Why it is dangerous to see God as feminine

Dear Sister

For this I'll have to try and give you an adequate anthropology, and in this I apologise if I leave holes in the train of thought or something just doesn't make sense, it's part of my fallible nature and a lot will probably need qualifying, but given that I'll give it a shot.

To realise truly who we are now, we first need to realise where we come from, what the Pope describes as original man, eg Adam and Eve. (Note that I may use man in places you wouldn't and for the purposes of this text it refers to the whole of humanity unless the context would seem otherwise. It's not a slight against women, I just find it cumbersome and sometimes, diminishing of the point I'm trying to make when man is substituted by mankind, human or humanity or some such. Using the word man (or woman) points to a singular being, individual and infinitely unique in their person, where broad terms like 'mankind' or 'humanity' tend to diminish the individual. When god gave the Ten Commandments you can see much more in the original Hebrew how personal it was. He said 'You (individual person) shall not kill', not 'You (People of Israel) shall not kill.' He addressed it to every person individually, not as a sweeping generality. J)

For this we should look all the way back to Genesis and the accounts of creation. The first account is the objective account, the events that took place viewed externally, while the second was a subjective account, looking at the experiences of the inner life of the people involved. Obviously to find out what we were like then we should focus more on the second account. In the beginning there was Adahm (Hebrew for a human person, neither male nor female), made in the image and likeness of god. Here Adahm experienced 'original solitude', where he was given all he needed to survive, and all the animals as companions. However, Adahm also realised he was different from all these others, jade for something more, for communion, thought he probably didn't realise it then. This is something all people must come to realise at some point, that we are not made for ourselves, but for another, in fact for that infinite Other, God. It was god who said that it was not god for Adahm to be alone, and made a companion for him.

This alone is of great importance, something I probably should have written about earlier but will slot in now please bear with me.

The body is a sacrament, not like the seven Sacraments are but in a fuller definition, that a sacrament makes visible an invisible mystery. Our bodies are a great sacrament in that they reveal a great mystery, the interior life of god. If you're skeptical about that, look at the incarnation, which could never have been possible without a human body. And what is the mystery it makes visible? That god is a continual self-giving communion of love. It is this that we have been created for, to participate in this exchange. It is a gift freely given from God and the only true way we can participate is by receiving this gift and in giving it back to our creator. God is always the origin of this give of His divine life, we cannot attain it on our own, and equally the gift withers it if is received and then hoarded.

So back to the story... God initiated this give of new life which Adahm received willingly and fell into a deep sleep and from him was taken a rib. This also is important, as back in the culture of the time a person's bone (or bones) was symbolic of the whole person. In this way Eve was brought from a part of Adahm, as though she was lacking the rest, but contained equally everything that made Adahm Adahm, spiritually and physically. In this way Adam and Eve awoke knowing that they had found a true and fulfilling companion, as Adam says 'At last … bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh!' Here is where Adam and Eve differed from us now, they were naked and felt no shame. As they looked upon one another they didn't see a body which could be used to fulfil their own lusts but a body which revealed a person and in that trusted the other saw the same thing. Each revealed also what the other was meant for, communion, and this led to their second stage, original unity.

Now hopefully, you have a decent understanding of events so far, if not please ask. Now we have two people, an original man and an original woman, who each personify two concepts, maleness and femaleness. By looking just at the bodies of these two people and how they function we can see that they are made for different functions. The man is the initiator of the gift; he gives his seed to the woman. This is the only choice he has that images God's love, which is always life-giving, the only other options are to withhold the give or to render it infertile. The woman on the other hand is the receiver of the gift, and in receiving gives the gift back in the form of openness to new life. This also is the only way she can image God's love, all else she can do is deny the gift or else render it infertile.

Now we get close to the point, God wants to be seen as Father. This is how He has revealed Himself and, no matter how much people wish to debate it, if you trust in the Holy Spirit then you know He wouldn't allow the Word of God in His Church to spread lies. This is who God is, eternal, continuing self-donation of the give, calling us to share in His divine life, and in this sense we (all humanity) are feminine, His eternal bride. God never withholds His gift, no matter what, so the Devil's job then is to corrupt every other aspect of the equation. Think back to Genesis, God gave us only two commands 'be fruitful and multiply' and 'don't eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.' Or more simply 'be fruitful', don't eat the fruit'. We are called to continually donate ourselves to others, and trust that in this we will still be receiving. The Devil now moves in and plants suspicion, that god is withholding from Adam and Eve what they need, that God has lied to them. He insinuates that they don't have to receive the gift, but can now grasp at it for themselves, to make themselves God. In the male-female analogy, it's like a woman wanting to make herself a man, because she does not want to have to trust in receiving the gift but to initiate it herself. Obviously even in the natural world this is impossible and does not lead to fruitfulness.

God wished to be revealed as Father for a reason, and this is why the Devil tries so hard to abolish fatherhood, just look at the rates of divorce, single parent families, abusive husbands, but problem lies in us putting our perceptions of what it is to be father or mother, which we all learn from those around us, on to God. He was not made in the image of us, we were made in the image of him and that image is terribly wounded. If we could just start moving in that direction, conforming ourselves to god's image instead of adjusting our perception of God to what we experience, I think we'd see a tremendous improvement in society.

And now finally, why is it dangerous to see God as feminine? First, I'd like to say I don't think it's wrong as such, just dangerous, especially for people without a firm understanding of who god is in relation to them. In this respect, God as feminine implies that He is a receiver of the gift, that somehow we are giving to God something which He requires to create and to be who He is, which is heretical to say the least. We don't want to be the weak ones waiting in openness to receive from God, we want to be the strong one in control and completely non-reliant on any other as god is. But in saying this, obviously God is neither male nor female and fruit can be gained from either picture if understood properly.

Now I know in haste I have left large gaps, so if you wish to pursue them, and never just accept but find out for yourself the truths behind my words.

God bless, dear Sister in Christ