ON THE DIGNITY OF WOMEN
MULIERIS DIGNITATEM
Apostolic Letter of Pope John Paul II promulgated on August 15, 1990.
1. The dignity and the vocation of women--a subject of constant human and
Christian reflection--have gained exceptional prominence in recent years.
This can be seen, for example, in the statements of the Church's
Magisterium present in various documents of the Second Vatican Council,
which declares in its Closing Message: "The hour is coming, in fact has
come, when the vocation of women is being acknowledged in its fullness,
the hour in which women acquire in the world an influence, an effect and a
power never hitherto achieved. That is why, at this moment when the human
race is undergoing so deep a transformation, women imbued with a spirit of
the Gospel can do so much to aid humanity in not falling."[1] This Message
sums up what had already been expressed in the Council's teaching,
specifically in the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes[2] and in the
Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity Apostolicam Actuositatem.[3]
Similar thinking had already been put forth in the period before the
Council, as can be seen in a number of Pope Pius XII's Discourses[4] and
in the Encyclical Pacem in Terris of Pope John XXIII.[5] After the Second
Vatican Council, my predecessor Paul VI showed the relevance of this "sign
of the times" when he conferred the title "Doctor of the Church" upon St.
Teresa of Jesus and St. Catherine of Siena,[6] and likewise when, at the
request of the 1971 Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, he set up a special
Commission for the study of contemporary problems concerning the "elective
promotion of the dignity and the responsibility of women."[7] In one of
his Discourses Paul VI said: "Within Christianity, more than in any other
religion, and since its very beginning, women have had a special dignity,
of which the New Testament shows us many important aspects...; it is
evident that women are meant to form part of the living and working
structure of Christianity in so prominent a manner that perhaps not all
their potentialities have yet been made clear."[8]
The Fathers of the recent Assembly of the Synod of Bishops (October 1987),
which was devoted to "The Vocation and Mission of the Laity in the Church
and in the World Twenty Years after the Second Vatican Council," once more
dealt with the dignity and vocation of women. One of their recommendations
was for a further study of the anthropological and theological bases that
are needed in order to solve the problems connected with the meaning and
dignity of being a woman and of being a man. It is a question of
understanding the reason for and the consequences of the Creator's
decision that the human being should always and only exist as a woman or a
man. It is only by beginning from these bases, which make it possible to
understand the greatness of the dignity and vocation of women, that one is
able to speak of their active presence in the Church and in society.
This is what I intend to deal with in this document. The Post-Synodal
Exhortation, which will be published later, will present proposals of a
pastoral nature on the place of women in the Church and in society. On
this subject the Fathers offered some important reflections, after they
had taken into consideration the testimonies of the lay auditors--both
women and men--from the particular Churches throughout the world.
2. The last Synod took place within the Marian Year, which gives special
thrust to the consideration of this theme, as the Encyclical Redemptoris
Mater points out.[9] This Encyclical develops and updates the Second
Vatican Council's teaching contained in Chapter VIII of the Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium. The title of this chapter is
significant: "The Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, in the Mystery
of Christ and of the Church." Mary--the "woman" of the Bible (cf. Gen
3:15; Jn 2:4; 19:16)--intimately belongs to the salvific mystery of
Christ, and is therefore also present in a special way in the mystery of
the Church. Since "the Church is in Christ as a sacrament...of intimate
union with God and of the unity of the whole human race,"[10] the special
presence of the Mother of God in the mystery of the Church makes us think
of the exceptional link between this "woman" and the whole human family.
It is a question here of every man and woman, all the sons and daughters
of the human race, in whom from generation to generation a fundamental
inheritance is realized, the inheritance that belongs to all humanity and
that is linked with the mystery of the biblical "beginning": "God created
man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female
he created them" (Gen 1:27).[11]
This eternal truth about the human being, man and woman--a truth which is
immutably fixed in human experience--at the same time constitutes the
mystery which only in "the Incarnate Word takes on light... (since) Christ
fully reveals man to himself and makes his supreme calling clear," as the
Council teaches.[12] In this "revealing of man to himself," do we not need
to find a special place for that "woman" who was the Mother of Christ?
Cannot the "message" of Christ, contained in the Gospel, which has as its
background the whole of Scripture, both the Old and the New Testament, say
much to the Church and to humanity about the dignity of women and their
vocation?
This is precisely what is meant to be the common thread running throughout
the present document, which fits into the broader context of the Marian
Year, as we approach the end of the second millennium after Christ's birth
and the beginning of the third. And it seems to me that the best thing is
to give this text the style and character of a meditation.
3. "When the time had fully come, God sent forth his son, born of woman"
With these words of his Letter to the Galatians (4:4), the Apostle Paul
links together the principal moments which essentially determine the
fulfillment of the mystery "pre-determined in God" (cf. Eph 1:9). The Son,
the Word, one in substance with the Father, becomes man, born of a woman,
at "the fullness of time." This event leads to the turning point of man's
history on earth, understood as salvation history. It is significant that
St. Paul does not call the Mother of Christ by her own name "Mary," but
calls her "woman": this coincides with the words of the Proto-evangelium
in the Book of Genesis (cf. 3:15). She is that "woman" who is present in
the central salvific event which marks the "fullness of time": this event
is realized in her and through her.
Thus there begins the central event, the key event in the history of
salvation: the Lord's Paschal Mystery. Perhaps it would be worthwhile to
reconsider it from the point of view of man's spiritual history,
understood in the widest possible sense, and as this history is expressed
through the different world religions. Let us recall at this point the
words of the Second Vatican Council: "People look to the various religions
for answers to those profound mysteries of the human condition which,
today, even as in olden times, deeply stir the human heart: What is a
human being? What is the meaning and purpose of our life? What is goodness
and what is sin? What gives rise to our sorrows, and to what intent? Where
lies the path to true happiness? What is the truth about death, judgment
and retribution beyond the grave? What, finally, is that ultimate and
unutterable mystery which engulfs our being, and from which we take our
origin and towards which we move?"[13] "From ancient times down to the
present, there has existed among different peoples a certain perception of
that hidden power which is present in the course of things and in the
events of human life; at times, indeed, recognition can be found of a
Supreme Divinity or even a Supreme Father."[14]
Against the background of this broad panorama, which testifies to the
aspirations of the human spirit in search of God--at times as it were
"groping its way" (cf. Acts 17:27)--the "fullness of time" spoken of in
Paul's Letter emphasizes the response of God himself, "in whom we live and
move and have our being" (cf. Acts 17:28). This is the God who "in many
and various ways spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but in these
last days has spoken to us by a Son" (Heb 1:1-2).
The sending of this Son, one in substance with the Father, as a man "born
of woman," constitutes the culminating and definitive point of God's
self-revelation to humanity. This self-revelation is salvific in
character, as the Second Vatican Council teaches in another passage: "In
his goodness and wisdom, God chose to reveal himself and to make known to
us the hidden purpose of his will (cf. Eph 1:9) by which through Christ,
the Word made flesh, man has access to the Father in the Holy Spirit and
comes to share in the divine nature (cf. Eph 2:18; 2 Pt 1:4)."[15]
A woman is to be found at the center of this salvific event. The
self-revelation of God, who is the inscrutable unity of the Trinity, is
outlined in the Annunciation at Nazareth. "Behold, you will conceive in
your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be
great, and will be called the Son of the Most High." ..."How shall this
be, since I have no husband?" ..."The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and
the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be
born will be called holy, the Son of God.... For with God nothing will be
impossible" (cf. Lk 1:31-37).[16]
It may be easy to think of this even in the setting of the history of
Israel, the Chosen People of which Mary is a daughter, but it is also easy
to think of it in the context of all the different ways in which humanity
has always sought to answer the fundamental and definitive questions which
most beset it. Do we not find in the Annunciation at Nazareth the
beginning of that definitive answer by which God himself "attempts to calm
people's hearts"?[17] It is not just a matter here of God's words revealed
through the Prophets; rather with this response "the Word is truly made
flesh" (cf. Jn 1:14). Hence Mary attains a union with God that exceeds all
the expectations of the human spirit. It even exceeds the expectations of
all Israel, in particular the daughters of this Chosen People, who, on the
basis of the promise, could hope that one of their number would one day
become the mother of the Messiah. Who among them, however, could have
imagined that the promised Messiah would be "the Son of the Most High"? On
the basis of the Old Testament's monotheistic faith such a thing was
difficult to imagine. Only by the power of the Holy Spirit, who
"overshadowed" her, was Mary able to accept what is "impossible with men,
but not with God" (cf. Mk 10:27).
4. Thus the "fullness of time" manifests the extraordinary dignity of the
"woman." On the one hand, this dignity consists in the supernatural
elevation to union with God in Jesus Christ, which determines the ultimate
finality of the existence of every person both on earth and in eternity.
From this point of view, the "woman" is the representative and the
archetype of the whole human race: she represents the humanity which
belongs to all human beings, both men and women. On the other hand,
however, the event at Nazareth highlights a form of union with the living
God which. can only belong to the "woman," Mary: the union between mother
and son. The Virgin of Nazareth truly becomes the Mother of God.
This truth, which Christian faith has accepted from the beginning, was
solemnly defined at the Council of Ephesus (431 A.D.).[18] In opposition
to the opinion of Nestorius, who held that Mary was only the mother of the
man Jesus, this Council emphasized the essential meaning of the motherhood
of the Virgin Mary. At the moment of the Annunciation, by responding with
her "fiat," Mary conceived a man who was the Son of God, of one substance
with the Father. Therefore she is truly the Mother of God, because
motherhood concerns the whole person, not just the body, nor even just
human "nature." In this way the name "Theotokos"--Mother of God--became
the name proper to the union with God granted to the Virgin Mary.
The particular union of the "Theotokos" with God--which fulfills in the
most eminent manner the supernatural predestination to union with the
Father which is granted to every human being (filii in Filio)--is a pure
grace and, as such, a gift of the Spirit. At the same time, however,
through her response of faith Mary exercises her free will and thus fully
shares with her personal and feminine "I" in the event of the Incarnation.
With her "fiat," Mary becomes the authentic subject of that union with God
which was realized in the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word, who is
of one substance with the Father. All of God's action in human history at
all times respects the free will of the human "I." And such was the case
with the Annunciation at Nazareth.
5. This event is clearly interpersonal in character: it is a dialogue. We
only understand it fully if we place the whole conversation between the
Angel and Mary in the context of the words: "full of grace."[19] The whole
Annunciation dialogue reveals the essential dimension of the event,
namely, its supernatural dimension (unable to use Greek alphabet in ASCII
file) . Grace never casts nature aside or cancels it out, but rather
perfects it and ennobles it. Therefore the "fullness of grace" that was
granted to the Virgin of Nazareth, with a view to the fact that she would
become "Theotokos," also signifies the fullness of the perfection of "what
is characteristic of woman," of "what is feminine." Here we find
ourselves, in a sense, at the culminating point, the archetype, of the
personal dignity of women.
When Mary responds to the words of the heavenly messenger with her "fiat,"
she who is "full of grace" feels the need to express her personal
relationship to the gift that has been revealed to her, saying: "Behold, I
am the handmaid of the Lord" (Lk 1:38). This statement should not be
deprived of its profound meaning, nor should it be diminished by
artificially removing it from the overall context of the event and from
the full content of the truth revealed about God and man. In the
expression "handmaid of the Lord," one senses Mary's complete awareness of
being a creature of God. The word "handmaid," near the end of the
Annunciation dialogue, is inscribed throughout the whole history of the
Mother and the Son. In fact, this Son, who is the true and consubstantial
"Son of the Most High," will often say of himself, especially at the
culminating moment of his mission: "The Son of Man came not to be served
but to serve" (Mk 10:45).
At all times Christ is aware of being "the servant of the Lord" according
to the prophecy of Isaiah (cf. Is 42:1; 49:3, 6; 52:13) which includes the
essential content of his messianic mission, namely, his awareness of being
the Redeemer of the world. From the first moment of her divine motherhood,
of her union with the Son whom "the Father sent into the world, that the
world might be saved through him" (cf. Jn 3:17), Mary takes her place
within Christ's messianic service.[20] It is precisely this service which
constitutes the very foundation of that Kingdom in which "to serve...means
to reign."[21] Christ, the "Servant of the Lord," will show all people the
royal dignity of service, the dignity which is joined in the closest
possible way to the vocation of every person.
Thus, by considering the reality "Woman-Mother of God," we enter in a very
appropriate way into this Marian Year meditation. This reality also
determines the essential horizon of reflection on the dignity and the
vocation of women. In anything we think, say or do concerning the dignity
and the vocation of women, our thoughts, hearts and actions must not
become detached from this horizon. The dignity of every human being and
the vocation corresponding to that dignity find their definitive measure
in union with God. Mary, the woman of the Bible, is the most complete
expression of this dignity and vocation. For no human being, male or
female, created in the image and likeness of God, can in any way attain
fulfillment apart from this image and likeness.
6. Let us enter into the setting of the biblical "beginning." In it the
revealed truth concerning man as "the image and likeness" of God
constitutes the immutable basis of all Christian anthropology.[22] "God
created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and
female he created them" (Gen 1:27). This concise passage contains the
fundamental anthropological truths: man is the high point of the whole
order of creation in the visible world; the human race, which takes its
origin from the calling into existence of man and woman, crowns the whole
work of creation; both man and woman are human beings to an equal degree,
both are created in God's image. This image and likeness of God, which is
essential for the human being, is passed on by the man and woman, as
spouses and parents, to their descendants: "Be fruitful and multiply, and
fill the earth and subdue it" (Gen 1:27). The Creator entrusts dominion
over the earth to the human race, to all persons, to all men and women,
who derive their dignity and vocation from the common "beginning."
In the Book of Genesis we find another description of the creation of
man--man and woman (cf. 2:18-25)--to which we shall refer shortly. At this
point, however, we can say that the biblical account puts forth the truth
about the personal character of the human being. Man is a person, man and
woman equally so, since both were created in the image and likeness of the
personal God. What makes man like God is the fact that-- unlike the whole
world of other living creatures, including those endowed with senses
(animalia)--man is also a rational being (animal rationale).[23] Thanks to
this property, man and woman are able to "dominate" the other creatures of
the visible world (cf. Gen 1:28).
The second description of the creation of man (cf. Gen 2:18-25) makes use
of different language to express the truth about the creation of man, and
especially of woman. In a sense the language is less precise, and, one
might say, more descriptive and metaphorical--closer to the language of
the myths known at the time. Nevertheless, we find no essential
contradiction between the two texts. The text of Genesis 2:18-25 helps us
to understand better what we find in the concise passage of Genesis
1:27-28. At the same time, if it is read together with the latter, it
helps us to understand even more profoundly the fundamental truth which it
contains concerning man created as man and woman in the image and likeness
of God.
In the description found in Genesis 2:18-25, the woman is created by God
"from the rib" of the man and is placed at his side as another "I"-- as
the companion of the man, who is alone in the surrounding world of living
creatures and who finds in none of them a "helper" suitable for himself.
Called into existence in this way, the woman is immediately recognized by
the man as "flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones" (cf. Gen 2:23) and
for this very reason she is called "woman." In biblical language this name
indicates her essential identity with regard to man--'is-'issah--something
which unfortunately modern languages in general are unable to express:
"She shall be called woman ('issah) because she was taken out of man
('is)" (Gen 2:23).
The biblical text provides sufficient bases for recognizing the essential
equality of man and woman from the point of view of their humanity.[24]
From the very beginning, both are persons, unlike the other living beings
in the world about them. The woman is another "I" in a common humanity.
From the very beginning they appear as a "unity of the two," and this
signifies that the original solitude is overcome, the solitude in which
man does not find "a helper fit for him" (Gen 2:20). Is it only a question
here of a "helper" in activity, in "subduing the earth" (cf. Gen 1:28)?
