The Triumph of the Word and the Role of Women

…He feigns oaths and, by the command of the girl, sends someone to serve the prisoner.

Thus, the head of the Baptist is brought upon a platter: the beauty of the prophets, the boldness of the word, the grace of repentance, the many-chambered pipe the God-sounding trumpet, the tongue that moves the clouds, eyes that behold the unsearchable things, ears that clearly hear the mysteries of God, a head that has touched the head of all.

And her, as it was given to the girl, a leopard bore the sacrifice of a lamb, while a wolf carried the head of a royal lion.

He brought the accuser to the mother, who did not cease his reproaches even after death, nor did he relinquish his boldness even after the slaughter.

But the prophet has fallen asleep, and the word is being handed down everywhere.

The trumpet has ceased, and the theaters of the inhabited world are filled with the sounds emanating from it.

The tongue has gone into the earth, and the sounds from it have filled the tribes.

He struck down the nations, thundering more strongly through every generation; for from that beginning, they spread through all the earth, proclaiming, 'Behold the Lamb of God, the one taking away the sin of the world' (John 1:29).

And you by no means from one woman of the whole world ran down nothing, because of a certain filthy vessel being now, but you cast down the whole ceramic of the maker.

For if even a woman closed the paradise, a woman again opened the royal step of the kingdom.

Women brought the flood by the race of the giants, but women opened the royal step by the dance of the apostles.

A woman tempted Joseph, but a woman nourished Elisha.

A woman bound Samson, but a woman commanded Barak; a woman sent Elijah into the wilderness in flight, but a woman hosted the same man while he was being tormented by famine.

A woman tripped Peter, and a woman became a protector of Paul, just as he himself is honored. Do you not seem to be weary of the word, wanting to sympathize with a woman?

But the one who is not weary will have the rewards brought to his feet briefly.

A woman labored with our redeemer. This one gave birth to and nursed the creator of the race, this one gave drink to the nourisher of the creation, the one who planned the springs for creation, in her arms she bore 'the one measuring the heavens with a span and the earth with a cubit,' the one who regulated and sealed the sea with his palm.

To him belong the glory and the power into the ages of the ages. Amen.