Addendum

An interesting subpoint from my wise auntie:

The Holy Spirit is also referred to as a “helper” and “comforter”—ie a spiritually nurturing aspect of the Godhead. In the same I Cor. passage that describes how men are the “head” of women, Paul also says that God the Father is the “head” of Christ.

Perhaps this is a better example of the difference between male and female roles.As the members of the Godhead are equal to one another, so are husbands and wives in marriage.

I think it’s also easy to get hung up on “roles” here, but as we see from scripture it’s hard sometimes to be too specific about who does what in the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is our “comforter” and yet we are told to address our God as “abba,” a child’s name for a loving parent. Sounds like comfort to me. We are told to address our prayers to the Father and yet the Spirit is involved in our prayers in ways we do not always understand.

Maybe this equal, distinct, and yet constantly interinvolved relationship is part of what God meant when he decided to make us in his “image”: multiple identities in unifying relationships—not just husbands and wives, but the Church too.