Certainly it is a maker of a life's companion, with whom, as a wife, the
man can unite himself, becoming with her "one flesh" and for this reason
leaving "his father and his mother" (cf. Gen 2:24). Thus in the same
context as the creation of man and woman, the biblical account speaks of
God's instituting marriage as an indispensable condition for the
transmission of life to new generations, the transmission of life to which
marriage and conjugal love are by their nature ordered: "Be fruitful and
multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it" (Gen 1:28).
7. By reflecting on the whole account found in Genesis 2:18-25, and by
interpreting it in light of the truth about the image and likeness of God
(cf. Gen 1:26-27), we can understand even more finally what constitutes
the personal character of the human being, thanks to which both man and
woman are like God. For every individual is made in the image of God,
insofar as he or she is a rational and free creature capable of knowing
God and loving him. Moreover, we read that man cannot exist "alone" (cf.
Gen 2:18); he can exist only as a "unity of the two," and therefore in
relation to another human person. It is a question here of a mutual
relationship: man to woman and woman to man. Being a person in the image
and likeness of God thus also involves existing in a relationship, in
relation to the other "I." This is a prelude to the definitive
self-revelation of the Triune God: a living unity in the communion of the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
At the beginning of the Bible this is not yet stated directly. The whole
Old Testament is mainly concerned with revealing the truth about the
oneness and unity of God. Within this fundamental truth about God the New
Testament will reveal the inscrutable mystery of God's inner life. God,
who allows himself to be known by human beings through Christ, is the
unity of the Trinity: unity in communion. In this way new light is also
thrown on man's image and likeness to God, spoken of in "Be fruitful and
multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it" (Gen 1:28).
7. By reflecting on the whole account found in Genesis 2:18-25, and by
interpreting it in light of the truth about the image and likeness of God
(cf. Gen 1:26-27), we can understand even more fully what constitutes the
personal character of the human being, thanks to which both man and woman
are like God. For every individual is made in the image of God, insofar as
he or she is a rational and free creature capable of knowing God and
loving him. Moreover, we read that man cannot exist "alone" (cf. Gen
2:18); he can exist only as a "unity of the two," and therefore in
relation to another human person. It is a question here of a mutual
relationship: man to woman and woman to man. Being a person in the image
and likeness of God thus also involves existing in a relationship, in
relation to the other "I." This is a prelude to the definitive
self-revelation of the Triune God: a living unity in the communion of the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
At the beginning of the Bible this is not yet stated directly. The whole
Old Testament is mainly concerned with revealing the truth about the
oneness and unity of God. Within this fundamental truth about God the New
Testament will reveal the inscrutable mystery of God's inner life. God,
who allows himself to be known by human beings through Christ, is the
unity of the Trinity: unity in communion. In this way new light is also
thrown on man's image and likeness to God, spoken of in the Book of
Genesis. The fact that man "created as man and woman" is the image of God
means not only that each of them individually is like God, as a rational
and free being. It also means that man and woman, created as a "unity of
the two" in their common humanity, are called to live in a communion of
love, and in this way to mirror in the world the communion of love that is
in God, through which the Three Persons love each other in the intimate
mystery of the one divine life. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God
through the unity of the divinity, exist as persons through the
inscrutable divine relationship. Only in this way can we understand the
truth that God in himself is love (cf. 1 Jn 4:16).
The image and likeness of God in man, created as man and woman (in the
analogy that can be presumed between Creator and creature), thus also
expresses the "unity of the two" in a common humanity. This "unity of the
two," which is a sign of interpersonal communion, shows that the creation
of man is also marked by a certain likeness to the divine communion
("communio"). This likeness is a quality of the personal being of both man
and woman, and is also a call and a task. The foundation of the whole
human "ethos" is rooted in the image and likeness of God which the human
being bears within himself from the beginning. Both the Old and New
Testament will develop that "ethos," which reaches its apex in the
commandment of love.[25]
In the "unity of the two," man and woman are called from the beginning not
only to exist "side by side" or "together," but they are also called to
exist mutually "one for the other."
This also explains the meaning of the "help" spoken of in Genesis 2:18-25:
"I will make him a helper fit for him." The biblical context enables us to
understand this in the sense that the woman must "help" the man--and in
his turn he must help her--first of all by the very fact of their "being
human persons." In a certain sense this enables man and woman to discover
their humanity ever anew and to confirm its whole meaning. We can easily
understand that--on this fundamental level--it is a question of a "help"
on the part of both, and at the same time a mutual "help." To be human
means to be called to interpersonal communion. The text of Genesis 2:18-25
shows that marriage is the first and, in a sense, the fundamental
dimension of this call. But it is not the only one. The whole of human
history unfolds within the context of this call. In this history, on the
basis of the principle of mutually being "for" the other, in interpersonal
"communion," there develops in humanity itself, in accordance with God's
will, the integration of what is "masculine" and what is "feminine." The
biblical texts, from Genesis onwards, constantly enable us to discover the
ground in which the truth about man is rooted, the solid and inviolable
ground amid the many changes of human existence.
This truth also has to do with the history of salvation. In this regard a
statement of the Second Vatican Council is especially significant. In the
chapter on "The Community of Mankind" in the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium
et Spes, we read: "The Lord Jesus, when he prayed to the Father 'that all
may be one...as we are one' (Jn 17:21-22), opened up vistas closed to
human reason. For he implied a certain likeness between the union of the
divine Persons and the union of God's children in truth and charity. This
likeness reveals that man, who is the only creature on earth which God
willed for its own sake, cannot fully find himself except through a
sincere gift of self."[26]
With these words, the council text presents a summary of the whole truth
about man and woman--a truth which is already outlined in the first
chapters of the Book of Genesis, and which is the structural basis of
biblical and Christian anthropology. Man--whether man or woman--is the
only being among the creatures of the visible world that God the Creator
"has willed for its own sake"; that creature is thus a person. Being a
person means striving towards self-realization (the Council text speaks of
self-discovery), which can only be achieved "through a sincere gift of
self." The model for this interpretation of the person is God himself as
Trinity, as a communion of Persons. To say that man is created in the
image and likeness of God means that man is called to exist "for" others,
to become a gift.
This applies to every human being, whether woman or man, who lives it out
in accordance with the special qualities proper to each. Within the
framework of the present meditation on the dignity and vocation of women,
this truth about being human constitutes the indispensable point of
departure. Already in the Book of Genesis we can discern, in preliminary
outline, the spousal character of the relationship between persons, which
will serve as the basis for the subsequent development of the truth about
motherhood, and about virginity, as two particular dimensions of the
vocation of women in the light of divine Revelation. These two dimensions
will find their loftiest expression at the "fullness of time" (cf. Gal
4:4) in the "woman" of Nazareth: the Virgin-Mother.
8. The presentation of man as "the image and likeness of God" at the very
beginning of Sacred Scripture has another significance too. It is the key
for understanding biblical Revelation as God's word about himself.
Speaking about himself, whether through the prophets? or through the Son"
(cf. Heb 1:1, 2) who became man, God speaks in human language, using human
concepts and images. If this manner of expressing himself is characterized
by a certain anthropomorphism, the reason is that man is "like" God:
created in his image and likeness. But then, God too is in some measure
"like man," and precisely because of this likeness, he can be humanly
known. At the same time, the language of the Bible is sufficiently precise
to indicate the limits of the "likeness," the limits of the "analogy." For
biblical Revelation says that, while man's "likeness" to God is true, the
"non-likeness"[27] which separates the whole of creation from the Creator
is still more essentially true. Although man is created in God's
likeness, God does not cease to be for him the one "who dwells in
unapproachable light" (1 Tim 6:16): he is the "Different One," by essence
the "totally Other."
This observation on the limits of the analogy--the limits of man's
likeness to God in biblical language--must also be kept in mind when, in
different passages of Sacred Scripture (especially in the Old Testament),
we find comparisons that attribute to God "masculine" or "feminine"
qualities. We find in these passages an indirect confirmation of the truth
that both man and woman were created in the image and likeness of God. If
there is a likeness between Creator and creatures, it is understandable
that the Bible would refer to God using expressions that attribute to him
both "masculine" and "feminine" qualities.
We may quote here some characteristic passages from the prophet Isaiah:
"But Zion said, 'The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.' 'Can
a woman forget her sucking child, that she should have no compassion on
the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you'"
(49:14-15). And elsewhere: "As one whom his mother comforts, so will I
comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem" (66:13). In the Psalms
too God is compared to a caring mother: "Like a child quieted at its
mother's breast; like a child that is quieted is my soul. O Israel, hope
in the Lord" (Ps 131:2-3). In various passages the love of God who cares
for his people is shown to be like that of a mother: thus, like a mother
God "has carried" humanity, and in particular, his Chosen People, within
his own womb; he has given birth to it in travail, has nourished and
comforted it (cf. Is 42:14; 46:3-4). In many passages God's love is
presented as the "masculine" love of the bridegroom and father (cf. Hos
11:1-4; Jer 3:4-19), but also sometimes as the "feminine" love of a
mother.
This characteristic of biblical language--its anthropomorphic way of
speaking about God--points indirectly to the mystery of the eternal
"generating" which belongs to the inner life of God. Nevertheless, in
itself this "generating" has neither "masculine" nor "feminine" qualities.
It is by nature totally divine. It is spiritual in the most perfect way,
since "God is spirit" (Jn 4:24) and possesses no property typical of the
body, neither "feminine" nor "masculine." Thus even "fatherhood" in God is
completely divine and free of the "masculine" bodily characteristics
proper to human fatherhood. In this sense the Old Testament spoke of God
as a Father and turned to him as a Father. Jesus Christ--who called God
"Abba-Father" (Mk 14:36), and who as the only-begotten and consubstantial
Son placed this truth at the very center of his Gospel, thus establishing
the norm of Christian prayer--referred to fatherhood in this
ultra-corporeal, superhuman and completely divine sense. He spoke as the
Son, joined to the Father by the eternal mystery of divine generation, and
he did so while being at the same time the truly human Son of his Virgin
Mother.
Although it is not possible to attribute human qualities to the eternal
generation of the Word of God, and although the divine fatherhood does not
possess "masculine" characteristics in a physical sense, we must
nevertheless seek in God the absolute model of all "generation" among
human beings. This would seem to be the sense of the Letter to the
Ephesians: "I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in
heaven and on earth is named" (3:14-15). All "generating" among creatures
finds its primary model in that generating which in God is completely
divine, that is, spiritual. All "generating" in the created world is to be
likened to this absolute and uncreated model. Thus every element of human
generation which is proper to man, and every element which is proper to
woman, namely human "fatherhood" and "motherhood," bears within itself a
likeness to, or analogy with the divine "generating" and with that
"fatherhood" which in God is "totally different"--that is, completely
spiritual and divine in essence; whereas in the human order, generation is
proper to the "unity of the two": both are "parents," the man and the
woman alike.
9. "Although he was made by God in a state of justice, from the very dawn
of history man abused his liberty, at the urging of the Evil One. Man set
himself against God and sought to find fulfillment apart from God."[28]
With these words the teaching of the last Council recalls the revealed
doctrine about sin and in particular about that first sin, which is the
"original" one. The biblical "beginning"--the creation of the world and of
man in the world--contains in itself the truth about this sin, which can
also be called the sin of man's "beginning" on the earth. Even though what
is written in the Book of Genesis is expressed in the form of a symbolic
narrative, as is the case in the description of the creation of man as
male and female (cf. Gen 2:18-25), at the same time it reveals what should
be called "the mystery of sin," and even more fully, "the mystery of evil"
which exists in the world created by God.
It is not possible to read "the mystery of sin" without making reference
to the whole truth about the "image and likeness" to God, which is the
basis of biblical anthropology. This truth presents the creation of man as
a special gift from the Creator, containing not only the foundation and
source of the essential dignity of the human being--man and woman--in the
created world, but also the beginning of the call to both of them to share
in the intimate life of God himself. In the light of Revelation, creation
likewise means the beginning of salvation history. It is precisely in this
beginning that sin is situated and manifests itself as opposition and
negation.
It can be said, paradoxically, that the sin presented in the third chapter
of Genesis confirms the truth about the image and likeness of God in man,
since this truth means freedom, that is, man's use of free will by
choosing good or his abuse of it by choosing evil, against the will of
God. In its essence, however, sin is a negation of God as Creator in his
relationship to man, and of what God wills for man, from the beginning and
for ever. Creating man and woman in his own image and likeness, God wills
for them the fullness of good, or supernatural happiness, which flows from
sharing in his own life. By committing sin man rejects this gift and at
the same time wills to become "as God, knowing good and evil" (Gen 3:5),
that is to say, deciding what is good and what is evil independently of
God, his Creator. The sin of the first parents has its own human
"measure": an interior standard of its own in man's free will, and it also
has within itself a certain "diabolic" characteristic,[29] which is
clearly shown in the Book of Genesis (3:15). Sin brings about a break in
the original unity which man enjoyed in the state of original justice:
union with God as the source of the unity within his own "I," in the
mutual relationship between man and woman ("communio personarum") as well
as in regard to the external world, to nature.
The biblical description of original sin in the third chapter of Genesis
in a certain way "distinguishes the roles" which the woman and the man had
in it. This is also referred to later in certain passages of the Bible,
for example, Paul's Letter to Timothy: "For Adam was formed first, then
Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a
transgressor" (1 Tim 2:1314). But there is no doubt that, independent of
this "distinction of roles" in the biblical description, that first sin is
the sin of man, created by God as male and female. It is also the sin of
the "first parents," to which is connected its hereditary character. In
this sense we call it "original sin."
This sin, as already said, cannot be properly understood without reference
to the mystery of the creation of the human being--man and woman--in the
image and likeness of God. By means of this reference one can also
understand the mystery of that "non-likeness" to God in which sin
consists, and which manifests itself in the evil present in the history of
the world. Similarly one can understand the mystery of that "non-likeness"
to God, who "alone is good" (cf. Mt 19:17) and the fullness of good. If
sin's "non-likeness" to God, who is Holiness itself, presupposes
"likeness" in the sphere of freedom and free will, it can then be said
that for this very reason the "non-likeness" contained in sin is all the
more tragic and sad. It must be admitted that God, as Creator and Father,
is here wounded, "offended"--obviously offended--in the very heart of that
gift which belongs to God's eternal plan for man.
At the same time, however, as the author of the evil of sin, the human
being--man and woman--is affected by it. The third chapter of Genesis
shows this with the words which clearly describe the new situation of man
in the created world. It shows the perspective of "toil," by which man
will earn his living (cf. Gen 3:17-19) and likewise the great "pain" with
which the woman will give birth to her children (cf. Gen 3:16). And all
this is marked by the necessity of death, which is the end of human life
on earth. In this way man, as dust, will "return to the ground, for out of
it he was taken": "you are dust, and to dust you shall return" (cf. Gen
3:19).
These words are confirmed generation after generation. They do not mean
that the image and the likeness of God in the human being, whether woman
or man, has been destroyed by sin; they mean rather that it has been
"obscured"[30] and in a sense "diminished." Sin in fact "diminishes" man,
as the Second Vatican Council also recalls.[31] If man is the image and
likeness of God by his very nature as a person, then his greatness and his
dignity are achieved in the covenant with God, in union with him, in
striving towards that fundamental unity which belongs to the internal
"logic" of the very mystery of creation. This unity corresponds to the
profound truth concerning all intelligent creatures and in particular
concerning man, who among all the creatures of the visible world was
elevated from the beginning through the eternal choice of God in Jesus:
"He chose us in (Christ) before the foundation of the world,...He destined
us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose
of his will" (Eph 1:4-6). The biblical teaching taken as a whole enables
us to say that predestination concerns all human persons, men and women,
each and every one without exception.
