2022/04/11

34. The Vocation of the New Man and the New Woman

The Creator had a plan to make humanity male and female from the beginning. Witnessing men and other animals coming into being, people discovered living things have spontaneity. This spontaneity in living things made people sense something that "is" in them, and people came to perceive it as "existence." Eventually, they learn that this sensation is an event happening in one's brain and realize only they themselves can be perceived as being while everything else exists as the information demonstrating the relationship with themselves. So, when God, who created humans like that, says "I am", he means he is with people and in a relationship with them.¹ For one, information that demonstrates their relationship with others is the only means that assures the "existence" of others. The Bible writes God created humanity in his likeness. For this proposition to be information that guarantees people the "existence" of one – whether oneself or others, it must become information that demonstrates the relationship with others. So, God sent his only begotten Son to the earth. For Christians, the perfect likeness of God is Jesus. Therefore, to be like God signifies to be like Jesus. We can point out two specific characteristics of Jesus that Christians can share to be like him. Jesus encouraged his disciples to become "eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven."² These words were telling about Jesus himself. One of the specific characteristics of Jesus is that he became a eunuch without castration. He added: "Whoever can accept this ought to accept it," so that people who were in diverse social situations, like Peter and John, could freely accept his exhortation timely whenever they could. Another characteristic is that Jesus had maternity as God the Word while he was born male.³ So, we have to consider that he had both masculinity as a man and femininity as God. For Christians to become like Jesus, they need to receive new possibilities in their own masculinity and femininity. What is important here is that those the Father drew near the cross were the three Marys. Male Christians, with or without children, become those like Jesus by receiving Mary's name, following "the disciple whom Jesus loved." As for female Christians, those with children become like Jesus by receiving the name of Joseph through Mary, the wife of Clopas, while so do those childless by accepting the name of Jesus through Mary Magdalene. The three Marys under the cross symbolized the members of the Holy Family.⁴ If Jesus' "my Church" appears as the likeness of Jesus modelled on the Holy Family in this way, the world of the Bible will become real.

Reference: 1. this blog #25, 2. this blog#29, #33, 3. this blog #29, 4. this blog #30, #31

Maria K. M.