Woman the Secret of God

Anne Lastman

“Acknowledged in its fullness, this is 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 a deep transformation, women imbued with a spirit of the Gospel can do so much to aid humanity in not falling”  (Council’s message  to women  at closing of Vatican II).

How prophetic has been this clarion call to women. This reminder that to them is given the task to help humanity to recover from its malaise leading to a new falling.  Again woman has been asked for a “fiat.”

And sadly, the loudest noise that is mostly heard from the feminine both in and out of the church is the voice of dissent, and disobedience. And No.

Saint Pope John Paul II exhorted and believed in woman’s genius.  “Feminine genius” he called it. He believed that woman was created to be the glue which held humanity together.  He believed that woman (issah) was not lesser because she was “taken out of man” (issh) but more refined because she emerged from within man rather than from “soil.”

This modern saint, St. John Paul II, always believed, spoke and taught that the true strength, the mystery of the woman, is best seen when she sees herself as part of a complementarity with the man   and recognizes her own self as “different” but “equal” to the man. The softer image of man.   The softer Imago Dei.  An image which loves so differently and deeply and endures so long that it becomes transformative. Her status as “helper” not implying lesser but assumes that she knows the help required and gives the help which completes the task.

The culture of death which has flourished over the past 50 years has done so because “woman” was first seduced with words which sounded like liberation from former past hardships and ties, and then she slowly forgot her uniqueness, worth and design.

Helpmate, woman, mother of living, and thus leading to loss of her understanding of her being.

The voices of distraction, by stealth, have burrowed deeply into the thought and psyche of the feminine psyche thus changing her blueprint for life into one that again says no to life and in doing so re introduced rebellion and death.

St John Paul II who introduced and used this term “culture of death” often saw clearly that the health of the feminine and the health of society and the church are mirror images of one another.  He wrote and spoke to and with women and most specifically and beautifully in Letter to Women (1995) and Muglieris Dignitatem, On the Dignity & Vocation of Women. He reflected on the strength and importance of woman and on her role.  Not as an afterthought of God, but as the final most creative and mysterious act.  He spoke to and with  women and addressed the challenges which faced them and warned prophetically of the assault against their “feminine” being by their very own “sisters” with ideologies destructive to their design.

Woman’s genius is tied to the male role which  is to enhance, refine and make whole his  own role  of  continuing the generative act with her,  because   without her, he again resorts to the company of beasts (Gn:2:20-24), ones  not  of his “kind” and who  are unable to share and generate  life with him.

The beast cannot be his “helpmate” but only one “like” him can fulfil this role.

With her he is tied to the mystery called “life.” She draws her life from him and returns it back enfleshed in the shape of visible love, a child, a new creation.   They together understand the God who created them male and female and who designed her (issah) to be the one who would be able to unite herself to him and be in communion with him. To complete him as he can only complete her.  Very unlike the beast who can only unite with one of its own species.

Understanding the fecundity of woman correctly is important because even beasts and nature are designed to reproduce and continue generation, but woman is different.  She hears and understands that within her  that new creation which  she carries, begins a new tree, a new life, a new history, the same as the one begun when love overflowed from God and began the eternal generation of “Adam,” that is humanity.

While woman in turn would also be recipient of something special from man (his generative gift) in his role as “man,” it is she who must return time and again to unite with him in order that the “rib” (Gen.2:22) forms again the “whole man.”  Not “rib” less man, but when the “rib” (woman) is reunited with the “man” he and she (humanity) is whole.   The man of the first creation, without the “rib” (woman) is helpless and alone, drawn out from him she then returns the love with which he created her and gave her. She returns this love in the form of another like him and in his image.

However, whilst woman needs to return Adam so as to re-create, it was always in her design that she would be the one to carry forward in her body that creation. Just as it was always in his body the generative seed that would help her seed the new creation.  Her receptive nature implies this. Her design implies this. So does the curse after the sin (Gen.3:16).    So always woman was to be the one who would co-operate with Adam and God so that eternal and physical generation of a new creature would happen. God placed the future in her hands and into her womb and into her care. To her He entrusted “life” just as He had created the first “life.”

Oh, how beautiful it is to say of Mary “Blessed is the womb” because God had designed all wombs to be blessed with the mystery called life.  It is in this mystery which God nears intimately and closely and “touches” the woman’s body by placing a new soul into her womb.  When pregnant, woman carries two (or at times multiple) souls within her being.  What an enormous honour it is that God has entrusted to woman, especially after her refusal to honour His request.  This makes it interesting to remember that God never reneges on His promises and His desires. His desire was always for woman to be His co-worker in the continuance of humanity. Into her hands he entrusted the future.  Whilst it is the male who excites and sparks the cloudburst of fecundity, it is the woman who receive and accepts the gift of fecundity.

It is of little wonder then that the “serpent” chose to tempt “woman” (Gen 3:5) because it is she who is his enemy and he knew it.  And it is “she” woman who was designed to carry forward “life” and so it is she who must crush his head and bring him to heel to honour her God, her own feminine self and her fruit, the child.   The very aspect of her which cooperates with God and man to bring forth a new child, the serpent set out to corrupt.

The war against the infant which is abortion is a war against maternity, femininity and the child, and this war against the woman is one which throughout time has been attempted through various means including child sacrifice, infanticide and abortion.   In this modern era the serpent is more virulent and has again convinced woman to reject her child and she again in this day is listening to his voice.

The elements of the earth are used to form “man” while “woman” is drawn out more refined because God had already “breathed” into Adam when He removed the “rib.”   He is the heaviness of earth she is the mystery of “life” and together they form the new creation heading through time and looking for the new “Adam” Jesus, towards eternity to fill the paradise left bereft by the fall of some of the angels.  How ingenious of God. To enter the territory of the enemy and lead His own back home.

http://www.victimsofabortion.com.au/