Page:For Remembrance (ed. Repplier) 041.jpg

cross. To a woman He first appears when He has risen from the dead. And when He is no longer visible on earth the hearts of women follow after, seek and find Him in the unseen world, where what is pure and fair is forever so; where no shadow of change or evil can fall upon the face of love. He revealed woman to herself, revealed her to man. Until He taught, suffered and died, the inexhaustible treasures of her great heart of pity and love were unknown even to herself.

Aristotle, the clearest and strongest intellect of the pagan world, had said: "Both a woman and a slave may be good, though perhaps of these the one is less good and the other wholly bad." In what another world we are than that of this mighty master of those who know, when we hear Him who is more than man: "Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath great love!" "If men were quit of women they would probably be less godless," said Cato, the censor. But Our Lord, when He lifts woman to the level of His own heart, shows us that by mothers, wives and sisters, by pure and holy women, chiefly shall godliness be kept alive among men. The highest influence is spiritual influence, and henceforth it shall be exercised by woman in a larger degree than by man; and in every age open and sincere minds shall be able to exclaim with Libanius, the pagan teacher of St. Basil and St. Chrysostom, "What women these Christians have!"

The soul is greater than a universe in which there should be no soul, and when God is worshiped in spirit and in truth—that is, with love and sacrifice—the soul of woman clothes itself with a wealth of beauty and devotion. In the days of persecution she suffers at Rome, at Lyons, at Carthage, the worst that fiendish cruelty can invent with a heroism and serene cheerfulness which men have never surpassed. The desert has no terrors for her if her life be hidden in God with Christ, and as wife and mother she inspires a reverence and confidence that fill the home with a joy and peace which make it a symbol of heaven. The Church itself, the bride of Christ and the mother of souls, appears to her faithful children in the semblance of a woman clothed with chastity and beauty and transfigured by love. When she comes forth from the

25