10. The biblical description in the Book of Genesis outlines the truth
about the consequences of man's sin, as it is shown by the disturbance of
that original relationship between man and woman which corresponds to
their individual dignity as persons. A human being, whether male or
female, is a person, and therefore, "the only creature on earth which God
willed for its own sake"; and at the same time this unique and
unrepeatable creature "cannot fully find himself except through a sincere
gift of self."[32] Here begins the relationship of "communion" in which
the "unity of the two" and the personal dignity of both man and woman find
expression. Therefore when we read in the biblical description the words
addressed to the woman: "Your desire shall be for your husband, and he
shall rule over you" (Gen 3:16), we discover a break and a constant threat
precisely in regard to this "unity of the two" which corresponds to the
dignity of the image and likeness of God in both of them. But this threat
is more serious for the woman, since domination takes the place of "being
a sincere gift" and therefore living "for" the other: "he shall rule over
you." This "domination" indicates the disturbance and loss of the
stability of that fundamental equality which the man and the woman possess
in the "unity of the two": and this is especially to the disadvantage of
the woman, whereas only the equality resulting from their dignity as
persons can give to their mutual relationship the character of an
authentic "communio personarum." While the violation of this equality,
which is both a gift and a right deriving from God the Creator, involves
an element to the disadvantage of the woman, at the same time it also
diminishes the true dignity of the man. Here we touch upon an extremely
sensitive point in the dimension of that "ethos" which was originally
inscribed by the Creator in the very creation of both of them in his own
image and likeness.
This statement in Genesis 3:16 is of great significance. It implies a
reference to the mutual relationship of man and woman in marriage. It
refers to the desire born in the atmosphere of spousal love whereby the
woman's "sincere gift of self" is responded to and matched by a
corresponding "gift" on the part of the husband. Only on the basis of this
principle can both of them, and in particular the woman, "discover
themselves" as a true "unity of the two" according to the dignity of the
person. The matrimonial union requires respect for and a perfecting of the
true personal subjectivity of both of them. The woman cannot become the
"object" of "domination" and male "possession." But the words of the
biblical text directly concern original sin and its lasting consequences
in man and woman. Burdened by hereditary sinfulness, they bear within
themselves the constant "inclination to sin," the tendency to go against
the moral order which corresponds to the rational nature and dignity of
man and woman as persons. This tendency is expressed in a threefold
concupiscence, which St. John defines as the lust of the eyes, the lust of
the flesh, and the pride of life (cf. 1 Jn 2:16). The words of the Book of
Genesis quoted previously (3:16) show how this threefold concupiscence,
the "inclination to sin," will burden the mutual relationship of man and
woman.
These words of Genesis refer directly to marriage, but indirectly they
concern the different spheres of social life: the situations in which the
woman remains disadvantaged or discriminated against by the fact of being
a woman. The revealed truth concerning the creation of the human being as
male and female constitutes the principal argument against all the
objectively injurious and unjust situations which contain and express the
inheritance of the sin which all human beings bear within themselves. The
books of Sacred Scripture confirm in various places the actual existence
of such situations and at the same time proclaim the need for conversion,
that is to say, for purification from evil and liberation from sin: from
what offends neighbor, what "diminishes" man, not only the one who is
offended but also the one who causes the offence. This is the unchangeable
message of the Word revealed by God. In it is expressed the biblical
"ethos" until the end of time.[33]
In our times the question of "women's rights" has taken on new
significance in the broad context of the rights of the human person. The
biblical and evangelical message sheds light on this cause, which is the
object of much attention today, by safeguarding the truth about the
"unity" of the "two," that is to say the truth about that dignity and
vocation that result from the specific diversity and personal originality
of man and woman. Consequently, even the rightful opposition of women to
what is expressed in the biblical words, "He shall rule over you" (Gen
3:16) must not under any condition lead to the "masculinization" of women
In the name of liberation from male "domination," women must not
appropriate to themselves male characteristics contrary to their own
feminine "originality." There is a well-founded fear that if they take
this path, women will not "reach fulfillment," but instead will deform and
lose what constitutes their essential richness. It is indeed an enormous
richness. In the biblical description, the words of the first man at the
sight of the woman who had been created are words of admiration and
enchantment, words which fill the whole history of man on earth.
The personal resources of femininity are certainly no less than the
resources of masculinity: they are merely different. Hence a woman, as
well as a man, must understand her "fulfillment" as a person, her dignity
and vocation, on the basis of these resources, according to the richness
of the femininity which she received on the day of creation and which she
inherits as an expression of the "image and likeness of God" that is
specifically hers. The inheritance of sin suggested by the words of the
Bible--"Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over
you"--can be conquered only by following this path. The overcoming of this
evil inheritance is, generation after generation, the task of every human
being, whether woman or man. For whenever man is responsible for offending
a woman's personal dignity and vocation, he acts contrary to his own
personal dignity and his own vocation.
11. The Book of Genesis attests to the fact that sin is the evil at man's
"beginning" and that since then its consequences weigh upon the whole
human race. At the same time it contains the first foretelling of victory
over evil, over sin. This is proved by the words which we read in Genesis
3:15, usually called the "Proto-evangelium": "I will put enmity between
you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise
your head, and you shall bruise his heel." It is significant that the
foretelling of the Redeemer contained in these words refers to "the
woman." She is assigned the first place in the Proto-evangelium as the
progenitrix of him who will be the Redeemer of man.[34] And since the
redemption is to be accomplished through a struggle against evil--through
the "enmity" between the offspring of the woman and the offspring of him
who, as "the father of lies" (Jn 8:44), is the first author of sin in
human history--it is also an enmity between him and the woman.
These words give us a comprehensive view of the whole of Revelation, first
as a preparation for the Gospel and later as the Gospel itself. From this
vantage point the two female figures, Eve and Mary, are joined under the
name of woman.
The words of the Proto-evangelium, re-read in the light of the New
Testament, express well the mission of woman in the Redeemer's salvific
struggle against the author of evil in human history.
The comparison Eve-Mary constantly recurs in the course of reflection on
the deposit of faith received from divine Revelation. It is one of the
themes frequently taken up by the Fathers, ecclesiastical writers and
theologians.[35] As a rule, from this comparison there emerges at first
sight a difference, a contrast. Eve, as "the mother of all the living"
(Gen 3:20), is the witness to the biblical "beginning," which contains the
truth about the creation of man made in the image and likeness of God and
the truth about original sin. Mary is the witness to the new "beginning"
and the "new creation" (cf. 2 Cor 5:17), since she herself, as the first
of the redeemed in salvation history, is "a new creation": she is "full of
grace." It is difficult to grasp why the words of the Proto-evangelium
place such strong emphasis on the "woman," if it is not admitted that in
her the new and definitive Covenant of God with humanity has its
beginning, the Covenant in the redeeming blood of Christ. The Covenant
begins with a woman, the "woman" of the Annunciation at Nazareth. Herein
lies the absolute originality of the Gospel: many times in the Old
Testament in order to intervene in the history of his people, God
addressed himself to women, as in the case of the mothers of Samuel and
Samson. However, to make his Covenant with humanity, he addressed himself
only to men: Noah, Abraham, and Moses. At the beginning of the New
Covenant, which is to be eternal and irrevocable, there is a woman: the
Virgin of Nazareth. It is a sign that points to the fact that "in Jesus
Christ" "there is neither male nor female" (Gal 3:28). In Christ the
mutual opposition between man and woman--which is the inheritance of
original sin--is essentially overcome. "For you are all one in Jesus
Christ," St. Paul will write (ibid. ).
These words concern that original "unity of the two" which is linked with
the creation of the human being as male and female, made in the image and
likeness of God, and based on the model of that most perfect communion of
Persons which is God himself. St. Paul states that the mystery of man's
redemption in Jesus Christ, the son of Mary, resumes and renews that which
in the mystery of creation corresponded to the eternal design of God the
Creator. Precisely for this reason, on the day of the creation of the
human being as male and female "God saw everything that he had made, and
behold, it was very good" (Gen l:31). The Redemption restores, in a sense
at its very root, the good that was essentially "diminished by sin and its
heritage in human history.
The "woman" of the Proto-evangelium fits into the perspective of the
Redemption. The comparison Eve-Mary can be understood also in the sense
that Mary assumes in herself and embraces the mystery of the "woman" whose
beginning is Eve, "the mother of all the living" (Gen 3:20). First of all
she assumes and embraces it within the mystery of Christ, "the new and the
last Adam" (cf. 1 Cor 15:45), who assumed in his own person the nature of
the first Adam. The essence of the New Covenant consists in the fact that
the Son of God, who is of one substance with the eternal Father, becomes
man: he takes humanity into the unity of the divine Person of the Word.
The one who accomplishes the Redemption is also a true man. The mystery of
the world's Redemption presupposes that God the Son assumed humanity as
the inheritance of Adam, becoming like him and like every man in all
things, "yet without sinning" (Heb 4:15). In this way he "fully reveals
man to himself and makes man's supreme calling clear," as the Second
Vatican Council teaches.[36] In a certain sense, he has helped man to
discover "who he is" (cf. Ps 8:5).
In the tradition of faith and of Christian reflection throughout the ages,
the coupling Adam-Christ is often linked with that of Eve-Mary. If Mary is
described also as the "new Eve," what are the meanings of this analogy?
Certainly there are many. Particularly noteworthy is the meaning which
sees Mary as the full revelation of all that is included in the biblical
word "woman": a revelation commensurate with the mystery of the
Redemption. Mary means, in a sense, a going beyond the limit spoken of in
the Book of Genesis (3:16) and a return to that "beginning" in which one
finds the "woman" as she was intended to be in creation, and therefore in
the eternal mind of God: in the bosom of the Most Holy Trinity. Mary is
"the new beginning" of the dignity and vocation of women, of each and
every woman.[37]
A particular key for understanding this can be found in the words which
the Evangelist puts on Mary's lips after the Annunciation, during her
visit to Elizabeth: "He who is mighty has done great things for me" (Lk
1:49). These words certainly refer to the conception of her Son, who is
the "Son of the Most High" (Lk 1:32), the "holy one" of God; but they can
also signify the discovery of her own feminine humanity. He "has done
great things for me": this is the discovery of all the richness and
personal resources of femininity, all the eternal originality of the
"woman," just as God wanted her to be, a person for her own sake, who
discovers herself "by means of a sincere gift of self."
This discovery is connected with a clear awareness of God's gift, of his
generosity. From the very "beginning" sin had obscured this awareness, in
a sense had stifled it, as is shown in the words of the first temptation
by the "father of lies" (cf. Gen 3:1-5). At the advent of the "fullness of
time" (cf. Gal 4:4), when the mystery of Redemption begins to be fulfilled
in the history of humanity, this awareness bursts forth in all its power
in the words of the biblical "woman" of Nazareth. In Mary, Eve discovers
the nature of the true dignity of woman, of feminine humanity. This
discovery must continually reach the heart of every woman and shape her
vocation and her life.
12. The words of the Proto-evangelium in the Book of Genesis enable us to
move into the context of the Gospel. Man's Redemption, foretold in
Genesis, now becomes a reality in the person and mission of Jesus Christ,
in which we also recognize what the reality of the Redemption means for
the dignity and the vocation of women. This meaning becomes clearer for us
from Christ's words and from his whole attitude towards women, an attitude
which is extremely simple, and for this very reason extraordinary, if seen
against the background of his time. It is an attitude marked by great
clarity and depth. Various women appear along the path of the mission of
Jesus of Nazareth, and his meeting with each of them is a confirmation of
the evangelical "newness of life" already spoken of.
It is universally admitted--even by people with a critical attitude
towards the Christian message--that in the eyes of his contemporaries
Christ became a promoter of women's true dignity and of the vocation
corresponding to this dignity. At times this caused wonder, surprise,
often to the point of scandal: "They marveled that he was talking with a
woman" (Jn 4:27), because this behavior differed from that of his
contemporaries. Even Christ's own disciples "marveled." The Pharisee to
whose house the sinful woman went to anoint Jesus' feet with perfumed oil
"said to himself, 'If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and
what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner'" (Lk
7:39). Even greater dismay, or even "holy indignation," must have filled
the self-satisfied hearers of Christ's words: "the tax collectors and the
harlots go into the Kingdom of God before you" (Mt 21:31).
By speaking and acting in this way, Jesus made it clear that "the
mysteries of the Kingdom" were known to him in every detail. He also "knew
what was in man" (Jn 2:25), in his innermost being, in his "heart." He was
a witness of God's eternal plan for the human being, created in his own
image and likeness as man and woman. He was also perfectly aware of the
consequences of sin, of that "mystery of iniquity" working in human hearts
as the bitter fruit of the obscuring of the divine image. It is truly
significant that in his important discussion about marriage and its
indissolubility, in the presence of "the Scribes," who by profession were
experts in the Law, Jesus makes reference to the "beginning." The question
asked concerns a man's right "to divorce one's wife for any cause" (Mt
19:3) and therefore also concerns the woman's right, her rightful position
in marriage, her dignity. The questioners think they have on their side
the Mosaic legislation then followed in Israel: "Why then did Moses
command one to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?" (Mt
19:7) Jesus answers: "For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to
divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so" (Mt 19:8) .
Jesus appeals to the "beginning"--to the creation of man as male and
female and their ordering by God himself, which is based upon the fact
that both were created "in his image and likeness." Therefore, when "a man
shall leave his father and mother and is joined to his wife, so that the
two become one flesh," there remains in force the law which comes from God
himself: "What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder"
(Mt 19:6).
The principle of this "ethos," which from the beginning marks the reality
of creation, is now confirmed by Christ in opposition to that tradition
which discriminated against women. In this tradition the male "dominated,"
without having proper regard for woman and for her dignity, which the
"ethos" of creation made the basis of the mutual relationships of two
people united in marriage. This "ethos" is recalled and confirmed by
Christ's words; it is the "ethos" of the Gospel and of Redemption.
13. As we scan the pages of the Gospel, many women, of different ages and
conditions, pass before our eyes. We meet women with illnesses or physical
sufferings, such as the one who had "a spirit of infirmity for eighteen
years; she was bent over and could not full straighten herself" (Lk
13:11); or Simon's mother-in-law, who "lay sick with a fever" (Mk 1:30);
or the woman "who had-a flow of blood" (cf. Mk 5:25-34), who could not
touch anyone because it was believed that her touch would make a person
"impure." Each of them was healed, and the last-mentioned--the one with a
flow of blood, who touched Jesus' garment "in the crowd" (Mk 5:27)--was
praised by him for her great faith: "Your faith has made you well" (Mk
5:34). Then there is the daughter of Jairus, whom Jesus brings back to
life, saying to her tenderly: "Little girl, I say to you, rise" (Mk 5:41).
There is also the widow of Naim, whose only son Jesus brings back to life,
accompanying his action by an expression of affectionate mercy: "He had
compassion on her and said to her, 'Do not weep!'" (Lk 7:13) And finally
there is the Canaanite woman, whom Christ extols for her faith, her
humility and for that greatness of spirit of which only a mother's heart
is capable. "O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you
desire" (Mt 15:28). The Canaanite woman was asking for the healing of her
daughter.
Sometimes the women whom Jesus met and who received so many graces from
him, also accompanied him as he journeyed with the Apostles through the
towns and villages, proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom of God; and
they "provided for them out of their means." The Gospel names Joanna, who
was the wife of Herod's steward, Susanna and "many others" (cf. Lk 8:1-3).
Sometimes women appear in the parables which Jesus of Nazareth used to
illustrate for his listeners the truth about the Kingdom of God. This is
the case in the parables of the lost coin (cf. Lk 15:8-10), the leaven
(cf. Mt 13:33), and the wise and foolish virgins (cf. Mt 25:1-13).
