[W]hy is Christ's maleness essential? Because he is the revelation of the Father, and the Father's masculinity is essential...
To understand this second proposition, we must distinguish "male" from "masculine." Male and female are biological genders. Masculine and feminine, or yang and yin, are universal, cosmic principles, extending to all reality, including spirit.
All pre-modern civilizations knew this. English is almost the only language that does not have masculine and feminine nouns. So it is easy for us who speak English to believe that the ancients merely projected their own biological gender out onto nature in calling heaven masculine and earth feminine, day masculine and night feminine, sun masculine and moon feminine, land masculine and sea feminine... this universal and fairly consistent human instinct is [an] insight into a cosmic principle...
Once we look, we find abundant analogical evidence for it from the bottom of the cosmic hierarchy to the top, from the electromagnetic attraction between electrons and protons to the circumincession of divine Persons in the Trinity. Male and female are only the biological version of cosmic masculine and feminine. God is masculine to everything, from angels to prime matter. That is the ultimate reason why priests, who represent God to us, must be male.
One's first impression might be that such reading would be too dense. Within the good Doctor's explanation, is precisely why it is not. (We highlighted those parts in case you miss them.)
Now, quit being a 'fraidy-cat and try reading the rest of it.
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