Joan Chittister talks about Holy Wisdom in her book “In Search of Belief.” Scripture, she says, describes “the feminine aspect of the Godhead,” using words such as “ruah, the breath of God, the mighty wind that hovered over the empty waters at the beginning of life in the process of Creation. [These are] all feminine images of a birthing, mothering God, of pregnant waiting and waters breaking and life coming forth. This Spirit, this living Wisdom that is God,” she says, “lifts us above ourselves, tunes [like a tuning fork] to the voice of the Creator around us and within us, comes upon us with gentle force or terrible consciousness, and cares for life, day in, day out, unrelenting in its urge for wholeness. The Spirit prods us, proves us, brings life in us to creative fullness… And yet,” she says, “having defined the Spirit as Wisdom, as ruah, as ‘she,’ this feminine force of life as feminine is promptly submerged, totally forgotten, completely ignored. The masculine images reappear, the genderless God is gendered, and the fullness of God, the fullness of life, is denied in the Church. The Church itself stays half whole.”
I’m reminded of her words as I reflect on the latest from Pope Francis. When the 900 or so leaders of congregations of women religious worldwide met with him this past Thursday they told him that women had served as deacons in the early church, so “why not construct an official commission that might study the question,” they asked? His response–“Yes, it would do good for the church to clarify this point. I will do something like this.”
That answer sent ripples of hope through certain segments of the church, but also immediate disclaimers from high-ranking officials saying this wasn’t a move toward ordaining women in any capacity. Federico Lombardi, Director of the Holy See’s Press office, was quick to rein in hope by stressing that Francis “did not say he intends to introduce the ordination of female deacons!” In fact, in his conversation with the Superiors of women’s congregations Francis made clear his understanding that women deacons in the early Church weren’t ordained. There is, however, ample evidence that they actually were ordained. There are Rites for the ordination of women deacons on a par with those of men dating back at least to the 6th and up through the 11th centuries in the Latin Rite, and both earlier and later in the East. The resistance to women deacons, let alone women priests, is less a theological conundrum than another example of what Francis himself recently termed male chauvinism within the hierarchical men’s club of the Church.
The timing of this question and Francis’ answer coming at the end of Easter and just before Pentecost is, for me, a sign of Holy Wisdom’s presence and action in the life of the worldwide Church, particularly in its women. The question is not really about gender justice. It is about full, equal discipleship. It is about the identity of a church claiming to be the Body of Christ in the world, not the body of the man, Jesus.
If we listen carefully to Luke’s accounting of the Pentecost event in this first verse of the second chapter of Acts, what we hear is that the disciples were all gathered in one place together. In the first chapter Luke tells his readers that after Jesus ascended to heaven his disciples returned to Jerusalem and the upper room where they had been staying. He is careful to say that Jesus’ mother, Mary, and some other women were part of that group. When the Spirit descended on all those who were gathered, and tongues of fire came to rest on each of them, women were there. They were all filled with the Spirit. In John’s Gospel, Pentecost happens in the upper room when Jesus appears to the disciples on the evening of his resurrection. All but Thomas were there. He breathes on them, says “receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven; whose sins you retain are retained.” We can presume from both accounts that the word “disciple” includes women and men.
We also know Paul’s theology of the body of Christ: “all of us, whether Jew or Greek, male or female, slave or free, were baptized into one body” and the Spirit given to each person is given to serve the common good. Full and equal discipleship is our earliest theology—developed largely by Paul in the 50’s and 60’s. His letters were written before any of our Gospels. Full and equal discipleship across the board was the original intention. Biased interpretation and back-pedaling under Roman law, influenced by male-dominated Roman culture, sabotaged that intention and continues to distort Jesus’ ‘good news’ and cripple the church.
Of all the feasts we celebrate at our Masses throughout the year, there is only one focusing our attention on the Holy Spirit. Even when this same Gospel is read during the Easter season, the focus is usually forgiveness, not Spirit, not breath, not the mystery of the life-giving mothering God within us. The female aspect of the Godhead is deleted from our experience, our perception, our basic understanding of the world and universe we inhabit, and the road to holy Wisdom itself is obscured, if not completely blocked. The Spirit we celebrate today speaks through the unique and vital experiences of women and all who are marginalized. She keeps bringing up the hard subjects and posing the same pressing questions through women and men who receive her Spirit.
At Pentecost we encounter the feminine power and passion of God. This is a nurturing and transformative God who fortifies our endurance and inspires courage as we take those frightening steps into the unknown territory of real, incremental or even dramatic change. This is the God of subtleties and signs, the God who peeks through the tangled branches of our supposed knowledge to captivate us with insights and provide guidance at the most opportune time. It is this mothering Spirit that animates life and sets the world and the heart on fire! She creates new worlds and new possibilities. She instills wisdom, vision and compassion and ignites the embers of God’s own life imbedded in our souls, and in the very soul of humanity. There is nothing static in her. She is always moving, often in imperceptible ways, lighting a fire under us when we’ve become too complacent, encouraging us when the tasks seem overwhelming and unmanageable. She is Sophia, Holy Wisdom, the Spirit of life, Breath of the Universe, our holy Mother God. We honor her today and open our hearts and minds to receive the fire of her passionate, all-embracing, ever-present loving care.
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