Particularly eloquent is the story of the widow's mite. While "the rich
were putting their gifts into the treasury...a poor widow put in two
copper coins." Then Jesus said: "This poor widow has put in more than all
of them...she out of her poverty put in all the living that she had" (Lk
21:1-4). In this way Jesus presents her as a model for everyone and
defends her, for in the sociojuridical system of the time widows were
totally defenseless people (cf. also Lk 18:1-7).
In all of Jesus' teaching, as well as in his behavior, one can find
nothing which reflects the discrimination against women prevalent in his
day. On the contrary, his words and works always express the respect and
honor due to women. The woman with a stoop is called a "daughter of
Abraham" (Lk 13:16), while in the whole Bible the title "son of Abraham"
is used only of men. Walking the Via Dolorosa to Golgotha, Jesus will say
to the women: "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me" (Lk 23:28).
This way of speaking to and about women, as well as his manner of treating
them, clearly constitutes an "innovation" with respect to the prevailing
custom at that time.
This becomes even more explicit in regard to women whom popular opinion
contemptuously labeled sinners, public sinners and adulteresses. There is
the Samaritan woman, to whom Jesus himself says: "For you have had five
husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband." And she,
realizing that he knows the secrets of her life, recognizes him as the
Messiah and runs to tell her neighbors. The conversation leading up to
this realization is one of the most beautiful in the Gospel (cf. Jn
4:7-27).
Then there is the public sinner who, in spite of her condemnation by
common opinion, enters into the house of the Pharisee to anoint the feet
of Jesus with perfumed oil. To his host, who is scandalized by this, he
will say: "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much"
(cf. Lk 7:37-47).
Finally, there is a situation which is perhaps the most eloquent: a woman
caught in adultery is brought to Jesus. To the leading question: "In the
law Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?" Jesus
replies: "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a
stone at her." The power of truth contained in this answer is so great
that "they went away, one by one, beginning with the eldest." Only Jesus
and the woman remain. "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
"No one, Lord." "Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again" (cf.
Jn 8:3-11).
These episodes provide a very clear picture. Christ is the one who "knows
what is in man" (cf. Jn 2:25)--in man and woman. He knows the dignity of
man, his worth in God's eyes. He himself, the Christ, is the definitive
confirmation of this worth. Everything he says and does is definitively
fulfilled in the Paschal Mystery of the Redemption. Jesus' attitude to the
women whom he meets in the course of his Messianic service reflects the
eternal plan of God, who, in creating each one of them, chooses her and
loves her in Christ (cf. Eph 1:1-5). Each woman therefore is "the only
creature on earth which God willed for its own sake." Each of them from
the "beginning" inherits as a woman the dignity of personhood. Jesus of
Nazareth confirms this dignity, recalls it, renews it, and makes it a part
of the Gospel and of the Redemption for which he is sent into the world.
Every word and gesture of Christ about women must therefore he brought
into the dimension of the Paschal Mystery. In this way everything is
completely explained.
14. Jesus enters into the concrete and historical situation of women, a
situation which is weighed down by the inheritance of sin. One of the ways
in which this inheritance is expressed is habitual discrimination against
women in favor of men. This inheritance is rooted within women too. From
this point of view the episode of the woman "caught in adultery" (cf. Jn
8:3-11) is particularly eloquent. In the end Jesus says to her: "Do not
sin again," but first he evokes an awareness of sin in the men who accuse
her in order to stone her, thereby revealing his profound capacity to see
human consciences and actions in their true light. Jesus seems to say to
the accusers: Is not this woman, for all her sin, above all a confirmation
of your own transgressions, of your "male" injustice, your misdeeds?
This truth is valid for the whole human race. The episode recorded in the
Gospel of John is repeated in countless similar situations in every period
of history. A woman is left alone, exposed to public opinion with "her
sin," while behind "her" sin there lurks a man--a sinner, guilty "of the
other's sin," indeed equally responsible for it. And yet his sin escapes
notice, it is passed over in silence: he does not appear to be responsible
for "the other's sin"! Sometimes, forgetting his own sin, he makes himself
the accuser, as in the case described. How often, in a similar way, the
woman pays for her own sin (maybe it is she, in some cases, who is guilty
of the "other's sin"--the sin of the man), but she alone pays and she pays
all alone! How often is she abandoned with her pregnancy, when the man,
the child's father, is unwilling to accept responsibility for it? And
besides the many "unwed mothers" in our society, we also must consider all
those who, as a result of various pressures, even on the part of the
guilty man, very often "get rid of" the child before it is born. "They get
rid of it": but at what price? Public opinion today tries in various ways
to "abolish" the evil of this sin. Normally a woman's conscience does not
let her forget that she has taken the life of her own child, for she
cannot destroy that readiness to accept life which marks her "ethos" from
the "beginning."
The attitude of Jesus in the episode described in John 8:3-11 is
significant. This is one of the few instances in which his power--the
power of truth--is so clearly manifested with regard to human consciences.
Jesus is calm, collected and thoughtful. As in the conversation with the
Pharisees (cf. Mt 19:3-9), is Jesus not aware of being in contact with the
mystery of the "beginning," when man was created male and female, and the
woman was entrusted to the man with her feminine distinctiveness, and with
her potential for motherhood? The man was also entrusted by the Creator to
the woman--they were entrusted to each other as persons made in the image
and likeness of God himself. This entrusting is the test of love, spousal
love. In order to become "a sincere gift" to one another, each of them has
to feel responsible for the gift. This test is meant for both of them--man
and woman--from the "beginning." After original sin, contrary forces are
at work in man and woman as a result of the threefold concupiscence, the
"stimulus of sin." They act from deep within the human being. Thus Jesus
will say in the Sermon on the Mount: "Every one who looks at a woman
lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Mt 5:28).
These words, addressed directly to man, show the fundamental truth of his
responsibility vis-a-vis woman: her dignity, her motherhood, her vocation.
But indirectly these words concern the woman. Christ did everything
possible to ensure that--in the context of the customs and social
relationships of that time--women would find in his teaching and actions
their own subjectivity and dignity. On the basis of the eternal "unity of
the two," this dignity directly depends on woman herself, as a subject
responsible for herself, and at the same time it is "given as a task" to
man. Christ logically appeals to man's responsibility. In the present
meditation on women's dignity and vocation, it is necessary that we refer
to the context which we find in the Gospel. The dignity and the vocation
of women--as well as those of men--find their eternal source in the heart
of God. And in the temporal conditions of human existence, they are
closely connected with the "unity of the two." Consequently each man must
look within himself to see whether she who was entrusted to him as a
sister in humanity, as a spouse, has not become in his heart an object of
adultery; to see whether she who, in different ways, is the co-subject of
his existence in the world, has not become for him an "object": an object
of pleasure, of exploitation.
15. Christ's way of acting, the Gospel of his words and deeds, is a
consistent protest against whatever offends the dignity of women.
Consequently, the women who are close to Christ discover themselves in the
truth which he "teaches" and "does," even when this truth concerns their
"sinfulness." They feel "liberated" by this truth, restored to themselves:
they feel loved with "eternal love," with a love which finds direct
expression in Christ himself. In Christ's sphere of action their position
is transformed. They feel that Jesus is speaking to them about matters
which in those times one did not discuss with a woman. Perhaps the most
significant example of this is the Samaritan woman at the well of Sychar.
Jesus--who knows that she is a sinner and speaks to her about
this--discusses the most profound mysteries of God with her. He speaks to
her of God's infinite gift of love, which is like a "spring of water
welling up to eternal life" (Jn 4:14). He speaks to her about God who is
Spirit, and about the true adoration which the Father has a right to
receive in spirit and truth (cf. Jn 4:24). Finally he reveals to her that
he is the Messiah promised to Israel (cf. Jn 4:26).
This is an event without precedent: that a woman, and what is more a
"sinful woman," becomes a "disciple" of Christ. Indeed, once taught, she
proclaims Christ to the inhabitants of Samaria, so that they too receive
him with faith (cf. Jn 4:39-42). This is an unprecedented even, if one
remembers the usual way women were treated by those who were teachers in
Israel; whereas in Jesus of Nazareth's way of acting such an event becomes
normal. In this regard, the sisters of Lazarus also deserve special
mention: "Jesus loved Martha and her sister (Mary) and Lazarus" (cf. Jn
11:5). Mary "listened to the teaching" of Jesus: when he pays them a
visit, he calls Mary's behavior "the good portion" in contrast to Martha's
preoccupation with domestic matters (cf. Lk 10:38-42). On another
occasion--after the death of Lazarus-- Martha is the one who talks to
Christ, and the conversation concerns the most profound truths of
revelation and faith: "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not
have died." "Your brother will rise again." "I know that he will rise
again in the resurrection at the last day." Jesus said to her: "I am the
resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall
he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you
believe this?" "Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of
God, he who is coming into the world" (Jn 11:21-27). After this profession
of faith Jesus raises Lazarus. This conversation with Martha is one of the
most important in the Gospel.
Christ speaks to women about the things of God, and they understand them;
there is a true resonance of mind and heart, a response of faith. Jesus
expresses appreciation and admiration for this distinctly "feminine"
response, as in the case of the Canaanite woman (cf. Mt 15:28). Sometimes
he presents this lively faith, filled with love, as an example. He
teaches, therefore, taking as his starting-point this feminine response of
mind and heart. This is the case with the "sinful" woman in the Pharisee's
house, whose way of acting is taken by Jesus as the starting-point for
explaining the truth about the forgiveness of sins: "Her sins, which are
many, are forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little,
loves little" (Lk 7:47). On the occasion of another anointing, Jesus
defends the woman and her action before the disciples, Judas in
particular: "Why do you trouble this woman? For she has done a beautiful
thing to me.... In pouring this ointment on my body she has done it to
prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is
preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of
her" (Mt 26:6-13).
Indeed, the Gospels not only describe what that woman did at Bethany in
the house of Simon the Leper; they also highlight the fact that women were
in the forefront at the foot of the Cross, at the decisive moment in Jesus
of Nazareth's whole messianic mission. John was the only Apostle who
remained faithful, but there were many faithful women. Not only the Mother
of Christ and "his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary
Magdalene" (Jn 19:25) were present, but "there were also many women there,
looking on from afar, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to
him" (Mt 27:55). As we see, in this most arduous test of faith and
fidelity the women proved stronger than the Apostles. In this moment of
danger, those who love much succeed in overcoming their fear. Before this
there were the women on the Via Dolorosa, "who bewailed and lamented him"
(Lk 23:27). Earlier still, there was Pilate's wife, who had warned her
husband: "Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered
much over him today in a dream" (Mt 27:19).
16. From the beginning of Christ's mission, women show to him and to his
mystery a special sensitivity which is characteristic of their femininity.
It must also be said that this is especially confirmed in the Paschal
Mystery, not only at the Cross but also at the dawn of the Resurrection.
The women are the first at the tomb. They are the first to find it empty.
They are the first to hear: "He is not here. He has risen, as he said" (Mt
28:6). They are the first to embrace his feet (cf. Mt 28:9). They are also
the first to be called to announce this truth to the Apostles (cf. Mt
28:110; Lk 24:8-11). The Gospel of John (cf. also Mk 16:9) emphasizes the
special role of Mary Magdalene. She is the first to meet the Risen Christ.
At first she thinks he is the gardener; she recognizes him only when he
calls her by name: "Jesus said to her, 'Mary.' She turned and said to him
in Hebrew, 'Rabbuni' (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, 'Do not
hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brethren
and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and to your Father, to my God
and your God.' Mary Magdalene went and said to the disciples, 'I have seen
the Lord'; and she told them that he had said these things to her" (Jn
20:16-18).
Hence she came to be called "the apostle of the Apostles."[38] Mary
Magdalene was the first eyewitness of the Risen Christ, and for this
reason she was also the first to bear witness to him before the Apostles.
This event, in a sense, crowns all that has been said previously about
Christ entrusting divine truths to women as well as men. One can say that
this fulfilled the words of the Prophet: "I will pour out my spirit on all
flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy" (Jl 3:1). On the
fiftieth day after Christ's Resurrection, these words are confirmed once
more in the Upper Room in Jerusalem, at the descent of the Holy Spirit,
the Paraclete (cf. Act 2:17).
Everything that has been said so far about Christ's attitude to women
confirms and clarifies, in the Holy Spirit, the truth about the equality
of man and woman. One must speak of an essential "equality," since both of
them--the woman as much as the man--are created in the image and likeness
of God. Both of them are equally capable of receiving the outpouring of
divine truth and love in the Holy Spirit. Both receive his salvific and
sanctifying "visits."
The fact of being a man or a woman involves no limitation here, just as
the salvific and sanctifying action of the Spirit in man is in no way
limited by the fact that one is a Jew or a Greek, slave or free, according
to the well-known words of St. Paul: "For you are all one in Christ Jesus"
(Gal 3:28). This unity does not cancel out diversity. The Holy Spirit, who
brings about this unity in the supernatural order of sanctifying grace,
contributes in equal measure to the fact that "your sons will prophesy"
and that "your daughters will prophesy." "To prophesy" means to express by
one's words and one's life "the mighty works of God" (Acts 2:11),
preserving the truth and originality of each person, whether woman or man.
Gospel "equality," the "equality" of women and men in regard to the
"mighty works of God"-- manifested so clearly in the words and deeds of
Jesus of Nazareth--constitutes the most obvious basis for the dignity and
vocation of women in the Church and in the world. Every vocation has a
profoundly personal and prophetic meaning. In "vocation" understood in
this way, what is personally feminine reaches a new dimension: the
dimension of the "mighty works of God," of which the woman becomes the
living subject and an irreplaceable witness.
17. We must now focus our meditation on virginity and motherhood as two
particular dimensions of the fulfillment of the female personality. In the
light of the Gospel, they acquire their full meaning and value in Mary,
who as a Virgin became the Mother of the Son of God. These two dimensions
of the female vocation were united in her in an exceptional manner, in
such a way that one did not exclude the other but wonderfully complemented
it. The description of the Annunciation in the Gospel of Luke clearly
shows that this seemed impossible to the Virgin of Nazareth. When she
hears the words: "You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you
shall call his name Jesus," she immediately asks: "How can this be, since
I have no husband?" (Lk 1:31, 34) In the usual order of things motherhood
is the result of mutual "knowledge" between a man and woman in the
marriage union. Mary, firm in her resolve to preserve her virginity, -puts
this question to the divine messenger, and obtains from him the
explanation: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you"-- your motherhood will
not be the consequence of matrimonial "knowledge," but will be the work of
the Holy Spirit; the "power of the Most High" will "overshadow" the
mystery of the Son's conception and birth; as the Son of the Most High, he
is given to you exclusively by God, in a manner known to God. Mary,
therefore, maintained her virginal "I have no husband" (cf. Lk 1:34) and
at the same time became a Mother. Virginity and motherhood co-exist in
her: they do not mutually exclude each other or place limits on each
other. Indeed, the person of the mother of God helps everyone--especially
women--to see how these two dimensions, these two paths in the vocation of
women as persons, explain and complete each other.
18. In order to share in this "vision," we must once again seek a deeper
understanding of the truth about the human person recalled by the Second
Vatican Council. The human being--both male and female--is the only being
in the world which God willed for its own sake. The human being is a
person, a subject who decides for himself. At the same time, man "cannot
fully find himself except through a sincere gift of self."[39] It has
already been said that this description, indeed this definition of the
person, corresponds to the fundamental biblical truth about the creation
of the human being--man and woman--in the image and likeness of God. This
is not a purely theoretical interpretation, nor an abstract definition,
for it gives an essential indication of what it means to be human, while
emphasizing the value of the gift of self, the gift of the person. In this
vision of the person we also find the essence of that "ethos" which,
together with the truth of creation, will be fully developed by the books
of Revelation, particularly the Gospels.
