Become Worthy

I just read this:

“When a man loves a woman, he has to become worthy of her. The higher her virtue, the more noble her character, the more devoted she is to truth, justice, goodness, the more a man has to aspire to be worthy of her. The history of civilization could actually be written in terms of the level of its women.” ― Venerable Abp. Fulton J. Sheen, Life is Worth Living

 Which made me think of this:

Apparently it still needs to be said and I'll say it yet again:

WE ARE ALL—Men AND Women—FALLEN CREATURES AND NO ONE BUT GOD BELONGS ON A PEDESTAL.

No one—male or female—has to become “worthy” of anyone else. We're all pretty shitty sinners with foibles, depredations, wanton characters, & iniquitous. All of us are black-hearted, loathsome creatures:

²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

That's from St. Paul's letter to the Romans, chapter 3, verse 23. That "all" is you, me, your dad, your mom, your sisters, EVERYONE. ALL of us. She may look better than you, gentlemen and certainly prettier, but her shit smells just as badly as yours and, depending on the day and Mexican diner, worse.

To put a woman, no matter how much you love her or how virginal or "pure" she is, on a pedestal is to substitute her for God, a burden that she—and certainly no one—can shoulder. The only thing we should ALL strive to be worthy of is of Christ's freely-given gift of salvation.

What tears me a new one is that apparently, the Sheen quoted is a church leader of some sort who should know better.