Learning from Mary: the feminine vocation and American law.

• Author: Schiltz, Elizabeth R.

One of the most significant features of Catholic feminism, setting it apart from more conventional secular feminism, is its conviction that there are fundamental differences between men and women that are not simply biological and are not simply socially constructed. This conviction finds expression in a theory of gender identity known as "complementarity," which rejects both the position that there is no significant difference between men and women, and the position that there is a significant difference between men and women that renders men or women naturally and fundamentally unequal. Gender complementarity embraces both significant differentiation and fundamental equality among men and women. (1)

The rich anthropological and philosophical basis of the concept of complementarity has been developed in recent years by Pope John Paul II, (2) as well as Catholic philosophers such as Mary F. Rousseau and Sr. Prudence Allen, R.S.M. (3) These thinkers see complementarity as revelatory of the Trinitarian nature of God and the fundamentally relational nature of man. (4) The belief that we are all created in the image and likeness of God is the ultimate basis for each human's fundamental equality. (5) That same belief also underlies the conviction that biological gender distinctions have some ontological significance; the differences between the genders reflect different aspects of God revealed to us in our bodily form. But what is revealed to us by these differences is something more than simply the intrinsic value in having multiple representations of personhood to demonstrate the complexity of God. One of the aspects of God that is illuminated by these differences is the aspect of God as a Trinity--as three different persons in relation with one another. (6) We reach our highest potential as human beings when we strive for that aspect of divinity--relationship with others, specifically the relationship that involves giving of oneself to the other: the relationship of love.

Despite its sound theological and philosophical pedigree, the concept of complementarity can trouble a Catholic feminist. The concept can be tricky to apply in different contexts. It underlies many of the Catholic Church's most contentious positions in the "culture wars," including the doctrines that marriage should be limited to monogamous relationships between men and women and that only men can be ordained priests. It is easy to see how the concept could be used to perpetuate historic and outmoded gender stereotypes. Women could be seen as biologically and temperamentally best suited for motherhood to the exclusion of all other vocations. Men could be seen as biologically and temperamentally best suited to father children and then leave them behind in the care of their mothers to forge ahead in leadership roles in industry, politics, and business. To defend complementarity, it is thus necessary to have a robust view of the exact nature of the particular gifts (or genius) of women.

The challenge of giving enough substantive meaning to the term "genius of women" to prevent complementarity from being used either as an instrument of inequality between the genders or as a stumbling block to the acceptance of Church doctrine on issues such as male priesthood is one of the most important and challenging aspects of the charge Pope John Paul II gave to women in Evangelium Vitae: the challenge of articulating a "new feminism." (7) John Paul II began this task in his 1988 apostolic letter Mulieris Dignitatera, devoting its central third to a detailed analysis of Jesus Christ's relationships and conversations with the women in his life. (8) Exploring Jesus' encounters with Martha and Mary, with the Samaritan woman at the well, and with the woman caught in adultery, John Paul II demonstrates that Jesus clearly appreciated the genius of women as not merely a capacity for nurturing--as important as that is--but also as an intellectual or emotional talent facilitating their grasp of profound truths of faith. (9) John Patti II argued emphatically and consistently that society requires that the genius of women be heard and applied to the public sphere, not just the private. (10)

The most important woman in Jesus' life and in the life of the Church is clearly his mother, Mary. Although John Paul II deals with Jesus' relationship with Mary in Mulieris Dignitatem, his discussion of Mary has always struck me as less accessible and less translatable into concrete lessons for contemporary women than the discussions of Jesus' relationships with his other female friends. In this article, I will explore the lessons that Mary's life might provide for women looking for guidance on the "feminine genius." I do not argue that any aspect of the feminine genius may not be shared also by many men. Nor do I argue that any aspect of the feminine genius is something that all women share. Rather, this Article is an attempt to identify particular aptitudes that may be displayed by more women than men, that have been historically undervalued by society due to the prevailing social roles of women and men, and that Pope John Paul II has suggested must be reevaluated and promoted in order to transform our culture. The development of these attributes is not something that should be limited to women, but it may be part of a particularly feminine vocation to foster and promote the display of these attributes by all.

