Woman

Profile portrait of a young woman.

"The hour comes, the hour has come when the vocation of woman is fulfilled in fullness, the hour when woman acquires in the city an influence, a radiance, a power never reached before. That is why, at this moment when humanity is undergoing such a profound mutation, women imbued with the spirit of the Gospel can do so much to help humanity not to fall" (Message of the Council to Women (December 8, 1965): AAS 58 (1966), pp. 13-14).

In "The Gospel as it was revealed to me"

Specificities of woman

• It is thanks to women that the world progresses: various visions of woman confront each other.
• The prayer of the heart, a predisposition of women.
• (Jeanne of Kouza) I am a woman, but more manly than him (Judas) at your service. I serve you because I love you, not to receive honors from You. If tomorrow, because of You, I lost the riches, the love of my husband and even my freedom and my life, I would love you more because then I would have only You to love and to love me.
• Woman is not like man in her formation and in her reactions to the original fault. Man has other goals for his desires more or less good. Woman has one goal: love.

Status of woman

• Exploitation of woman.
• Dissolute women also have their formidable cross.
• Jeanne, woman of Chouza: So what are we, the best women? A jewel shown or hidden depending on what is useful... A mime who must laugh or cry, attract or repel, speak or be silent, show herself or remain hidden, according to man's desires... always in his interest... Our fate, Lord, is sad! And degrading, too! - In compensation, you are given to know how to rise higher through the spirit.
• We are used to seeing woman as an inferior being and to thinking that she is. No. (...) I tell you there is much strength in a woman’s heart. In the heart, as for us men, in intelligence.

Women-disciples

• The status of women-disciples.
• In the universal religion of Christ, and in the time of forgiveness, all this is changed. All the Grace has gathered into one woman and She gave birth to Him for the world to be redeemed. Woman is therefore no longer marked by God's disdain, but she is God’s help. And through the Woman, the beloved of the Lord, all women can become disciples of the Lord, not only as the masses, but as lower-order priestesses, coadjutors of priests whom they can so much help...
• I only ask you to observe, to notice within yourself, the differences you see between the women disciples and the disciples, and to impartially notice how they respond to my teaching. You will see that women are better than you.

Object of desire

• Satan’s temptation: You are young and beautiful. Start with the woman. It is always through her that one must start. I was wrong to lead the woman to disobedience. I should have advised her differently. I would have made a better instrument of her and I would have defeated God.

In fundamental Christian texts

In the Bible

• God created man in his image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
• In Isaiah, God has maternal qualities in relationship to men, his children: (---)
• A gracious woman obtains glory, and energetic men obtain riches. – Whoever finds a wife finds happiness and obtains favor from Yahweh.
• I will apply myself with all my heart to know, to explore, to seek wisdom and logic, also to know that wickedness is foolishness, a maddening foolishness. And I find, to me, more bitter than death a woman when she is a trap, and her heart a net, her hands bonds: he who pleases God will escape her, but the Sinner, sinner will be caught by her. This I found, said Qoheleth, when looking at them one by one to find an opinion. Still searching and not having found: A man among a thousand, I found, but a woman among them all, I did not find (Ecclesiastes – Wisdom of Solomon 7:25-29).
• The beauty of a woman delights the eyes, it is the greatest of all a man’s desires (Sirach – Ecclesiasticus 36:22).

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church

• Man and woman He created them: Equality and difference willed by God.
• "The marital covenant, by which a man and a woman constitute between themselves a community of their whole life, [...] has been raised between the baptized by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament.
• The Church recognizes an exemplary value in the vows to practice evangelical counsels [...] and rejoices that in its midst there are in great number men and women who want to follow more closely and more clearly manifest the annihilation of the Savior, [...]
• It is up to each, man and woman, to recognize and accept his or her sexual identity. Physical, moral and spiritual difference and complementarity are oriented toward the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life. The harmony of the couple and society partly depends on how complementarity, mutual need and support are lived between the sexes.
• Sexual exploitation of woman - Pornography, prostitution, rape.
• Access to work and profession must be open to all without unjust discrimination, men and women (...)
• You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.

