~ This year Anima have been working with the Dominican Sisters of St Cecilia based here in Melbourne on a series of talks on what it means to be a woman in Christ with intelligent fidelity. The series, called “Lamps Alight”, is held monthly at the parish of Keilor Downs in the west of Melbourne. Because we know many people cannot make it, we have decided to share some of the beautiful teachings we have had. This very first one was given to us by Fr Pascal Corby OFM Conv. The full text and references are found here, but below is just a section of it that we hope will encourage you in your mission of love. ~

“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. The Bridegroom is the one who loves. The Bride is loved: it is she who receives love, in order to love in return.” (John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem, n. 29.)

This, suggests John Paul, reveals the essential dignity and vocation of woman: “the dignity of women is measured by the order of love”, which ultimately, in the words of Hans Urs von Balthasar, is the only thing credible to man.

But John Paul also qualifies this place of woman within the order of love. He writes: “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.” (John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem, n. 29.)

While the essence of woman as loved is grounded in spousal imagery, the vocation of woman is not limited to marriage. Indeed, in Mulieris Dignitatem, John Paul II offers two dimensions of a woman’s vocation: virginity and motherhood. Both these dimensions “acquire their full meaning and value in the unique figure of 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.” (John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem, n. 17.)

In his letter to Women (1995), John Paul again presented the figure of the Blessed Virgin as a model for the dignity of women, this time expressed in terms of what he called the “feminine genius”:

“The Church sees in Mary the highest expression of the “feminine genius” and she finds in her a source of constant inspiration. Mary called herself the “handmaid of the Lord” (Lk 1:38). Through obedience to the Word of God she accepted her lofty yet not easy vocation as wife and mother in the family of
Nazareth. Putting herself at God’s service, she also put herself at the service of others: a service of love.” (John Paul II, Letter to Women, n. 10.)

In setting before us the example of Mary of Nazareth, we come to realise that genius is not determined by doing great things – of power and influence. In the lowly handmaid of the Lord, the feminine genius is characterised by service, by receptivity and by obedience. Again, it is the logic of love. It is the logic of knowing that one is loved, and of being capable ofloving in return. In the figure of Our Lady we perceive a type of the Church – the Bride who is espoused to Christ. The Church is essentially feminine. It is the object of Christ’s love, sanctified by His Precious Blood. The Church learns how to be Bride from Mary, and by extension, from the witness and vocation of women.

Some years ago I gave a talk on the feminine genius of the Servant of God, Sr Mary Glowrey of the Sacred Heart. In it I briefly reflected on this feminine posturing of the Church, and how too often we are blinded to the true nature of the Church as it relates to Christ. Sin blinds us to the nuptial bond between Christ and the Church; it threatens the feminine image of the Church. I think that Christopher West puts it well when he says:
“Because of Satan’s deception, we have come to see God’s ‘masculine-bridegroom’ initiative as that of a tyrant with a will-to-rule over us. Hence, we reject our posture of receptivity as ‘feminine-bride’ in favour of being our own ‘masculine’ lords. We want to be ‘like God’ but without God. In this situation, we come to see the ‘feminine’ – which symbolises our true humanity – as a weakness to be dominated and controlled, even snuffed out. Does this not explain, perhaps, why there has been a tendency to favour ‘masculinity’ over ‘femininity’ throughout history?” Christopher West, Theology of the Body Explained, 154.)

Because of this forgetfulness, this tendency to reject the feminine throughout history and even in our own time, we need more urgently the prophetic genius of women to remind us of our true human dignity as we stand before God. As John Paul suggests, the dignity of woman in the order of love is prophetic of who we all are before Christ. For 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.

As John Paul relates, this posturing of the Church before Christ is reflected in the particular dignity and vocation of woman. Through the vocation of virginity, woman recognises her dignity as she who receives love. She receives it from the source of love itself, in which she is prophetically espoused to Christ. Like Mary of Bethany, who sat at the feet of the Lord, she lives by divine love. And this love, like the Virgin Mary who is her prototype, becomes fruitful in making a gift of herself to the world.

~ Fr Paschal Corby OFM Conv