Four particular features of the uniquely feminine vocation may be illustrated by Mary's life. Two are illuminated by focusing on the significance of Mary's role in the Incarnation and two are illuminated by focusing on the significance of Mary in the establishment and ongoing life of the Church. These four are particularly feminine capacities for: (1) teaching and guiding, (2) serving and speaking for the vulnerable, (3) mothering--as opposed to fathering--which entails a unique capacity to foster trust, and (4) prophesying. I will end with some preliminary thoughts about how these particularly feminine vocations could, if consciously recognized, promoted, and protected, effect changes in our laws that would bring us closer to realizing the "civilization of love" toward which our Church asks us to strive. (11)

1. MARY'S CHRISTOLOGICAL LESSONS FOR THE FEMININE VOCATION

   The first two lessons from Mary about the feminine vocation are best illustrated by considering Mary's Christological significance: her role in the Incarnation. Mary was the first human to encounter Jesus. (12) In Redemptoris Mater, John Paul II compares her "fiat," her acceptance of the truth about her Son at the Annunciation, to the faith of Abraham. (13) He writes, "In the salvific economy of God's revelation, Abraham's faith constitutes the beginning of the Old Covenant; Mary's faith at the Annunciation inaugurates the New Covenant." (14) He then traces the active role that Mary continued to play in Jesus' ministry. As Jesus grew, and

   as the messianic mission of her Son grew clearer to her eyes and spirit, ... in a sense Mary as Mother became the first 'disciple' of her Son, the first to whom he seemed to say: 'Follow me', even before he addressed this call to the Apostles or to anyone else (cf. Jn 1:43). (15)

   Mary even played an instrumental role in launching Jesus' public ministry through her intercession with Jesus on behalf of the hosts of the wedding at Cana, who had run out of wine. (16)

   God's incarnation as a human, in the person of Jesus Christ, is the central mystery of the Christian faith. (17) That this incarnation, this enfleshment, took the form of a male human is accorded much theological significance in Church doctrine. However, it is also significant that this incarnation, this enfleshment, would not have occurred without the consent of a woman, Mary. Pope Benedict XVI (then still Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger) meditates on the significance of this point, arguing that we cannot adequately glorify God if we neglect Marian devotion:

   [T]hough we do know God by means of his creation[,] ... we also know him, and know him more intimately, through the history he has shared with man .... Through his relation with men, through the faces of men, God has made himself accessible and has shown his face. We cannot try to bypass these human faces in order to get to God alone, in his "pure form", as it were. This would lead us to a God of our own invention in place of the real God; it would be an arrogant purism that regards its own ideas as more important than God's deeds .... Mary is one of the human beings who in an altogether special way belong to the name of God, so much so, in fact, that we cannot praise him rightly if we leave her out of account. (18) The theologian Joyce Little makes a similar point:

   There is no single teaching about Mary for which a corresponding teaching on Christ cannot be found, and in every instance those teachings have the effect of affirming in one way or another what the Church believes about Christ. Thus, for example, the teaching that Mary is the Mother of God corresponds to the Church's faith that Christ is the Son of God incarnate. It safeguards that teaching, because to say that Mary is the Mother of God affirms that he is genuinely human, whereas to say that she is the Mother of God affirms that he is genuinely divine in the unity of the one divine Person, the Logos or Son of God. (19) Just as our creation as male and female is not accidental, but instead revelatory of fundamental mysteries of the God in whose image we are created, (20) Jesus' gestation and birth as the son of a human woman is not accidental. It, too, must be revelatory of some fundamental mysteries of the God in whose image we are created. One of the greatest mysteries of the Incarnation is why God bothered with it: why was he willing to pay so great a price for our redemption? Little suggests that, while theologians contemplating this mystery tend to focus on the quality of God's love...