In first-century Palestine, bodies mattered a great deal. The body was the place of both blessing and sin. For Paul, it was a central metaphor that spoke to radical belonging in and with the Holy One. In his time, like our own, the powers and principalities defined much of embodied reality. Violence, political conquest, economic rights and ownership exerted power over bodies. In Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, when Jew and Greek, slave and free person, male and female are invoked, it points to the limits that the powers and principalities imposed on those social locations.

Believing that Jesus was special, the woman who approaches him not only knows those social limitations and constraints, she lives them. It is understandable, then, that her exclamation of Jesus’ holiness is connected to what she perceives as freedom and complete connection. Pregnancy and suckling are the most elemental and visceral of bonds. Two bodies share blood, nutrients, space.

Jesus never refutes the claim. He only adds to it. The womb that sheltered him and the breasts that fed him, Mary’s embodied “yes,” upheld God’s good Word. We belong to the Body of Christ when we affirm God’s invitation. This gives us power over and against the death-dealing forces of the world. This woman and Jesus invite us to understand that life begins when our choices embody creativity and care. When we give and sustain life, there is real power and belonging.

John DeCostanza, Jr.

John DeCostanza, Jr., is a pastoral minister, social worker, and theologian. He serves as vice president for faith and mission and as executive director of the Saint Martin de Porres Society at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago.