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James K. Baxter Complete Prose Volume 1

The Earthly Paradise

The Earthly Paradise

Le beau jardin fleuri de flammes
Qui nous semblait le double ou le miroir
Du jardin clair que nous portions dans l’ âme . . .
Émile Verhaeren

Very likely no authoritative pronouncements of the Catholic Church rouse more antagonism among her critics and less enthusiasm among a majority of her children than those which deal directly with the Sacrament of marriage, or refer in general to the relations between men and women. When the Holy Father makes reference to immodesty in women’s dress, a typical non- Catholic reaction may be formulated in these terms –

‘Why waste time on such trifles? The Third World War is on our doorstep, and the Bikini Tests are more formidable than bikini swimsuits. Of course the Pope is conditioned by his seminary training – all priests are Puritan at heart – it’s one of the irritating aspects of the celibacy of the Catholic clergy.’ The comment may indeed be much more explosive. The commentator has not recognised the closely-knit organic structure of the life of His Church, an extension of the life of the Holy Family at Nazareth. It is the office of the Holy Father to protect and guide his gigantic family – to tell the men that they may not let off dangerous crackers, and warn the daughters that they too are in possession of weapons of mass destruction. In a world where continence and chivalry are the first casualties in the battle of the sexes, the Holy Father’s edicts are, to say the least, refreshingly old-fashioned. They happen also to have the sanction of Divine authority. The familiar bogey ofpage 380 the Puritan priest might convince a genuine pagan (Jack Kerouac, let us say, that attractive spokesman for the Beat generation) that the way of the Church could never be his – but this turnip ghost has no power over those who grew up, as I did, in the shadow of the Church Hesitant. . . .

There are two ways by which a woman can bind a husband to her – I speak in terms of nature only. The first is by beauty, abnegation, the gift of her body and heart, an active desire to be pleasing to him. This is the archetype of the women’s roles in Eastern marriage, and its danger lies in the fact that the woman also carries the cross. The archetype of Western marriage is a different one, sprung from the strange sort of troubadour romance. Here the man offers service in exchange for the gift of the woman’s person. Her fluctuations/ feelings, likings and antagonisms, determine the course of marriage. (‘John, you will have to get another job. I can’t bear the climate any longer.’) – and she chooses the time and number of children to be born. For a man who accepts the romantic myth, the woman has power to bind with hoops of steel. Her unhappiness strikes chords in him of guilt and obligations which are far more apparent than any sexual attraction. She is, as it were, a modern goddess, Diana and Hecate by turn, preserving and killing life, giving and withholding.

1959 (186)