In other sources

• Apostolic Letter "Mulieris Dignitatem" on the dignity and vocation of woman - John Paul II, August 15, 1988

A Sign of the Times

1. THE DIGNITY OF WOMAN and her vocation – subjects of constant human and Christian reflection – have gained a very particular prominence in recent years. This is seen, among other things, in the interventions of the Magisterium of the Church, taken up by various documents of Vatican II, which then affirmed in its Final Message:

"The hour comes, the hour has come when the vocation of woman is fulfilled in fullness, the hour when woman acquires in the city an influence, a radiance, a power never reached before. That is why, at this moment when humanity experiences such a profound mutation, women imbued with the spirit of the Gospel can do so much to help humanity not to fall" (Message of the Council to Women (December 8, 1965): AAS 58 (1966), pp. 13-14).

The words of this Message summarize what had already been expressed by the teaching of the Council, notably in the pastoral constitution Gaudium et spes (nos. 8, 9, 60) and in the decree on the apostolate of the laity Apostolicam actuositatem (no. 9).

Then, the Apostolic Letter addresses several themes relating to Woman:

Chapter II – Mary, Mother of God

Chapter III – Image and likeness of God: Woman in the Old Testament

Chapter IV – Eve and Mary

Chapter V – Jesus Christ: Woman in the New Testament

Chapter VI: Motherhood and virginity: two dimensions of the vocation of woman. Motherhood understood both physically and spiritually.

Chapter VII: The Church, spouse of Christ.

Chapter VII – "The greatest is charity": The mission of Woman in the face of changes. The dignity of woman and the order of love.

The letter addresses the specific mission of woman: love as the greatest virtue:

"Thus is also explained the primacy of love expressed by Paul’s words in the Letter to the Corinthians: 'The greatest of these is love' (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:13). Without resorting to this order and primacy, it is not possible to give a complete and adequate answer to the question about the dignity of woman and her vocation. When we say that woman is the one who receives love in order to love in turn, we do not think only or primarily of the spousal relationship specific to marriage. We think of something more universal, based precisely on the very fact of being a woman within the whole of interpersonal relationships which structure in very diverse ways the conviviality and collaboration among persons, men and women. In this broad and differentiated context, woman presents a particular value as a human person and, at the same time, as a concrete person, by virtue of her femininity. This concerns all women and each one of them, regardless of the cultural context in which they find themselves, of their spiritual, psychological and physical characteristics, such as age, education, health, work, marital status or singleness.

The rest of the text does not legislate on the "place" of woman (who, besides her own mission, falls under the mission of the laity as otherwise defined), but ends with this declaration:

"The moral strength of woman, her spiritual strength, meets the consciousness of the fact that God entrusts man, the human being, to her in a specific way. Naturally, God entrusts every person to all and to each one. However, this concerns woman in a specific way – precisely because of her femininity – and this particularly determines her vocation".

The Apostolic Letter concludes with a hymn to Woman:

Chapter IX: Conclusion: "If you knew the gift of God"

[...]

In the Marian Year, the Church wishes to thank the Most Holy Trinity for the "mystery of woman" and for every woman, for what constitutes the eternal dimension of her feminine dignity, for the "wonders of God" which, in the history of human generations, have been accomplished in her and through her. [...]

That is why the Church gives thanks for all women and for each one of them: for mothers, for sisters, for wives; for women consecrated to God in virginity; for women devoted to so many human beings who await the free love of another person; for women who watch over the human being in the family, this fundamental sign of human community; for women who exercise a profession, those on whom sometimes great social responsibility falls; for "valiant" women and for "weak" women: for all, as they came forth from the heart of God in all the beauty and richness of their femininity, as they have been surrounded by his eternal love; as they with man accomplish the pilgrimage of this earth, the temporal "homeland" of men, sometimes turned into a "vale of tears"; as they carry, together with man, the common responsibility for the destiny of humanity, according to daily necessities and following the final destiny that the human family has in God, within the ineffable Trinity.

The Church gives thanks for all the manifestations of female "genius" that have appeared throughout history, in all peoples and nations; [...]

The Church also asks that these priceless "manifestations of the Spirit" (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:4 ff.), generously given to the "daughters" of the eternal Jerusalem, be attentively recognized, valued, so that they may contribute to the common good of the Church and humanity, especially in our time. Meditating on the biblical mystery of "woman," the Church prays that all women may find themselves in this mystery, that they may rediscover their "highest vocation".