This truth about the person also opens up the path to a full understanding
of women's motherhood. Motherhood is the fruit of the marriage union of a
man and woman, of that biblical "knowledge" which corresponds to the
"union of the two in one flesh" (cf. Gen 2:24). This brings about--on the
woman's part--a special "gift of self," as an expression of that spousal
love whereby the two are united to each other so closely that they become
"one flesh." Biblical "knowledge" is achieved in accordance with the truth
of the person only when the mutual self giving is not distorted either by
the desire of the man to become the "master" of his wife ("he shall rule
over you") or by the woman remaining closed within her own instincts
("your desire shall be for your husband," Gen 3:16).
This mutual gift of the person in marriage opens to the gift of a new
life, a new human being, who is also a person in the likeness of his
parents. Motherhood implies from the beginning a special openness to the
new person: and this is precisely the woman's "part." In this openness, in
conceiving and giving birth to a child, the woman "discovers herself
through a sincere gift of self." The gift of interior readiness to accept
the child and bring it into the world is linked to the marriage union,
which--as mentioned earlier--should constitute a special moment in the
mutual self-giving both by the woman and the man. According to the Bible,
the conception and birth of a new human being are accompanied by the
following words of the woman: "I have brought a man into being with the
help of the Lord" (Gen 4:1). This exclamation of Eve, the "mother of all
the living" is repeated every time a new human being comes into the world.
It expresses the woman's joy and awareness that she is sharing in the
great mystery of eternal generation. The spouses share in the creative
power of God!
The woman's motherhood in the period between the baby's conception and
birth is a biophysiological and psychological process which is better
understood in our days than in the past, and is the subject of many
detailed studies. Scientific analysis fully confirms that the very
physical constitution of women is naturally disposed to
motherhood--conception, pregnancy and giving birth--which is a consequence
of the marriage union with the man. At the same time, this also
corresponds to the psycho-physical structure of women. What the different
branches of science have to say on this subject is important and useful,
provided that it is not limited to an exclusively biophysiological
interpretation of women and of motherhood. Such a "restricted" picture
would go hand in hand with a materialistic concept of the human being and
of the world. In such a case, what is truly essential would unfortunately
be lost. Motherhood as a human fact and phenomenon is fully explained on
the basis of the truth about the person. Motherhood is linked to the
personal structure of the woman and to the personal dimension of the gift:
"I have brought a man into being with the help of the Lord" (Gen 4:1). The
Creator grants the parents the gift of a child. On the woman's part, this
fact is linked in a special way to "a sincere gift of self." Mary's words
at the Annunciation--"Let it be to me according to your word" signify the
woman's readiness for the gift of self and her readiness to accept a new
life.
The eternal mystery of generation, which is in God himself, the one and
Triune God (cf. Eph 3:14-15), is reflected in the woman's motherhood and
in the man's fatherhood. Human parenthood is something shared by both the
man and the woman. Even if the woman, out of love for her husband, says:
"I have given you a child," her words also mean: "This is our child."
Although both of them together are parents of their child, the woman's
motherhood constitutes a special 'part" in this shared parenthood, and the
most demanding part. Parenthood--even though it belongs to both--is
realized much more fully in the woman, especially in the prenatal period.
It is the woman who "pays" directly for this shared generation, which
literally absorbs the energies of her body and soul. It is therefore
necessary that the man be fully aware that in their shared parenthood he
owes a special debt to the woman. No program of "equal rights" between
women and men is valid unless it takes this fact fully into account.
Motherhood involves a special communion with the mystery of life, as it
develops in the woman's womb. The mother is filled with wonder at this
mystery of life, and "understands" with unique intuition what is happening
inside her. In the light of the "beginning," the mother accepts and loves
as a person the child she is carrying in her womb. This unique contact
with the new human being developing within her gives rise to an attitude
towards human beings--not only towards her own child, but every human
being--which profoundly marks the woman's personality. It is commonly
thought that women are more capable than men of paying attention to
another person, and that motherhood develops this predisposition even
more. The man--even with all his sharing in parenthood--always remains
"outside" the process of pregnancy and the baby's birth; in many ways he
has to learn his own "fatherhood" from the mother. One can say that this
is part of the normal human dimension of parenthood, including the stages
that follow the birth of the baby, especially the initial period. The
child's upbringing, taken as a whole, should include the contribution of
both parents: the maternal and paternal contribution. In any event, the
mother's contribution is decisive in laying the foundation for a new human
personality.
19. Our reflection returns to the biblical exemplar of the "woman" in the
Proto-evangelium. The "woman," as mother and first teacher of the human
being (education being the spiritual dimension of parenthood), has a
specific precedence over the man. Although motherhood, especially in the
bio-physical sense, depends upon the man, it places an essential "mark" on
the whole personal growth process of new children. Motherhood in the
bio-physical sense appears to be passive: the formation process of a new
life "takes place" in her, in her body, which is nevertheless profoundly
involved in that process. At the same time, motherhood in its
personal-ethical sense expresses a very important creativity on the part
of the woman, upon whom the very humanity of the new human being mainly
depends. In this sense too the woman's motherhood presents a special call
and a special challenge to the man and to his fatherhood.
The biblical exemplar of the "woman" finds its culmination in the
motherhood of the Mother of God. The words of the Proto-evangelium--"I
will put enmity between you and the woman"--find here a fresh
confirmation. We see that through Mary--through her maternal "fiat," ("Let
it be done to me")--God begins a New Covenant with humanity. This is the
eternal and definitive Covenant in Christ, in his body and blood, in his
Cross and Resurrection. Precisely because this Covenant is to be fulfilled
"in flesh and blood," its beginning is in the Mother. Thanks solely to her
and to her virginal and maternal "fiat," the "Son of the Most High" can
say to the Father: "A body you have prepared for me. Lo, I have come to do
your will, O God" (cf. Heb 10:5, 7).
Motherhood has been introduced into the order of the Covenant that God
made with humanity in Jesus Christ. Each and every time that motherhood is
repeated in human history, it is always related to the Covenant which God
established with the human race through the motherhood of the Mother of
God.
Does not Jesus bear witness to this reality when he answers the
exclamation of that woman in the crowd who blessed him for Mary's
motherhood: "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you
sucked!"? Jesus replies: "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of
God and keep it" (Lk 11:27-28). Jesus confirms the meaning of motherhood
in reference to the body, but at the same time he indicates an even deeper
meaning, which is connected with the order of the spirit: it is a sign of
the Covenant with God who "is spirit" (Jn 4:24). This is true above all
for the motherhood of the Mother of God. The motherhood of every woman,
understood in the light of the Gospel, is similarly not only "of flesh and
blood": it expresses a profound "listening to the word of the living God"
and a readiness to "safeguard" this Word, which is "the word of eternal
life' (cf. Jn 6:68). For it is precisely those born of earthly mothers,
the sons and daughters of the human race, who receive from the Son of God
the power to become "children of God" (Jn 1:12). A dimension of the New
Covenant in Christ's blood enters into human parenthood, making it a
reality and a task for "new creatures" (cf. 2 Cor 5:17). The history of
every human being passes through the threshold of a woman's motherhood;
crossing it conditions "the revelation of the children of God" (cf. Rom
8:19).
"When a woman is in travail she has sorrow, because her hour has come; but
when she is delivered of the child, she no longer remembers the anguish,
for joy that a child is born into the world" (Jn 16:21). The first part of
Christ's words refers to the "pangs of childbirth" which belong to the
heritage of original sin; at the same time these words indicate the link
that exists between the woman's motherhood and the Paschal Mystery. For
this mystery also includes the Mother's sorrow at the foot of the
Cross--the Mother who through faith shares in the amazing mystery of her
Son's "self-emptying": "This is perhaps the deepest 'kenosis' of faith in
human history."[40]
As we contemplate this Mother, whose heart "a sword has pierced" (cf. Lk
2:35), our thoughts go to all the suffering women in the world, suffering
either physically or morally. In this suffering a woman's sensitivity
plays a role, even though she often succeeds in resisting suffering better
than a man. It is difficult to enumerate these sufferings; it is difficult
to call them all by name. We may recall her maternal care for her
children, especially when they fall sick or fall into bad ways; the death
of those most dear to her; the loneliness of mothers forgotten by their
grown-up children; the loneliness of widows; the sufferings of women who
struggle alone to make a living; and women who have been wronged or
exploited. Then there are the sufferings of consciences as a result of
sin, which has wounded the woman's human or maternal dignity: the wounds
of consciences which do not heal easily. With these sufferings too we must
place ourselves at the foot of the Cross.
But the words of the Gospel about the woman who suffers when the time
comes for her to give birth to her child, immediately afterwards express
it is "the joy that a child is born into the world." This joy too is
referred to the Paschal Mystery, to the joy which is communicated to the
Apostles on the day of Christ's Resurrection: "So you have sorrow now"
(these words were said the day before the Passion); "but I will see you
again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from
you" (Jn 16:22-23).
20. In the teaching of Christ, motherhood is connected with virginity, but
also distinct from it. Fundamental to this is Jesus' statement in the
conversation on the indissolubility of marriage. Having heard the answer
given to the Pharisees, the disciples say to Christ: "If such is the case
of a man with his wife, it is not expedient to marry" (Mt 19:10).
Independently of the meaning which "it is not expedient" had at that time
in the mind of the disciples, Christ takes their mistaken opinion as a
starting point for instructing them on the value of celibacy. He
distinguishes celibacy which results from natural defects--even though
they may have been caused by man--from "celibacy for the sake of the
Kingdom of heaven." Christ says, "and there are eunuchs who have made
themselves eunuchs for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven" (Mt 19:12). It
is, then, a voluntary celibacy, chosen for the sake of the Kingdom of
heaven, in view of man's eschatological vocation to union with God. He
then adds: "He who is able to receive this, let him receive it." These
words repeat what he had said at the beginning of the discourse on
celibacy (cf. Mt 19:11). Consequently, celibacy for the Kingdom of heaven
results not only from a free choice on the part of man, but also from a
special grace on the part of God, who calls a particular person to live
celibacy. While this is a special sign of the Kingdom of God to come, it
also serves as a way to devote all the energies of soul and body during
one's earthly life exclusively for the sake of the eschatological kingdom.
Jesus' words are the answer to the disciples' question. They are addressed
directly to those who put the question: in this case they were men.
Nevertheless, Christ's answer, in itself, has a value for men and for
women. In this context it indicates the evangelical ideal of virginity, an
ideal which constitutes a clear "innovation" with respect to the tradition
of the Old Testament. Certainly that tradition was connected in some way
with Israel's expectation of the Messiah's coming, especially among the
women of Israel from whom he was to be born. In fact, the ideal of
celibacy and virginity for the sake of greater closeness to God was not
entirely foreign to certain Jewish circles, especially in the period
immediately preceding the coming of Jesus. Nevertheless, celibacy for the
sake of the Kingdom, or rather virginity, is undeniably an innovation
connected with the incarnation of God.
From the moment of Christ's coming, the expectation of the People of God
has to be directed to the eschatological Kingdom which is coming and to
which he must lead "the new Israel." A new awareness of faith is essential
for such a turnabout and change of values. Christ emphasizes this twice:
"He who is able to receive this, let him receive it." Only "those to whom
it is given" understand it (Mt 19:11). Mary is the first person in whom
this new awareness is manifested, for she asks the Angel: "How can this
be, since I have no husband?" (Lk 1:34) Even though she is "betrothed to a
man whose name was Joseph" (cf. Lk 1:27), she is firm in her resolve to
remain a virgin. The motherhood which is accomplished in her comes
exclusively from the "power of the Most High," and is the result of the
Holy Spirit's coming down upon her (cf. Lk 1:35). This divine motherhood,
therefore, is an altogether unforeseen response to the human expectation
of women in Israel; it comes to Mary as a gift from God himself. This gift
is the beginning and the prototype of a new expectation on the part of
all. It measures up to the Eternal Covenant, to God's new and definitive
promise: it is a sign of eschatological hope.
On the basis of the Gospel, the meaning of virginity was developed and
better understood as a vocation for women too, one in which their dignity,
like that of the Virgin of Nazareth, finds confirmation. The Gospel puts
forward the ideal of the consecration of the person, that is, the person's
exclusive dedication to God by virtue of the evangelical counsels: in
particular, chastity, poverty and obedience. Their perfect incarnation is
Jesus Christ himself. Whoever wishes to follow him in a radical way
chooses to live according to these counsels. They are distinct from the
commandments and show the Christian the radical way of the Gospel. From
the very beginning of Christianity men and women have set out on this
path, since the evangelical ideal is addressed to human beings without any
distinction of sex.
In this wider context, virginity has to be considered also as a path for
women, a path on which they realize their womanhood in a way different
from marriage. In order to understand this path, it is necessary to refer
once more to the fundamental idea of Christian anthropology. By freely
choosing virginity, women confirm themselves as persons, as beings whom
the Creator from the beginning has willed for their own sake.[41] At the
same time they realize the personal value of their own femininity by
becoming "a sincere gift" for God who has revealed himself in Christ, a
gift for Christ, the Redeemer of humanity and the Spouse of souls: a
"spousal" gift. One cannot correctly understand virginity--a woman's
consecration in virginity--without referring to spousal love. It is
through this kind of love that a person becomes a gift for the other.[42]
Moreover, a man's consecration in priestly celibacy or in the religious
state is to be understood analogously.
The naturally spousal predisposition of the feminine personality finds a
response in virginity understood in this way. Women, called from the very
"beginning" to be loved and to love, in a vocation to virginity find
Christ first of all as the Redeemer who "loved until the end" through his
total gift of self; and they respond to this gift with a "sincere gift" of
their whole lives. They thus give themselves to the divine Spouse, and
this personal gift tends to union, which is properly spiritual in
character. Through the Holy Spirit's action a woman becomes "one spirit"
with Christ the Spouse (cf. 1 Cor 6:17).
This is the evangelical ideal of virginity, in which both the dignity and
the vocation of women are realized in a special way. In virginity thus
understood the so-called radicalism of the Gospel finds expression: "Leave
everything and follow Christ" (cf. Mt 19:27). This cannot be compared to
remaining simply unmarried or single, because virginity is not restricted
to a mere "no," but contains a profound "yes" in the spousal order: the
gift of self for love in a total and undivided manner.
21. Virginity according to the Gospel means renouncing marriage and thus
physical motherhood. Nevertheless, the renunciation of this kind of
motherhood, a renunciation that can involve great sacrifice for a woman,
makes possible a different kind of motherhood: motherhood "according to
the Spirit" (cf. Rom 8:4). For virginity does not deprive a woman of her
prerogatives. Spiritual motherhood takes on many different forms. In the
life of consecrated women, for example, who live according to the charism
and the rules of the various Apostolic Institutes, it can express itself
as concern for people, especially the most needy: the sick, the
handicapped, the abandoned, orphans, the elderly, children, young people,
the imprisoned and, in general, people on the margins of society. In this
way a consecrated woman finds her Spouse, different and the same in each
and every person, according to his very words: "As you did it to one of
the least of these my brethren, you did it to me" (Mt 25:40).
Spousal love always involves a special readiness to be poured out for the
sake of those who come within one's range of activity. In marriage this
readiness, even though open to all, consists mainly in the love that
parents give to their children. In virginity this readiness is open to all
people, who are embraced by the love of Christ the Spouse.
Spousal love--with its maternal potential hidden in the heart of the woman
as a virginal bride--when joined to Christ, the Redeemer of each and every
person, is also predisposed to being open to each and every person. This
is confirmed in the religious communities of apostolic life, and in a
different way in communities of contemplative life, or the cloister. There
exist still other forms of a vocation to virginity for the sake of the
Kingdom; for example, the Secular Institutes, or the communities of
consecrated persons which flourish within movements, groups and
associations. In all of these the same truth about the spiritual
motherhood of virgins is confirmed in various ways. However, it is not
only a matter of communal forms but also of non-communal forms. In brief,
virginity as a woman's vocation is always the vocation of a person--of a
unique, individual person. Therefore the spiritual motherhood which makes
itself felt in this vocation is also profoundly personal.
