Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Among the present-day challenges which the Great Jubilee Year of 2000
compels us to reflect upon, is the respect of the rights of women, as I
pointed out in the Apostolic Letter "Tertio Millennio Adveniente" (cf TMA,
51). Today I would like to recall some aspects of the feminine question,
which I have already touched upon on other occasions.
Sacred Scripture sheds great light on the topic of the promotion of woman,
indicating the project of God for man and woman in the two creation
narratives.
The first narrative states: "So God created man in His image, in the image
of God He created him; male and female He created them" (Genesis 1:27). This
affirmation lies at the base of Christian anthropology, as it underlines
the fundamental dignity of man as person in his created being, "in the
image" of God. At the same time, the text clearly states that neither man
nor woman, taken separately, is the image of the Creator, but man and
woman are His image in their reciprocity. Both represent God's masterpiece
to the same degree.
In the second creation narrative, through the symbolism of the woman's
creation from the man's rib, Scripture shows that humanity is not complete
until woman is created (cf Genesis 2:18-24). She receives a name that,
according to the verbal assonance of the Hebrew language, is relative to
the man (iš/iššah). "Created together, man and woman are willed by God one
for the other" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 371). Woman's
presentation as a "help similar to him" (Gen 2:18) does not mean that woman
is man's servant -- "help" does not equal "servant"; the Psalmist says to
God: "You are my help" (Ps 70:6; cf 115:9-11; 118:7; 146:5). Rather, the
expression means that woman is worthy of collaborating with man because she
is his perfect correspondence. Woman is another type of "I" in a common
humanity, constituted in perfect equality of dignity by man and woman.
2. There is reason to rejoice over the fact that the deepening of the
"feminine" in contemporary culture has contributed to a rethinking of the
topic of the human person as reciprocal "being for the other" in
interpersonal communion. Today the understanding of the oblative dimension
of the person is becoming an acquired principle. Unfortunately, it is often
unnoticed on the practical level. Among the many aggressions against human
dignity, there is a widespread violation of the dignity of woman that
manifests itself with the exploitation of her person and body. Every
practice which offends woman in her liberty and femininity must be
vigorously opposed: so-called "sexual tourism", the buying and selling of
young girls, mass sterilization, and in general every form of violence
against the other sex.
The moral law requires a very different attitude, preaching the dignity of
woman as a person created in the image of a God-Communion! Today more than
ever it is necessary to repropose the biblical anthropology of
relationality, which helps us to authentically grasp the identity of the
human person in his relationship with other people, and particularly
between man and woman. In the human person thought of in terms of
"relationality" we find a vestige of the very mystery of God, revealed in
Christ as substantial unity in the communion of three divine persons. In
light of this mystery we can understand well the affirmation of "Gaudium et
Spes" that the human person, "is the only creature on earth which God
willed for its own sake, unable to fully realize itself except through a
sincere gift of self" (GS, 24). The diversity between man and woman recalls
the necessity of interpersonal communion and the meditation on the dignity
and vocation of woman strengthens the communional conception of the human
being (cf "Mulieris Dignitatem", 7).
3. This communal attitude, which the feminine strongly evokes, allows us to
meditate on the paternity of God, avoiding the figurative projection of the
patriarchal type much contested, not without motives, by some currents of
contemporary literature. What is attempted is to grasp the face of the
Father from within the mystery of God as Trinity, which is perfect unity in
distinction. The figure of the Father is rethought in his relation with the
Son, who is oriented toward him from all eternity (cf John 1:1) in the
communion of the Holy Spirit. It also needs to be highlighted that the Son
of God was made man in the fullness of time and was born of the Virgin Mary
(cf Galatians 4:4), and this also sheds light on the feminine, showing in Mary
the model of woman willed by God. In Her and through Her the greatest event
in human history occurred. The paternity of God-Father is not only related
to God-Son in the eternal mystery, but also to his Incarnation in the womb
of a woman. If God-Father, who "generated" the Son from eternity, valued a
woman enough -- Mary -- to "generate him" in the world, thus rendering her
"Theotokos" -- Mother of God -- then this is not without significance in
order to understand the dignity of woman in the divine project.
4. Therefore the Gospel announcement of the paternity of God, far from
being limiting regarding the dignity and the role of woman, is on the
contrary the guarantee of what "feminine" humanly symbolizes: acceptance,
care of man, generation of life. All of which is, in fact, transcendentally
rooted in the mystery of the eternal divine "generation". Paternity in God
is of course totally spiritual. Nevertheless, it expresses that eternal
reciprocity and properly Trinitarian relationality in which every paternity
and maternity originates, and in which the richness common to masculine
and feminine is founded.
Reflection on the role and mission of woman is well-placed in this year
dedicated to the Father, spurring us on to an even more incisive
commitment, so that the full place of women in the Church and in society
may be acknowledged.