I learned this not from a class
in feminist studies, but from Jesus — who was brought into the world by a
woman whose obedience changed everything; who revealed his identity to a scorned
woman at a well; who defended Mary of Bethany as his true disciple, even though
women were prohibited from studying under rabbis at the time; who obeyed his mother; who refused to condemn the
woman caught
in adultery to death; who looked to
women for financial and moral support, even after the male disciples abandoned him; who said of the
woman who anointed his feet with perfume that «wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told,
in memory of her»; who bantered with a Syrophoenician
woman, talked theology with a Samaritan
woman, and healed a bleeding
woman; who appeared first before
women after his resurrection, despite the fact that their culture
deemed them unreliable witnesses; who
charged Mary Magdalene with the great responsibility of announcing the start of a new creation, of becoming the Apostle to the Apostles.