This is also the basis of a specific convergence between the virginity of
the unmarried woman and the motherhood of the married woman. This
convergence moves not only from motherhood towards virginity, as
emphasized above; it also moves from virginity towards marriage, the form
of woman's vocation in which she becomes a mother by giving birth to her
children. The starting point of this second analogy is the meaning of
marriage. A woman is "married" either through the sacrament of marriage or
spiritually through marriage to Christ. In both cases marriage signifies
the "sincere gift of the person" of the bride to the groom. In this way,
one can say that the profile of marriage is found spiritually in
virginity. And does not physical motherhood also have to be a spiritual
motherhood, in order to respond to the whole truth about the human being
who is a unity of body and spirit? Thus there exist many reasons for
discerning in these two different paths--the two different vocations of
women--a profound complementarity, and even a profound union within a
person's being.
22. The Gospel reveals and enables us to understand precisely this mode of
being of the human person. The Gospel helps every woman and every man to
live it and thus attain fulfillment. There exists a total equality with
respect to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, with respect to the "mighty works
of God" (Acts 2:11). Moreover, it is precisely in the face of the "mighty
works of God" that St. Paul, as a man, feels the need to refer to what is
essentially feminine in order to express the truth about his own apostolic
service. This is exactly what Paul of Tarsus does when he addresses the
Galatians with the words: "My little children, with whom I am again in
travail" (Gal 4:19). In the First Letter to the Corinthians (7:38), St.
Paul proclaims the superiority of virginity over marriage, which is a
constant teaching of the Church in accordance with the spirit of Christ's
words recorded in the Gospel of Matthew (19:10-12); he does so without in
any way obscuring the importance of physical and spiritual motherhood.
Indeed in order to illustrate the Church's fundamental mission, he finds
nothing better than the reference to motherhood.
The same analogy--and the same truth--are present in the Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church. Mary is the figure" of the Church[43]: "For in
the mystery of the Church, herself rightly called mother and virgin, the
Blessed Virgin came first as an eminent and singular exemplar of both
virginity and motherhood.... The Son whom she brought forth is he whom God
placed as the firstborn among many brethren (cf. Rom 8:29), namely, among
the faithful. In their birth and development she cooperates with a
maternal love."[44] "Moreover, contemplating Mary's mysterious sanctity,
imitating her charity, and faithfully fulfilling the Father's will, the
Church herself becomes a mother by accepting God's word in faith. For by
her preaching and by baptism she brings forth to a new and immortal life
children who are conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of God."[45] This
is motherhood "according to the Spirit" with regard to the sons and
daughters of the human race. And this motherhood--as already
mentioned--becomes the woman's "role" also in virginity. "The Church
herself is a virgin, who keeps whole and pure the fidelity she has pledged
to her Spouse."[46] This is most perfectly fulfilled in Mary.
The Church, therefore, "imitating the Mother of her Lord, and by the power
of the Holy Spirit,...preserves with virginal purity an integral faith, a
firm hope, and a sincere charity."[47]
The Council has confirmed that, unless one looks to the Mother of God, it
is impossible to understand the mystery of the Church, her reality, her
essential vitality. Indirectly we find here a reference to the biblical
exemplar of the "woman" which is already clearly outlined in the
description of the "beginning" (cf. Gen 3:15) and which proceeds from
creation, through sin to the Redemption. In this way there is a
confirmation of the profound union between what is human and what
constitutes the divine economy of salvation in human history. The Bible
convinces us of the fact that one can have no adequate hermeneutic of man,
or of what is "human," without appropriate reference to what is
"feminine." There is an analogy in God's salvific economy: if we wish to
understand it fully in relation to the whole of human history, we cannot
omit, in the perspective of our faith, the mystery of "woman":
virgin-mother-spouse.
23. Of fundamental importance here are the words of the Letter to the
Ephesians: "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave
himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the
washing of water with the word, that he might present the Church to
himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she
might be holy and without blemish. Even so husbands should love their
wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no man
ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does
the Church, because we are members of his body. 'For this reason a man
shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two
shall become one flesh.' This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying
that it refers to Christ and the Church" (5:25-32).
In this Letter the author expresses the truth about the Church as the
bride of Christ, and also indicates how this truth is rooted in the
biblical reality of the creation of the human being as male and female.
Created in the image and likeness of God as a "unity of the two," both
have been called to a spousal love. Following the description of creation
in the Book of Genesis (2:18-25), one can also say that this fundamental
call appears in the creation of woman, and is inscribed by the Creator in
the institution of marriage, which, according to Genesis 2:24, has the
character of a union of persons ("communio personarum") from the very
beginning. Although not directly, the very description of the "beginning"
(cf. Gen 1:27; 2:24) shows that the whole "ethos" of mutual relations
between men and women has to correspond to the personal truth of their
being.
All this has already been considered. The Letter to the Ephesians once
again confirms this truth, while at the same time comparing the spousal
character of the love between man and woman to the mystery of Christ and
of the Church. Christ is the Bridegroom of the Church-- the Church is the
Bride of Christ. This analogy is not without precedent; it transfers to
the New Testament what was already contained in the Old Testament,
especially in the prophets Hosea, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Isaiah.[48] The
respective passages deserve a separate analysis. Here we will cite only
one text. This is how God speaks to his Chosen People through the Prophet:
"Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will
not be put to shame; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the
reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. For your Maker is
your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is
your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.
For the Lord has called you like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit,
like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God. For a brief
moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In
overflowing wrath for a moment I hid my face from you, but with
everlasting love I will have compassion on you, says the Lord, your
Redeemer....For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my
steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall
not be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you" (Is 54:4-8, 10)
.
Since the human being--man and woman--has been created in God's image and
likeness, God can speak about himself through the lips of the Prophet
using language which is essentially human. In the text of Isaiah quoted
above, the expression of God's love is "human," but the love itself is
divine. Since it is God's love, its spousal character is properly divine,
even though it is expressed by the analogy of a man's love for a woman.
The woman-bride is Israel, God's Chosen People, and this choice originates
exclusively in God's gratuitous love. It is precisely this love which
explains the Covenant, a Covenant often presented as a marriage covenant
which God always renews with his Chosen People. On the part of God the
Covenant is a lasting "commitment"; he remains faithful to his spousal
love even if the bride often shows herself to be unfaithful.
This image of spousal love, together with the figure of the divine
Bridegroom--a very clear image in the texts of the Prophets--finds
crowning confirmation in the Letter to the Ephesians (5:23-32). Christ is
greeted as the bridegroom by John the Baptist (cf. Jn 3:27-29). Indeed
Christ applies to himself this comparison drawn from the Prophets (cf. Mk
2:19-20). The Apostle Paul, who is a bearer of the Old Testament heritage,
writes to the Corinthians: "I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I
betrothed you to Christ to present you as a pure bride to her one husband"
(2 Cor 11:2). But the fullest expression of the truth about Christ the
Redeemer's love, according to the analogy of spousal love in marriage, is
found in the Letter to the Ephesians: "Christ loved the Church and gave
himself up for her" (5:25), thereby fully confirming the fact that the
Church is the bride of Christ: "The Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer"
(Is 54:5). In St. Paul's text the analogy of the spousal relationship
moves simultaneously in two directions which make up the whole of the
"great mystery" ("sacramentum magnum"). The covenant proper to spouses
"explains" the spousal character of the union of Christ with the Church,
and in its turn this union, as a "great sacrament," determines the
sacramentality of marriage as a holy covenant between the two spouses, man
and woman. Reading this rich and complex passage, which taken as a whole
is a great analogy, we must distinguish that element which expresses the
human reality of interpersonal relations from that which expresses in
symbolic language the "great mystery" which is divine.
24. The text is addressed to the spouses as real women and men. It reminds
them of the "ethos" of spousal love which goes back to the divine
institution of marriage from the "beginning." Corresponding to the truth
of this institution is the exhortation: "Husbands, love your wives," love
them because of that special and unique bond whereby in marriage a man and
a woman become "one flesh" (Gen 2:24; Eph 5:31). In this love there is a
fundamental affirmation of the woman as a person. This affirmation makes
it possible for the female personality to develop fully and be enriched.
This is precisely the way Christ acts as the bridegroom of the Church; he
desires that she be "in splendor, without spot or wrinkle" (Eph 5:27). One
can say that this fully captures the whole "style" of Christ in dealing
with women. Husbands should make their own the elements of this style in
regard to their wives; analogously, all men should do the same in regard
to women in every situation. In this way both men and women bring about
"the sincere gift of self."
The author of the Letter to the Ephesians sees no contradiction between an
exhortation formulated in this way and the words: "Wives, be subject to
your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife"
(5:22-23). The author knows that this way of speaking, so profoundly
rooted in the customs and religious tradition of the time, is to be
understood and carried out in a new way: as a "mutual subjection out of
reverence for Christ" (cf. Eph 5:21). This is especially true because the
husband is called the "head" of the wife as Christ is the head of the
Church; he is so in order to give "himself up for her" (Eph 5:25), and
giving himself up for her means giving up even his own life. However,
whereas in the relationship between Christ and the Church the subjection
is only on the part of the Church, in the relationship between husband and
wife the "subjection" is not one-sided but mutual.
In relation to the "old" this is evidently something "new": it is an
innovation of the Gospel. We find various passages in which the apostolic
writings express this innovation, even though they also communicate what
is "old": what is rooted in the religious tradition of Israel, in its way
of understanding and explaining the sacred texts, as for example the
second chapter of the Book of Genesis.[49]
The apostolic letters are addressed to people living in an environment
marked by that same traditional way of thinking and acting. The
"innovation" of Christ is a fact: it constitutes the unambiguous content
of the evangelical message and is the result of the Redemption. However,
the awareness that in marriage there is mutual "subjection of the spouses
out of reverence for Christ," and not just that of the wife to the
husband, must gradually establish itself in hearts, consciences, behavior
and customs. This is a call which from that time onwards does not cease to
challenge succeeding generations; it is a call which people have to accept
ever anew. St. Paul not only wrote: "In Christ Jesus...there is no more
man or woman," but also wrote: "There is no more slave or freeman." Yet
how many generations were needed for such a principle to be realized in
the history of humanity through the abolition of slavery! And what is one
to say of the many forms of slavery to which individuals and peoples are
subjected, which have not yet disappeared from history?
But the challenge presented by the "ethos" of the Redemption is clear and
definitive. All the reasons in favor of the "subjection" of woman to man
in marriage must be understood in the sense of a "mutual subjection" of
both "out of reverence for Christ." The measure of true spousal love finds
its deepest source in Christ, who is the Bridegroom of the Church, his
Bride.
25. In the Letter to the Ephesians we encounter a second dimension of the
analogy which, taken as a whole, serves to reveal the "great mystery."
This is a symbolic dimension. If God's love for the human person, for the
Chosen People of Israel, is presented by the Prophets as the love of the
bridegroom for the bride, such an analogy expresses the "spousal" quality
and the divine and non-human character of God's love: "For your Maker is
your husband...the God of the whole earth he is called" (Is 54:5). The
same can also be said of the spousal love of Christ the Redeemer: "For God
so loved the world that he gave his only son" (Jn 3:16). It is a matter,
therefore, of God's love expressed by means of the Redemption accomplished
by Christ. According to St. Paul's Letter, this love is "like" the spousal
love of human spouses, but naturally it is not "the same." For the analogy
implies a likeness, while at the same time leaving ample room for
non-likeness.
This is easily seen in regard to the person of the "bride." According to
the Letter to the Ephesians, the bride is the Church, just as for the
Prophets the bride was Israel. She is therefore a collective subject and
not an individual person. This collective subject is the People of God, a
community made up of many persons, both women and men. "Christ has loved
the Church" precisely as a community, as the People of God. At the same
time, in this Church, which in the same passage is also called his "body"
(cf. Eph 5:23), he has loved every individual person. For Christ has
redeemed all without exception, every man and woman. It is precisely this
love of God which is expressed in the Redemption; the spousal character of
this love reaches completion in the history of humanity and of the world.
Christ has entered this history and remains in it as the Bridegroom who
"has given himself." "To give" means "to become a sincere gift" in the
most complete and radical way: "Greater love has no man than this" (Jn
15:13). According to this conception, all human beings--both women and
men--are called through the Church, to be the "Bride" of Christ, the
Redeemer of the world. In this way "being the bride," and thus the
"feminine" element, becomes a symbol of all that is "human," according to
the words of Paul: "There is neither male nor female; for you are all one
in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28).
From a linguistic viewpoint we can say that the analogy of spousal love
found in the Letter to the Ephesians links what is "masculine" to what is
"feminine," since, as members of the Church, men too are included in the
concept of "Bride." This should not surprise us, for St. Paul, in order to
express his mission in Christ and in the Church, speaks of the "little
children with whom he is again in travail" (cf. Gal 4:19). In the sphere
of what is "human"--of what is humanly personal--"masculinity" and
"femininity" are distinct, yet at the same time they complete and explain
each other. This is also present in the great analogy of the "Bride" in
the Letter to the Ephesians. In the Church every human being--male and
female--is the "Bride," in that he or she accepts the gift of the love of
Christ the Redeemer, and seeks to respond to it with the gift of his or
her own person.
Christ is the Bridegroom. This expresses the truth about the love of God
who "first loved us" (cf. 1 Jn 4:19) and who, with the gift generated by
this spousal love for man, has exceeded all human expectations: "He loved
them to the end" (Jn 13:1). The Bridegroom--the Son consubstantial with
the Father as God--became the Son of Mary; he became the "son of man,"
true man, a male. The symbol of the Bridegroom is masculine. This
masculine symbol represents the human aspect of the divine love which God
has for Israel, for the Church, and for all people. Meditating on what the
Gospels say about Christ's attitude towards women, we can conclude that as
a man, a son of Israel, he revealed the dignity of the "daughters of
Abraham" (cf. Lk 13:16), the dignity belonging to women from the very
"beginning" on an equal footing with men. At the same time Christ
emphasized the originality which distinguishes women from men, all the
richness lavished upon women in the mystery of creation. Christ's attitude
towards women serves as a model of what the Letter to the Ephesians
expresses with the concept of "bridegroom." Precisely because Christ's
divine love is the love of a Bridegroom, it is the model and pattern of
all human love, men's love in particular.
26. Against the broad background of the "great mystery" expressed in the
spousal relationship between Christ and the Church, it is possible to
understand adequately the calling of the "Twelve." In calling only men as
his Apostles, Christ acted in a completely free and sovereign manner. In
doing so, he exercised the same freedom with which, in all his behavior,
he emphasized the dignity and the vocation of women, without conforming to
the prevailing customs and to the traditions sanctioned by the legislation
of the time. Consequently, the assumption that he called men to be
apostles in order to conform with the widespread mentality of his times,
does not at all correspond to Christ's way of acting. "Teacher, we know
that you are true, and teach the way of God truthfully, and care for no
man; for you do not regard the position of men" (Mt 22:16). These words
fully characterize Jesus of Nazareth's behavior. Here one also finds an
explanation for the calling of the "Twelve." They are with Christ at the
Last Supper. They alone receive the sacramental charge, "Do this in
remembrance of me" (Lk 22:19; 1 Cor 11:24), which is joined to the
institution of the Eucharist. On Easter Sunday night they receive the Holy
Spirit for the forgiveness of sins: "Whose sins you forgive are forgiven
them, and whose sins you retain are retained" (Jn 20:23).
