A Submission on Submission

This post is my attempt to join in the discussion catalyzed by Rachel Held Evans' Let's Talk about Submission week. Visit http://rachelheldevans.com/ to join in the conversation and consider perspectives on mutual submission to another in response to the messages from the Epistles.

Here's my thoughts...

Submission conjures up some interesting images.

I think of writers busting their keyboards up with last minute copy as they scramble to sharpen a story ahead of a deadline.

I think of ultimate-fighters and wrestlers contorting their opponents' bodies into excruciating shapes until they tap out.

I think of Loki - in The Avengers - telling humanity that it only wants freedom from freedom, that absolute obedience to a higher source of authority is the true realization of freedom.

And the punster in me thinks of a submarine boat sent out on campaign in war - get it? sub mission?

The principle at play is some kind of yielding. Whether to a deadline or physical force, submission involves some level of deference, of letting go.

The idea of submission being mutual, then, is counter-intuitive. A writer couldn't submit their article mutually; a mixed martial-arts fighter couldn't get an opponent to tap out mutually; a villain couldn't demand mutual submission.

Mutual is not a natural modifier for the word submission, so how can the two be considered together? St. Paul's teachings come in the light of the Gospel of Christ, so submission gains a significant context.

Love.

In Christ, love is care for oneself and others that both gives and receives.

Sometimes, love can be exaggerated as love that must totally abandon all self-concern. However, we must love ourselves in order to truly share ourselves, following the example of Christ who allowed his hosts to treat him with hospitality, who allowed a woman to anoint his feet.

As usual, Christ manifests mysterious paradoxes to us and for us. We must let go of life in order to gain it. We must let go of ourselves in order to find ourselves. We must be served as well as serve.

In Christ, submission embodies the mutuality of true love. Christ, who is God, is love.

The greatest way to find love is to take the initiative in loving. When we give of ourselves selflessly and without condition, we open our hearts to mutuality. Others respond by filling us up with their love in kind. Such generosity and self-gift points the way to true relationship, to a two-way street of giving and receiving in which we can reflect our God, the Trinity who is Lover (Father), Beloved (Son), and the love shared between (Holy Spirit).

Mutual submission becomes possible when we meet one another on the common ground of unconditionality - care, attention, help, support, and compassion that is oriented toward emptying of self and filling up of another. In this way, the bonds we know through the mystical Body of Christ, like conduits running between each person and all their brothers and sisters, run feverishly with love.

Love enables us to give of ourselves while being filled up in kind. Sometimes, we can give more than others; other times, we may run close to empty and be in need of a big fill-up.

The Lord provides through our relationships, for His Holy Spirit - the love shared between us - dwells with us always.