The Feminine Aspect of God

We are in the octave of the Feast of the Assumption. The actual feast day was August 15th, but for major days in the Christian year, we continue the feast for 8 days (an octave).

The Assumption of the Mother of Jesus honors her departure from earth. According to legend, she died but was taken directly into heaven -- body and soul. The Bible says nothing about this.

The oldest written anything we have about Mary's death dates to the year 451. It is a story about the apostle Thomas who had asked that Mary's tomb be opened only to find it empty.

That said, the feast of the Assumption is widespread. This is the most important feast of Mary we have, and it is celebrated by us, by the Orthodox churches, by the Roman rite, and others. Tradition says Mary was kept free from all stain of original sin when she was taken directly to be the Queen of Heaven.

Jesus has been called the New Adam. Where the old Adam was the first human, Jesus is the first in our new Testament. And as soon as we say that, there's a missing link.

In the old order, the woman (Eve) came from the body of the man (Adam). In the new order, the man (Jesus) came from the body of the woman (Mary). But in the old order, it was the woman who first disobeyed God... while in the new order, Mary's first recorded action was to acknowledge and accept God's instructions. In the old order, Adam and Eve celebrated their disobedience... in the new order, there was nothing but sorrow and suffering for Jesus and Mary... but that suffering repaired the broken link between matter and heaven.

Then there is the other Mary. You may have read about the other Mary recently. I am talking about the Magdalene. Recent books say she was the wife of Jesus... the mother of the daughter of Jesus... who was swept out of the Middle East and into France for her own protection.

There is a strange silence about this other woman in the life of Jesus. The gospel writers say little, but they wrote long after the principle players were dead... long after the Magdalene would have been in an 'undisclosed location' to borrow a term from the U.S. government. Paul was writing when she would have been alive, but Paul was a convert who had a nasty reputation among some of the close friends of Jesus, so they may have kept Paul in the dark.

It is interesting to note that our Liberal Catholic liturgy mentions Mary without saying if we are referring to the Virgin Mary, the maiden-mother of Jesus... or Mary Magdalene, the holy grail of the blood-line of Jesus. Listen a little later in the Mass, and you will hear the phrase "Holy Lady Mary" with no further explanation. What that phrase means is completely up to you.

Fact: God works through women. Eve and the Virgin Mary are at the top of that list.

Fact: God considers women complete and full partners. Look at the most important milestones in our history. Adam and Eve... Mary and Jesus... women were involved deeply. And if the Magdalene was secretly involved, the case is even stronger.

Fact: In the way Adam and Eve worked together... and in the way Mary and Jesus worked together... we see a real partnership. There is no Battle of the Sexes here.

So many of us have a Battle of the Sexes raging inside. Let me explain using some terms and ideas of alchemy, a philosophical school of the Middle Ages.

Take the two words, masculine and feminine. Masculine energies are emittive, broadcasting power and testosterone. This has nothing to do with gender because women can certainly have masculine energies. In our solar system, the ultimate masculine energy is the sun.

Feminine energies are reflective in alchemy, and this has nothing to do with gender. The moon is feminine because it receives the sun's energies and reflects them to light up our night sky. You can stare at the moon and find it majestic. If you stare at the sun, your eyes will be destroyed.

Of course, God has feminine energies. Look at a mountain, and you will see the majesty of creation reflected... and that reflection is a feminine aspect of God. Look into the eyes of a child, and you will see the love of God... and that is a reflection, which is a feminine aspect of God.

God the Father is beyond gender. Our words are always limited, and something like God cannot be contained in words. A scholar named Dr. Neil Douglas-Klotz has translated the Lord's Prayer from what may be the closest thing we have to the actual words of Christ. The doctor's translation is from Aramaic to English, and Aramaic words are the words spoken by Jesus and the apostles. The Lord's Prayer -- Our Father, which art in heaven... -- is very different when it comes from Aramaic. It isn't patristic at all, it isn't erupting with testosterone. Listen, then...