We find ourselves at the very heart of the Paschal Mystery, which
completely reveals the spousal love of God. Christ is the Bridegroom
because "he has given himself": his body has been "given," his blood has
been "poured out" (cf. Lk 22:19-20). In this way "he loved them to the
end" (Jn 13:1). The "sincere gift" contained in the Sacrifice of the Cross
gives definitive prominence to the spousal meaning of God's love. As the
Redeemer of the world, Christ is the Bridegroom of the Church. The
Eucharist is the Sacrament of our Redemption. It is the Sacrament of the
Bridegroom and of the Bride. The Eucharist makes present and realizes anew
in a sacramental manner the redemptive act of Christ, who "creates" the
Church, his body. Christ is united with this "body" as the bridegroom with
the bride. All this is contained in the Letter to the Ephesians. The
perennial "unity of the two" that exists between man and woman from the
very "beginning" is introduced into this "great mystery" of Christ and of
the Church.
Since Christ, in instituting the Eucharist, linked it in such an explicit
way to the priestly service of the Apostles, it is legitimate to conclude
that he thereby wished to express the relationship between man and woman,
between what is "feminine" and what is "masculine." It is a relationship
willed by God both in the mystery of creation and in the mystery of
Redemption. It is the Eucharist above all that expresses the redemptive
act of Christ the Bridegroom towards the Church the Bride. This is clear
and unambiguous when the sacramental ministry of the Eucharist, in which
the priest acts "in persona Christi," is performed by a man. This
explanation confirms the teaching of the Declaration Inter Insigniores,
published at the behest of Paul VI in response to the question concerning
the admission of women to the ministerial priesthood.[50]
27. The Second Vatican Council renewed the Church's awareness of the
universality of the priesthood. In the New Covenant there is only one
sacrifice and only one priest: Christ. All the baptized share in the one
priesthood of Christ, both men and women, inasmuch as they must "present
their bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God (cf. Rom
12:1), give witness to Christ in every place, and give an explanation to
anyone who asks the reason for the hope in eternal life that is in them
(cf. 1 Pt 3 15)."[51] Universal participation in Christ's sacrifice, in
which the Redeemer has offered to the Father the whole world and humanity
in particular, brings it about that all in the Church are "a kingdom of
priests" (Rev 5:10; cf. 1 Pt 2:9), who not only share in the priestly
mission but also in the prophetic and kingly mission of Christ the
Messiah. Furthermore, this participation determines the organic unity of
the Church, the People of God, with Christ. It expresses at the same time
the "great mystery" described in the Letter to the Ephesians: the Bride
united to her Bridegroom; united, because she lives his life; united,
because she shares in his threefold mission (tria munera Christi); united
in such a manner as to respond with a "sincere gift" of self to the
inexpressible gift of the love of the Bridegroom, the Redeemer of the
world. This concerns everyone in the Church, women as well as men. It
obviously concerns those who share in the "ministerial priesthood,"[52]
which is characterized by service. In the context of the "great mystery"
of Christ and of the Church, all are called to respond--as a bride--with
the gift of their lives to the inexpressible gift of the love of Christ,
who alone, as the Redeemer of the world, is the Church's Bridegroom. The
"royal priesthood," which is universal, at the same time expresses the
gift of the Bride.
This is of fundamental importance for understanding the Church in her own
essence, so as to avoid applying to the Church--even in her dimension as
an "institution" made up of human beings and forming part of
history--criteria of understanding and judgment which do not pertain to
her nature. Although the Church possesses a "hierarchical" structure,[53]
nevertheless this structure is totally ordered to the holiness of Christ's
members. And holiness is measured according to the "great mystery" in
which the Bride responds with the gift of love to the gift of the
Bridegroom. She does this "in the Holy Spirit," since "God's love has been
poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us"
(Rom 5:5). The Second Vatican Council, confirming the teaching of the
whole of tradition, recalled that in the hierarchy of holiness it is
precisely the "woman," Mary of Nazareth, who is the "figure" of the
Church. She "precedes" everyone on the path to holiness; in her person
"the Church has already reached that perfection whereby she exists without
spot or wrinkle (cf. Eph 5:27)."[54] In this sense, one can say that the
Church is both "Marian" and "Apostolic-Petrine."[55]
In the history of the Church, even from earliest times, there were
side-by-side with men a number of women, for whom the response of the
Bride to the Bridegroom's redemptive love acquired full expressive force.
First we see those women who had personally encountered Christ and
followed him. After his departure, together with the Apostles, they
"devoted themselves to prayer" in the Upper Room in Jerusalem until the
day of Pentecost. On that day the Holy Spirit spoke through "the sons and
daughters" of the People of God, thus fulfilling the words of the prophet
Joel (cf. Acts 2:17). These women, and others afterwards, played an active
and important role in the life of the early Church, in building up from
its foundations the first Christian community--and subsequent
communities--through their own charisms and their varied service. The
apostolic writings note their names, such as Phoebe, "a deaconess of the
Church at Cenchreae" (cf. Rom 16:1), Prisca with her husband Aquila (cf.
2 Tim 4:19), Euodia and Syntyche (cf. Phil 4:2), Mary, Tryphaena, Persis,
and Tryphosa (cf. Rom 16:6, 12). St. Paul speaks of their "hard work" for
Christ, and this hard work indicates the various fields of the Church's
apostolic service, beginning with the "domestic Church." For in the
latter, "sincere faith" passes from the mother to her children and
grandchildren, as was the case in the house of Timothy (cf. 2 Tim 1:5).
The same thing is repeated down the centuries, from one generation to the
next, as the history of the Church demonstrates. By defending the dignity
of women and their vocation, the Church has shown honor and gratitude for
those women who--faithful to the Gospel--have shared in every age in the
apostolic mission of the whole People of God. They are the holy martyrs,
virgins, and mothers of families, who bravely bore witness to their faith
and passed on the Church's faith and tradition by bringing up their
children in the spirit of the Gospel.
In every age and in every country we find many "perfect" women (cf. Prov
31:10) who, despite persecution, difficulties and discrimination, have
shared in the Church's mission. It suffices to mention: Monica, the mother
of Augustine, Macrina, Olga of Kiev, Matilda of Tuscany, Hedwig of
Silesia, Jadwiga of Cracow, Elizabeth of Thuringia, Birgitta of Sweden,
Joan of Arc, Rose of Lima, Elizabeth Ann Seton and Mary Ward.
The witness and the achievements of Christian women have had a significant
impact on the life of the Church as well as of society. Even in the face
of serious social discrimination, holy women have acted "freely,"
strengthened by their union with Christ. Such union and freedom rooted in
God explain, for example, the great work of St. Catherine of Siena in the
life of the Church, and the work of St. Teresa of Jesus in the monastic
life.
In our own days too the Church is constantly enriched by the witness of
the many women who fulfill their vocation to holiness. Holy women are an
incarnation of the feminine ideal; they are also a model for all
Christians, a model of the "sequela Christi," an example of how the Bride
must respond with love to the love of the Bridegroom.
28. "The Church believes that Christ, who died and was raised up for all,
can through his Spirit offer man the light and the strength to respond to
his supreme destiny."[56] We can apply these words of the Conciliar
Constitution Gaudium et Spes to the present reflections. The particular
reference to the dignity of women and their vocation, precisely in our
time, can and must be received in the "light and power" which the Spirit
grants to human beings, including the people of our own age, which is
marked by so many different transformations. The Church "holds that in her
Lord and Master can be found the key, the focal point, and the goal" of
man and "of all human history," and she "maintains that beneath all
changes there are many realities which do not change and which have their
ultimate foundation in Christ, who is the same yesterday and today, yes
and forever."[57]
These words of the Constitution on the Church in the Modern World show the
path to be followed in undertaking the tasks connected with the dignity
and vocation of women, against the background of the significant changes
of our times. We can face these changes correctly and adequately only if
we go back to the foundations which are to be found in Christ, to those
"immutable" truths and values of which he himself remains the "faithful
witness" (cf. Rev 1:5) and Teacher. A different way of acting would lead
to doubtful, if not actually erroneous and deceptive results.
29. The passage from the Letter to the Ephesians already quoted (5:21-33),
in which the relationship between Christ and the Church is presented as
the link between the Bridegroom and the Bride, also makes reference to the
institution of marriage as recorded in the Book of Genesis (cf. 2:24).
This passage connects the truth about marriage as a primordial sacrament
with the creation of man and woman in the image and likeness of God (cf.
Gen 1:27; 5:1). The significant comparison in the Letter to the Ephesians
gives perfect clarity to what is decisive for the dignity of women both in
the eyes of God--the Creator and Redeemer--and in the eyes of human
beings--men and women. In God's eternal plan, woman is the one in whom the
order of love in the created world of persons takes first root. The order
of love belongs to the intimate life of God himself, the life of the
Trinity. In the intimate life of God, the Holy Spirit is the personal
hypostasis of love. Through the Spirit, Uncreated Gift, love becomes a
gift for created persons. Love, which is of God, communicates itself to
creatures: "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy
Spirit who has been given to us" (Rom 5:5).
The calling of woman into existence at man's side as "a helper fit for
him" (Gen 2:18) in the "unity of the two," provides the visible world of
creatures with particular conditions so that "the love of God may be
poured into the hearts" of the beings created in his image. When the
author of the Letter to the Ephesians calls Christ "the Bridegroom" and
the Church "the Bride," he indirectly confirms through this analogy the
truth about woman as bride. The Bridegroom is the one who loves. The Bride
is loved: it is she who receives love, in order to love in return.
Rereading Genesis in light of the spousal symbol in the Letter to the
Ephesians enables us to grasp a truth which seems to determine in an
essential manner the question of women's dignity, and, subsequently, also
the question of their vocation: the dignity of women is measured by the
order of love, which is essentially the order of justice and charity.[58]
Only a person can love and only a person can be loved. This statement is
primarily ontological in nature, and it gives rise to an ethical
affirmation. Love is an ontological and ethical requirement of the person.
The person must be loved, since love alone corresponds to what the person
is. This explains the commandment of love, known already in the Old
Testament (cf. Deut 6:5; Lev 19:18) and placed by Christ at the very
center of the Gospel "ethos" (cf. Mt 22:36-40; Mk 12:28-34). This also
explains the primacy of love expressed by St. Paul in the First Letter to
the Corinthians: "the greatest of these is love" (cf. 13:13).
Unless we refer to this order and primacy we cannot give a complete and
adequate answer to the question about women's dignity and vocation. When
we say that the woman is the one who receives love in order to love in
return, this refers not only or above all to the specific spousal
relationship of marriage. It means something more universal, based on the
very fact of her being a woman within all the interpersonal relationships
which, in the most varied ways, shape society and structure the
interaction between all persons--men and women. In this broad and
diversified context, a woman represents a particular value by the fact
that she is a human person, and, at the same time, this particular person,
by the fact of her femininity. This concerns each and every woman,
independently of the cultural context in which she lives, and
independently of her spiritual, psychological and physical
characteristics, as for example, age, education, health, work, and whether
she is married or single.
The passage from the Letter to the Ephesians which we have been
considering enables us to think of a special kind of "prophetism" that
belongs to women in their femininity. The analogy of the Bridegroom and
the Bride speaks of the love with which every human being--man and
woman--is loved by God in Christ. But in the context of the biblical
analogy and the text's interior logic, it is precisely the woman--the
bride-- who manifests this truth to everyone. This "prophetic" character
of women in their femininity finds its highest expression in the Virgin
Mother of God. She emphasizes, in the fullest and most direct way, the
intimate linking of the order of love--which enters the world of human
persons through a Woman--with the Holy Spirit. At the Annunciation Mary
hears the words: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you" (Lk 1:35).
30. A woman's dignity is closely connected with the love which she
receives by the very reason of her femininity; it is likewise connected
with the love which she gives in return. The truth about the person and
about love is thus confirmed. With regard to the truth about the person,
we must turn again to the Second Vatican Council: "Man, who is the only
creature on earth that God willed for its own sake, cannot fully find
himself except through a sincere gift of self."[59] This applies to every
human being, as a person created in God's image, whether man or woman.
This ontological affirmation also indicates the ethical dimension of a
person's vocation. woman can only find herself by giving love to others.
From the "beginning," woman--like man--was created and "placed" by God in
this order of love. The sin of the first parents did not destroy this
order, nor irreversibly cancel it out. This is proved by the words of the
Proto-evangelium (cf. Gen 3:15). Our reflections have focused on the
particular place occupied by the "woman" in this key text of revelation.
It is also to be noted how the same Woman, who attains the position of a
biblical "exemplar," also appears within the eschatological perspective of
the world and of humanity given in the Book of Revelation.[60] She is "a
woman clothed with the sun," with the moon under her feet, and on her head
a crown of stars (cf. Rev 12:1). One can say she is a Woman of cosmic
scale, on a scale with the whole work of creation. At the same time she is
"suffering the pangs and anguish of childbirth" (Rev 12:2) like Eve "the
mother of all the living" (Gen 3:20). She also suffers because "before the
woman who is about to give birth" (cf. Rev 12:4) there stands "the great
dragon...that ancient serpent" (Rev 12:9), already known from the
Proto-evangelium: the Evil One, the "father of lies" and of sin (cf. Jn
8:44). The "ancient serpent" wishes to devour "the child." While we see in
this text an echo of the Infancy Narrative (cf. Mt 2:13, 16), we can also
see that the struggle with evil and the Evil One marks the biblical
exemplar of the "woman" from the beginning to the end of history. It is
also a struggle for man, for his true good, for his salvation. Is not the
Bible trying to tell us that it is precisely in the
"woman"--Eve-Mary--that history witnesses a dramatic struggle for every
human being, the struggle for his or her fundamental "yes" or "no" to God
and God's eternal plan for humanity?
While the dignity of woman witnesses to the love which she receives in
order to love in return, the biblical "exemplar" of the Woman also seems
to reveal the true order of love which constitutes woman's own vocation.
Vocation is meant here in its fundamental, and one may say universal
significance, a significance which is then actualized and expressed in
women's many different "vocations" in the Church and the world.
The moral and spiritual strength of a woman is joined to her awareness
that God entrusts the human being to her in a special way. Of course, God
entrusts every human being to each and every other human being. But this
entrusting concerns women in a special way--precisely by reason of their
femininity--and this in a particular way determines their vocation.
The moral force of women, which draws strength from this awareness and
this entrusting, expresses itself in a great number of figures of the Old
Testament, of the time of Christ, and of later ages right up to our own
day.
A woman is strong because of her awareness of this entrusting, strong
because of the fact that God "entrusts the human being to her," always and
in every way, even in the situations of social discrimination in which she
may find herself. This awareness and this fundamental vocation speak to
women of the dignity which they receive from God himself, and this makes
them "strong" and strengthens their vocation. Thus the "perfect woman"
(cf. Prov 31:10) becomes an irreplaceable support and source of spiritual
strength for other people, who perceive the great energies of her spirit.
These "perfect women" are owed much by their families, and sometimes by
whole nations.
In our own time, the successes of science and technology make it possible
to attain material well-being to a degree hitherto unknown. While this
favors some, it pushes others to the margins of society. In this way,
unilateral progress can also lead to a gradual loss of sensitivity for
man, that is, for what is essentially human. In this sense, our time in
particular awaits the manifestation of that "genius" which belongs to
women, and which can ensure sensitivity for human beings in every
circumstance: because they are human!--and because "the greatest of these
is love" (cf. 1 Cor 13:13).
Thus a careful reading of the biblical exemplar of the Woman--from the
Book of Genesis to the Book of Revelation--confirms that which constitutes
women's dignity and vocation, as well as that which is unchangeable and
ever relevant in them, because it has its "ultimate foundation in Christ,
who is the same yesterday and today, yes and forever."[61] If the human
being is entrusted by God to women in a particular way, does not this mean
that Christ looks to them for the accomplishment of the "royal priesthood"
(1 Pt 2:9), which is the treasure he has given to every individual?
Christ, as the supreme and only priest of the New and Eternal Covenant,
and as the Bridegroom of the Church, does not cease to submit this same
inheritance to the Father through the Spirit, so that God may be
"everything to everyone" (1 Cor 15:28).[62]
Then the truth that "the greatest of these is love" (cf. 1 Cor 13:13) will
have its definitive fulfillment.
31. "If you knew the gift of God" (Jn 4:10), Jesus says to the Samaritan
woman during one of those remarkable conversations which show his great
esteem for the dignity of women and for the vocation which enables them to
share in his messianic mission.
The present reflections, now at an end, have sought to recognize, within
the "gift of God," what he, as Creator and Redeemer, entrusts to women, to
every woman. In the Spirit of Christ, in fact, women can discover the
entire meaning of their femininity and thus be disposed to making a
"sincere gift of self" to others, thereby finding themselves.
During the Marian Year the Church desires to give thanks to the Most Holy
Trinity for the "mystery of woman" and for every woman--for that which
constitutes the eternal measure of her feminine dignity, for the "great
works of God," which throughout human history have been accomplished in
and through her. After all, was it not in and through her that the
greatest event in human history--the incarnation of God himself--was
accomplished?
Therefore the Church gives thanks for each and every woman: for mothers.
for sisters for wives; for women consecrated to God in virginity; for
women dedicated to the many human beings who await the gratuitous love of
another person; for women who watch over the human persons in the family,
which is the fundamental sign of the human community; for women who work
professionally, and who at times are burdened by a great social
responsibility; for "perfect" women and for "weak" women--for all women as
they have come forth from the heart of God in all the beauty and richness
of their femininity; as they have been embraced by his eternal love; as,
together with men, they are pilgrims on this earth, which is the temporal
"homeland" of all people and is transformed sometimes into a "valley of
tears"; as they assume, together with men, a common responsibility for the
destiny of humanity according to daily necessities and according to that
definitive destiny which the human family has in God himself, in the bosom
of the ineffable Trinity.
The Church gives thanks for all the manifestations of the feminine
"genius" which have appeared in the course of history, in the midst of all
peoples and nations; she gives thanks for all the charisms which the Holy
Spirit distributes to women in the history of the People of God, for all
the victories which she owes to their faith, hope and charity: she gives
thanks for all the fruits of feminine holiness.
The Church asks at the same time that these invaluable "manifestations of
the Spirit" (cf. 1 Cor 12:4ff.), which with great generosity are poured
forth upon the "daughters" of the eternal Jerusalem, may be attentively
recognized and appreciated so that they may return for the common good of
the Church and of humanity, especially in our times. Meditating on the
biblical mystery of the "woman," the Church prays that in this mystery all
women may discover themselves and their "supreme vocation."
May Mary, who "is a model of the Church in the matter of faith, charity,
and perfect union with Christ,"[63] obtain for all of us this same
"grace," in the Year which we have dedicated to her as we approach the
third millennium from the coming of Christ.
With these sentiments, I impart the Apostolic Blessing to all the
faithful, and in a special way to women, my sisters in Christ.
Given in Rome, at St. Peter's, on August 15, the Solemnity of the
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the year 1988, the tenth of my
Pontificate.
John Paul II
ENDNOTES
1. The Council's Message to Women (December 8, 1965); AAS 58 (1966),
13-14.
2. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the
Church in the Modern World "Gaudium et Spes," 8; 9; 60.
3. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Decree on the Apostolate of the
Laity "Apostolicam Actuositatem," 9.
4. Cf. Pius XII, Address to Italian Women (October 21, 1945): AAS 37
(1945) 284-295; Address to the World Union of Catholic Women's
Organizations (April 24, 1952), AAS 44 (1952), 420-424; Address to the
participants in the XIV International Meeting of the World Union of
Catholic Women's Organizations (September 29,1957): AAS 49 (1957),
906-922.
5. Cf. John XXIII, Encyclical Letter "Pacem in Terris" (April 11, 1963);
AAS 55 (1963), 267-268.
6. Proclamation of St. Teresa of Jesus as a "Doctor of the Universal
Church" (September 27, 1970): AAS 62 (1970), 590-596; Proclamation of St.
Catherine of Siena as a "Doctor of the Universal Church" (October 4,
1970): AAS 62 (1970), 673-678.
7. Cf. MS 65 (1973), 284f.
8. Paul VI, Address to participants at the National Meeting of the Centro
Italiano Femminile (December 6, 1976): "Insegnamenti di Paolo VI," XIV
(1976), 1017.
9. Cf. Encyclical Letter "Redemptoris Mater" (March 25, 1987), 46: AAS 79
(1987), 424f.
10. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church
"Lumen Gentium," 1.
11. An illustration of the anthropological and theological significance of
the "beginning" can be seen in the first part of the Wednesday General
Audience Addresses dedicated to the "Theology of the Body," beginning
September 5, 1979: "Insegnamenti II," 2 (1979), 234-236.
12. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church
in the Modern World "Gaudium et Spes," 22.
13. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Declaration on the Relation of the
Church to Non-Christian Religions "Nostra Aetate," 1.
14. Ibid., 2.
15. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine
Revelation "Dei Verbum," 2.
16. Already according to the Fathers of the Church the first revelation of
the Trinity in the New Testament took place in the Annunciation. One reads
in a homily attributed to St. Gregory Thaumaturgus: "You, O Mary, are
resplendent with light in the sublime spiritual kingdom! In you the
Father, who is without beginning and whose power has covered you, is
glorified. In you the Son, whom you bore in the flesh, is adored. In you
the Holy Spirit, who has brought about in your womb the birth of the great
King, is celebrated. And it is thanks to you, O Full of grace, that the
holy and consubstantial Trinity has been able to be known in the world"
(Hom. 2 in Annuntiat. Virg. Mariae: PG 10, 1169). Cf. also St. Andrew of
Crete, In Annuntiat. B. Mariae: PG 97, 909.
17. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Declaration on the Relation of
the Church to Non-Christian Religions "Nostra Aetate," 2.
18. The theological doctrine on the Mother of God (Theotokos), held by
many Fathers of the Church, and clarified and defined at the Council of
Ephesus (DS 251) and at the Council of Chalcedon (DS 301), has been stated
again by the Second Vatican Council in Chapter VIII of the Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church "Lumen Gentium," 52-69. Cf. Encyclical Letter
"Redemptoris Mater," 4, 31-32 and the Notes 9, 78-83: loc. cit., 365,
402-404.
19. Cf. Encyclical Letter "Redemptoris Mater," 7-11 and the texts of the
Fathers cited in Note 21: loc. cit., 367-373.
20. Cf. ibid., 39-41: loc. cit., 412-418.
21. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the
Church "Lumen Gentium," 36.
22. Cf. St. Irenaeus, "Adv. haer." V, 6, 1; V, 16, 2-3: 5. Ch. 153, 72-81
and 216-221; St. Gregory of Nyssa, De hom. op. 16: PG 44, 180; In Cant
Cant. hom. 2: PG 44, 805-808; St. Augustine, In Ps. 4, 8: CCL 38, 17.
23. "Persona est naturae rationalis individua substantia": Manlius
Severinus Boethius, Liber de persona et duabus naturis, III: PL 64, 1343;
cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, "Summa Theologiae," Ia, q. 29, art. 1.
24. Among the Fathers of the Church who affirm the fundamental equality of
man and woman before God cf. Origen, In Iesu nave IX, 9: PG 12, 878;
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 1, 4: S. Ch. 70, 128-131; St. Augustine,
Sermo 51, II, 3: PL 38, 334-335.
25. St. Gregory of Nyssa states: "God is above all love and the fount of
love. The great John says this: 'Love is of God' and 'God is love' (1 Jn
4:7-8). The Creator has impressed this character also on us. 'By this all
men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another'
(Jn 13:35). Therefore, if this is not present, all the image becomes
disfigured" (De hom op. 5: PG 44, 137).
26. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church
in the Modern World "Gaudium et Spes," 24.
27. Cf. Num 23:19; Hos 11:9; Is 40:18; 46:5; cf. also Fourth Lateran
Council (DS 806).
28. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church
in the Modern World "Gaudium et Spes," 13.
29."Diabolic" from the Greek "dia-ballo" = "I divide, separate, slander."
30. Cf. Origen,"In Gen. hom." 13, 4: PG 12, 234; St. Gregory of Nyssa, De
virg. 12: S. Ch. 119, 404-419; De beat. VI: PG 44, 1272.
31. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the
Church in the Modern World "Gaudium et Spes," 13.
32. Cf. ibid., 24.
33. It is precisely by appealing to the divine law that the Fathers of the
fourth century strongly react against the discrimination still in effect
with regard to women in the customs and the civil legislation of their
time. Cf. St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Or. 37, 6: PG 36, 290; St. Jerome,
"Ad Oceanum" ep. 77, 3: PL 22, 691; St. Ambrose, "De instit. virg." III,
16:PL 16, 309; St. Augustine, Sermo 132, 2: PL 38, 735; Sermo 392, 4: PL
39, 1711.
34. Cf. St. Irenaeus, Adv. haer. III 23, 7: S. Ch. 211, 462-465; V, 21, 1:
S. Ch. 153, 260-265; St. Epiphanius, Panar. III, 2, 78: PG 42, 728-729;
St. Augustine, Enarr. in Ps. 103, S. 4, 6: CCL 40, 1525.
35. Cf. St. Justin, "Dial. cum Tryph." 100: PG 6, 709712; St. Irenaeus,
"Adv. haer." III, 22, 4: S. Ch. 211, 438-445; v, 19, 1: 5. Ch. 153,
248-251; St. Cyril of Jerusalem, "Catech." 12, 15: PG 33, 741; St. John
Chrysostom, "In Ps." 44, 7: PG 55, 193; St. John Damascene, "Hom. 2 in
dorm." B.V.M. 3: S. Ch. 80, 130-135; Hesychius, Sermo 5 in Deiparam; PG
93, 1464f.; Tertullian, "De carne Christi" 17: CCL 2, 904f.; St. Jerome,
"Epist". 22, 21: PL 22, 408; St. Augustine, "Sermo" 51, 2-3: PL 38, 335;
"Sermo" 232, 2: PL 38, 1108; J. H. Newman, "A Letter to the Rev. E. B.
Pusey," Longmans, London 1865; M. J. Scheeben, "Handbuch der Katholischen
Dogmatik," V/1 (Freiburg 1954), 243-266; v/2 (Freiburg 1954), 306-499.
36. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church
in the Modern World "Gaudium et Spes," 22.
37. Cf. St. Ambrose, "De instit. virg." V, 33: PL 16, 313.
38. Cf. Rabanus Maurus, "De vita beatae Mariae Magdalenae," XXVII:
"Salvator...ascensionis suae eam (=Mariam Magdalenam) ad apostolos
instituit apostolam" (PL 112, 1474). "Facta est Apostolorum Apostola per
hoc quod ei committitur ut resurrectionem dominicam discipulis annuntiet":
St. Thomas Aquinas, "In Ioannem Evangelistam Expositio," c. XX, L. III 6
("Sancti Thomae Aquinatis Comment. in Matthaeum et Ioannem Evangelistas"),
Ed. Parmen. X, 629.
39. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church
in the Modern World "Gaudium et Spes," 24.
40. Encyclical Letter "Redemptoris Mater", 18: loc. cit., 383.
41. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the
Church in the Modern World "Gaudium et Spes," 24.
42. Cf. John Paul II, Wednesday General Audience Addresses, April 7 and
21, 1982: "Insegnamenti" V, 1, (1982), 1126-1131 and 1175-1179.
43. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the
Church "Lumen Gentium," 63; St. Ambrose, In Lc II, 7: S. Ch. 45, 74; De
instit. virg. XIV, 87-89: PL 16, 326-327; St. Cyril of Alexandria, Hom.
4: PG 77, 996; St. Isidore of Seville, "Allegoriae" 139: PL 83, 117.
44. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church
"Lumen Gentium," 63.
45. Ibid., 64.
46. Ibid., 64.
47. Ibid., 64. Concerning the relation Mary-Church which continuously
recurs in the reflection of the Fathers of the Church and of the entire
Christian Tradition, cf. Encyclical Letter "Redemptoris Mater," 42-44 and
Notes 117-127: loc. cit., 418-422. Cf. also: Clement of Alexandria,
"Paed". 1, 6: S. Ch. 70, 186f.; St. Ambrose, "In Lc" II, 7: "S. Ch." 45,
74; St. Augustine,"Sermo" 192, 2: PL 38, 1012; "Sermo" 195, 2: PL 38,
1018; "Sermo" 25, 8: PL 46, 938; St. Leo the Great, "Sermo" 25, 5: PL 54,
211; "Sermo" 26, 2: PL 54, 213; St. Bede the Venerable, "In Lc" I, 2: PL
92, 330. "Both mothers--writes Isaac of Stella, disciple of St.
Bernard--both virgins, both conceive through the work of the Holy
Spirit...Mary...has given birth in body to her Head; the Church...gives to
this Head her body. The one and the other are mothers of Christ: but
neither of the two begets him entirely without the other. Properly for
that reason...that which is said in general of the virgin mother Church is
understood especially of the virgin mother Mary; and that which is said in
a special way of the virgin mother Mary must be attributed in general to
the virgin mother Church; and all that is said about one of the two can be
understood without distinction of one from the other" (Sermo 51, 7-8: S.
Ch. 339, 202-205).
48. Cf. for example, Hos 1:2; 2:16-18; Jer 2:2; Ezek 16:8; Is 50:1;
54:5-8.
49. Cf. Col 3:18; 1 Pt 3:1-6; Tit 2:4-5; Eph 5:22-24; 1 Cor 11:3-16;
14:33-35; 1 Tim 2:11-15.
50. Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration Concerning
the Question of the Admission of Women to the Ministerial Priesthood
"Inter Insigniores" (October 15, 1976): A, 45, 69 (1977), 98- 116.
51. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the
Church "Lumen Gentium," 10.
52. Cf. ibid., 10.
53 Cf. ibid., 18-29.
54. Ibid., 65; cf. also 63; cf. Encyclical Letter "Redemptoris Mater,"
2-6; loc. cit., 362-367.
55. "This Marian profile is also--even perhaps more so--fundamental and
characteristic for the Church as is the apostolic and Petrine profile to
which it is profoundly united. ...The Marian dimension of the Church is
antecedent to that of the Petrine, without being in any way divided from
it or being less complementary. Mary Immaculate precedes all others,
including obviously Peter himself and the Apostles. This is so, not only
because Peter and the Apostles, being born of the human race under the
burden of sin, form part of the Church which is 'holy from out of
sinners,' but also because their triple function has no other purpose
except to form the Church in line with the ideal of sanctity already
programmed and prefigured in Mary. A contemporary theologian has rightly
stated that Mary is 'Queen of the Apostles without any pretensions to
apostolic powers: she has other and greater powers' (H. U. von Balthasar,
"Neue Klarstellungen")." Address to the Cardinal and Prelates of the Roman
Curia (December 22, 1987); "L'Osservatore Romano," December 23, 1987.
56. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the
Church in the Modern World "Gaudium et Spes," 10.
57. Ibid., 10.
58. Cf. St. Augustine, "De Trinitate," L. Viii, VII, 10-X, 14: CCL 50,
284-291.
59. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church
in the Modern World "Gaudium et Spes," 24.
60. Cf. in the Appendix to the works of St. Ambrose, "In Apoc." IV, 3-4:
PL 17, 876; St. Augustine, "De symb. ad. catech. sermo" IV: PL 40, 661.
61. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church
in the Modern World "Gaudium et Spes," 10.
62. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church
"Lumen Gentium," 36.
63. Cf. ibid., 63.
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