During General Audience, Francis says Gender Theory Causes Society to Take A Step
in the Wrong Direction
By Junno Arocho Esteves
ROME,
April 15, 2015 (Zenit.org) - The image
of God is not only displayed in man and woman individually but also together as
a couple [Blogger: Mutually opposing self-gifts of male and female persons make for an Unum that images the Christian God of Father, Son and Spirit]
These
were the words of Pope Francis during his General Audience today in St. Peter's
Square. The Holy Father said that today's catechesis and the following will
reflect on the sacrament of marriage and the complementarity between man and
woman.
The
Pope began his catechesis by recalling the story of creation in which God,
after creating the universe and all living things, created his masterpiece:
mankind.
"As
we all know, sexual difference is present in many forms of life, in the long
ladder of the living," he noted. "But only man and woman carry within
them the image and likeness of God."
Genesis,
he explained, not only explains that man and woman individually bear this
likeness to God, but also together as a couple.
"The
difference between man and woman is not for opposition, or subordination, but
for communion and creation, always in the image and likeness of God."
The
78 year old Pontiff went on to say that without the mutual enrichment in their
relationship, neither can truly understand what it means to be man and woman.
While modern culture has opened new ways and freedoms to understand these
differences, the Pope noted that it also introduced "many doubts and much
skepticism."
"I
wonder, for example, if the so-called gender theory is also an expression of
frustration and resignation, which aims to erase sexual difference because they
can no longer deal with it. Yes, we risk taking a step back," he said.
"The
removal of the difference, in fact, is the problem, not the solution. To solve
their relationship problems, man and the woman should instead talk more, listen
more, know more, [and] love each other more. They must treat each other with
respect and cooperate with friendship."
The
Pope went on to call on intellectuals to not abandon the importance of this
theme, which he said has become secondary.
The
Covenant Between Man and Woman
Continuing
his catechesis, Pope Francis focused on two important aspects that were crucial
in fostering the complementarity between man and woman.
The
first, he said, was the need for women to not only be heard, but that "her
voice has a real weight, a recognized authority, in society and in the
Church." This, he noted, was the same way in which Jesus considered the
role of women
.
.
"Jesus
considered [woman] in such a way that gives a strong light, that enlightens a
path that takes us far, from which we've only covered a small piece," he
said.
"We
have not yet understood in depth what things the feminine genius can give us,
that woman can give to society and also to us. Perhaps to see things with
different eyes that complements the thoughts of men. It is a path that must be
crossed with more creativity and more boldness."
The
second reflection the Jesuit Pope offered regarded the theme of man and woman
created in God's image. The collective mistrust in God, he said, gives way to
incredulity and cynicism and connects to the crisis between man and
woman. This division is exemplified in the creation story in which this
covenant is broken once sin entered.
"In
fact, the biblical story, with the grand symbolic fresco of the earthly
paradise and original sin, precisely tells us that the communion with God is
reflected in the communion of the human couple and the loss of trust in the
Heavenly Father generates division and conflict between man and woman," he
said.
Concluding
his catechesis, Pope Francis said that the Church has the responsibility of
rediscovering the beauty of God's design in the covenant between man and woman.
"Jesus
encourages us explicitly to give witness to this beauty, which is the image of
God," he concluded.
* * * * * * * * *
John Paul II: The imaging of God in the body
only by man as male and female:
Unity in "communion of persons:" (From Wednesday Address of November 14, 1979)2. In this way the meaning of man's original unity, through masculinity and femininity, is expressed as an overcoming of the frontier of solitude. At the same time it is an affirmation—with regard to both human beings—of everything that constitutes man in solitude. In the Bible narrative, solitude is the way that leads to that unity which, following Vatican II, we can define as communio personarum.(1)
As we have already seen, in his original solitude man acquires a personal consciousness in the process of distinction from all living beings (animalia). At the same time, in this solitude, he opens up to a being akin to himself, defined in Genesis (2:18, 20) as "a helper fit for him." This opening is no less decisive for the person of man; in fact, it is perhaps even more decisive than the distinction itself. In the Yahwist narrative, man's solitude is presented to us not only as the first discovery of the characteristic transcendence peculiar to the person. It is also presented as the discovery of an adequate relationship "to" the person, and therefore as an opening and expectation of a "communion of persons."
The term "community" could also be used here, if it were not generic and did not have so many meanings. Communio expresses more, with greater precision, since itindicates precisely that "help" which is derived, in a sense, from the very fact of existing as a person "beside" a person. In the Bible narrative this fact becomes eo ipso—in itself—the existence of the person "for" the person, since man in his original solitude was, in a way, already in this relationship. That is confirmed, in a negative sense, precisely by this solitude.
Furthermore, the communion of persons could be formed only on the basis of a "double solitude" of man and of woman, that is, as their meeting in their distinction from the world of living beings (animalia), which gave them both the possibility of being and existing in a special reciprocity. The concept of "help" also expresses this reciprocity in existence, which no other living being could have ensured. All that constituted the foundation of the solitude of each of them was indispensable for this reciprocity. Self-knowledge and self-determination, that is, subjectivity and consciousness of the meaning of one's own body, was also indispensable.
Image of inscrutable divine communion
3. In the first chapter, the narrative of the creation of man affirms directly, right from the beginning, that man was created in the image of God as male and female. The narrative of the second chapter, on the other hand, does not speak of the "image of God." But in its own way it reveals that the complete and definitive creation of "man" (subjected first to the experience of original solitude) is expressed in giving life to that communio personarum that man and woman form. In this way, the Yahwist narrative agrees with the content of the first narrative.
If, vice versa, we wish to draw also from the narrative of the Yahwist text the concept of "image of God," we can then deduce that man became the "image and likeness" of God not only through his own humanity, but also through the communion of personswhich man and woman form right from the beginning. The function of the image is to reflect the one who is the model, to reproduce its own prototype. Man becomes the image of God not so much in the moment of solitude as in the moment of communion. Right "from the beginning," he is not only an image in which the solitude of a person who rules the world is reflected, but also, and essentially, an image of an inscrutable divine communion of persons.
In this way, the second narrative could also be a preparation for understanding the Trinitarian concept of the "image of God," even if the latter appears only in the first narrative. Obviously, that is not without significance for the theology of the body. Perhaps it even constitutes the deepest theological aspect of all that can be said about man. In the mystery of creation—on the basis of the original and constituent "solitude" of his being—man was endowed with a deep unity between what is, humanly and through the body, male in him and what is, equally humanly and through the body, female in him. On all this, right from the beginning, the blessing of fertility descended, linked with human procreation (cf. Gn 1:28).”[1]
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