what it does not say. Notice in the passages of the women, you also see the phrases where the man is to be caring for his wife, and that the wife must be respectful of him. What is not said, but what is quite evident there is who the man is, that man is a faithful follower of Christ. In fact, the man who sits in his chair in front of the TV drinking his Billy Beer is not at all the person to whom Paul is writing. He is writing to the prayerful disciple of Christ, who is married to a similarly prayerful disciple of Christ in his wife. He is teaching them how to be a Christian family.

They work together to build a family faithful to Christ and His gospel. Therefore, Paul is calling the man to be a faithful disciple. He is casting out the concept that religion is just for women and children and saying to the men that they have a deep responsibility to be the prayerful spiritual leaders of their household. This is what St. Paul is saying.

The role of men in the Church is an urgent role that for many has fallen away. Many men have stopped coming for one reason and the other. I have been to parishes in different languages where the men congregate outside the church and smoke themselves to death while their wives attend mass. However, Paul is speaking to men and calling them to a fatherly pursuit of holiness, he also in the next passage reminds them to encourage their wives to their call of holiness.

The men must be people of prayer, they must be good spiritual leaders in their communities and in their families. That is St. Paul’s message. it is a call to responsibility.

Families need strong leaders in the wives and husbands and good prayerful people who support themselves in the faith and support their families. Parishes need good strong men in the faith to be solid leaders in their families with their wives and in the parish as Christian witnesses. Paul is calling on all men and women to a prayerful and holy faithfulness and to teach the same to the families.

This is such an issue in our world today, because, in many parishes many of the men dismiss religion as a women’s thing. Sorry, Paul would severely disagree.

So, by the way would Cardinal Burke who recently called for the building and support of prayer organizations for men throughout the world. Burke who is the former bishop of St. Louis and now is a Cardinal in Rome has seen the urgent need to strengthen families and sees that the misunderstanding of the role of men in a Christian family in the world is what needs to be addressed. The role of men in every parish needs to be fortified and fostered. In that light he has called for the creation of a holy league for men in the Church.

The next time you hear someone say that the woman is called to serve her husband, it says right there in the Bible, you can remind the man that unless he is seeking to live a holy Christian life that Paul is not speaking to him or his wife. Indeed, Paul would dismiss the man who neglected his Christian responsibilities while demanding servitude from his wife and would tell him literally and figuratively to go to hell.

Meanwhile to the faithful man, he would encourage him to live with his wife in the goal of that day being with their family in front of the throne of God to hear our lord say to both of them: Well done my good and faithful servants.