In praise of the Dorcases

Dorcas is an example. We forget that for most of recorded history, running a house has been a full time job. You did not go to the store for cloth, nor for flour: you wove your cloth and ground your corn. A housewife was up before dawn and collapsed at dusk, having worked for a good 12 hours. The Roman matrons were expected to weave and sew, though they had slaves doing the heavy lifting. And we forget that raising children is a full time job. The reason women can work outside of home is because they have mechanical devices that speed up cleaning and washing and cooking. I like these devices: they allowed me to raise my boys with limited help for a decade. In the time when Dorcas lived, the tunics the widows wore had been hand made, hand woven, and were impossible to replace if you had no provision from a sons or husband. Most people would have not had a huge wardrobe. Dorcas is an example of a Godly woman. Like all of us, she died: but in this case the statistically improbable happened: the apostle Peter was near, and he prayed, then by the Spirit returned her to life.

Acts 9:36-43

36Now in Joppa there was a disciple whose name was Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas. She was devoted to good works and acts of charity. 37At that time she became ill and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in a room upstairs. 38Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, who heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him with the request, “Please come to us without delay.” 39So Peter got up and went with them; and when he arrived, they took him to the room upstairs. All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was with them. 40Peter put all of them outside, and then he knelt down and prayed. He turned to the body and said, “Tabitha, get up.” Then she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up. 41He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive. 42This became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. 43Meanwhile he stayed in Joppa for some time with a certain Simon, a tanner.

Philippians 2:1-13

1If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, 2make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. 5Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, 
6   who, though he was in the form of God, 
          did not regard equality with God 
          as something to be exploited, 
7   but emptied himself, 
          taking the form of a slave, 
          being born in human likeness. 
     And being found in human form, 
8        he humbled himself 
          and became obedient to the point of death — 
          even death on a cross.

9   Therefore God also highly exalted him 
          and gave him the name 
          that is above every name, 
10  so that at the name of Jesus 
          every knee should bend, 
          in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 
11  and every tongue should confess 
          that Jesus Christ is Lord, 
          to the glory of God the Father.

12Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

What does it mean to work out your salvation in fear and trembling? For we are saved by the work of Christ. It is not our doing, and it is complete. Here we need to consider a couple of hard truths.

Firstly, there is no equality in this life. Dorcas was rich enough to make tunics for the widows. The widows were destitute, and without the support of this saintly women they had a bleak future. There will be rich among us. There will also be the poor.

You can make a difference as to if you are rich and poor, not be social activism, but by making a choice. To live a Godly, Sober and Upright life. Despite the current insanity, that insists that we shall all be equal and all shall get prizes. As if our civilization was gifted to us without sweat, blood and tears.

The second is that God is just and he will reward us for how we witness. What we do in this life matters. There are rewards to come: let us praise God that we have salvation, but let us glorify God in this life. For God will then glorify us. This life is not about us. And those who preach equality are speaking of envy, which our Papist friends teach, correctly, is a lethal sin.

Yes, Jorge dear: there are saints who are “more saints” and saints who are “less saints” in Paradise, because God wants it so. God is, as you should know, not “egalitarian” at all.

If, therefore, it is established that infinite goods like the Beatific Vision are given in different measure to different people, how can it be of any real relevance that the infinitely less important – and, sub specie aeternitatis, infinitely unimportant – material goods are allotted to us in extremely different ways?

You would think Francis would know this, and in fact I am entirely sure that he does. The problem is that he does not believe it. Only one who does not believe in heaven and hell, only one who does not believe in God can think that the most important thing in life is to provide for “equality” of any sort. Mind, even an Atheist can disagree with this; but, importantly, no one who believes in God can agree with it.

Francis obsession with inequality is brutal evidence of his complete lack of faith in God, who pushes and decrees inequality in matters if infinite value. Egalitarianism is sheer atheism. Communism is just a variation of it.

This Pope is an enemy of the Faith. He despises it possibly more than Marx and Engels did, then I wonder whether Marx and Engels themselves went around unceasingly berating, insulting, despising pious Christians or pious Catholics.

This Pope is utter and complete rubbish. He is Satan’s Number One Tool (and a tool he certainly is).

It is necessary that every Catholic interested in his salvation considers him pure poison and a daily danger to his and his beloved ones’ salvation. The man is, being Pope, worse poison than Marx and Engels.

Inequality is in everything: our looks, our brains, our finances, our graces.

God wants it so.

Dorcas is an example for women. There are plenty in the Bible, and there is sufficient variety. There are the seven daughters of Philip, who were prophetesses, and did not marry. There are godly widows. There are the women who supported the ministry of Jesus from their wealth.

But women men are not. Thank God.

It is envy that makes one want to be that which they cannot be. For this women can do — they can bring the next generation to life and build a family. This is never an easy task: the opposite is also true, that women can ensure there is no following generation and ensure that the family is broken and marriage destroyed.

Consider well this: as Christ gave up his power for the sake of us, so does a mother put the children’s needs before her, and respects her husband as an act of obedience to Christ. Those who do this are to be honoured.

Those who instead decide their sexuality is their power, and demand the right to manipulate and seduce their way through the institutions of this age are thots, and the Dorcases of this age should them rightly shun. This life is challenging enough without that subversion of the foolish and young.

Settle down, woman of God. Accept your husband. Raise a family. For we are the future, and your sister raging against the patriarchy is a genetic and mimetic dead end.