God's Sense of Humor

God uses the weak and foolish things of this world to shame the great and powerful, according to the words of St. Paul.  Indeed, in the period of Judges in the nation of Israel, before the time of kings, there was a woman by the name of Deborah, who sat under a tree, "judging" the nation.  What it meant was that people would come to her for advice and wisdom with problems and disputes they could not solve themselves.

When Jabin, a king of Canaan, attacked Israel with nine hundred iron chariots and cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the Lord for help.  Deborah sent for Barak, the leader of Israel's army, and told him to take his troops to Mount Tabor, where Jabin's army (under Sisera, the commander) would be given into his hands.  Barak refused to go without Deborah; she agreed, but told him that as a result, "the Lord will hand Sisera over to a woman."

Amazingly, this story is almost duplicated in the 1400's with Joan of Arc, who led an army to defeat the invading king of England. 

Recently, I've been reading the writings of Teresa of Avila without knowing the background history and context of her life.  Now I discover that in her lifetime, the scholars and theologians of the Inquisition were banning books on mental prayer, contemplation, because women would be led astray by them, and "the Our Father and Hail Mary were sufficient for women."  If they needed a book, according to the experts, it could be read to them while they sat sewing at their husband's side.  The prevailing wisdom was that women should be allowed to leave their homes only three times:  at their baptism, for their marriage, and for their burial. 

And here comes Teresa, traveling all over Spain, founding houses of contemplative prayer, and writing books on prayer for women, teaching them how to enter into contemplation.  She would not allow anyone to join her order if they could not read, because reading was such an aid to prayer.   Ha ha ha.  Does God have a sense of humor, or what?