The Feminine Side of God

Leonardo Boff

14/09/2014

Opinión

^-A ⁺A

Early one sleepless morning, I returned to my usual work on the computer. Suddenly, it seemed that I heard something. I do not know if it came from the celestial world or from my mind in an altered state, but a voice, like a whisper, told me: “Son, I will reveal to you a truth that has always been there, in my Gospel writer Luke, but that the eyes of men, blinded by centuries of patriarchy, could not see. It is about the intimate and ineffable relationship between Mary and the Holy Ghost”.

And the voice continued whispering: “The one who is third in the order of the Trinity, the Holy Ghost, is the first in the order of creation. He came first to the world; then came the Son of God. It was the Holy Ghost who soared over the primitive chaos, and took from there all the orders of creation. As is said by my Gospel writer Luke recounts, that Spirit creator told Mary: He will come to you, Mary, and will set up his tent over you. This is why the engendered Saint will be called Son of God. To set up the tent, as you know, means to dwell, to inhabit definitively. If Mary, perplexed, had not said her fiat, let it be done according to Your word, the Son would not have been incarnated and the Holy Ghost would have not been feminized.

Listen, son, to what I am telling you: The Spirit came to dwell definitively over this woman, Mary. He identified with her, united Himself with her in such a radical and mysterious form that within her began to take shape the holy humanity of Jesus. The Spirit of life produced the new life, the new man, Jesus. To you and to all the faithful it is clear that the masculine was made divine through the man, Jesus of Nazareth. Now go to the Gospel of Saint Luke, and you will see that through Mary of Nazareth, the feminine was made divine as well, by the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost set up His tent, this is, He came to definitively dwell in her. Note that John, the Gospel writer, says the same about the Son: He set His tent in Jesus. Is it not the Spirit, the same voice whispers, that takes the prophet on a predetermined mission, and, when that mission is fulfilled, His presence within him ends? With Mary, it is different. He comes, dwells, and never leaves. She is elevated to the loftiness of the Divine Holy Spirit. Hence, logically, the engendered Saint will be called Son of God. Such is the case of Mary. Not without reason is she blessed among women.

Son, this is the truth you must proclaim: though Mary, God was revealed as both God-the-Father and God-the-Mother, also with the characteristics of the feminine: love, tenderness, caring, compassion and mercy. These virtues also are present in men, but they find a more visible expression in women.

Son, when you say God-the-Mother you will discover the feminine side of God, with all the feminine virtues. Never forget that no woman ever betrayed Jesus. They were faithful to Him even at the foot of the cross. While His disciples, the men, fled - Judas betrayed and Peter denied Him - but the women expressed a faithful love to the extreme. The women, well before the apostles, were the first to give testimony of the resurrection of Jesus, the greatest event in the history of salvation.

Maternity does not exhaust the feminine side of God, which is also revealed wherever there is intimacy, lovingness, gentleness and sensibility, which are perceptible in the feminine. Never let anyone, for any reason, discriminate against a woman for being a woman. Offer all the reasons that she must be respected and loved, because she reveals something of God that only she, together with man, can create, in My image and likeness. Support her struggles, gather her contributions to society, to the Churches, to the equilibrium between men and women. Women are a sacrament of God-the-Mother of all, the path leading us to the tenderness of God. Let's hope that women embrace their divine side, found in one of their compañeras, Mary of Nazareth. The day will come when the blinders that cover your eyes will fall and then men and women will feel that they are made divine by the Son and by the Holy Spirit.”

When I came to, I knew with a clear mind just how much truth had been communicated to me. And, moved, I was filled with praise and thanksgiving.

- Leonardo Boff, Theologian-Philosopher / Earthcharter Commission

Free translation from the Spanish sent by Melina Alfaro, done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.

https://www.alainet.org/en/articulo/103391