The fact that these three goals even have to be set reveals how millions of women and girls suffer from unequal treatment by their societies/governments. As of 2007, while women make up one half of the world's population, they receive one tenth of the world's salary, own one one-hundredth of the world's land, and constitute two thirds of the world's illiterate adults. Together with their dependent children, women comprise 75 percent of the world's starving people and 80 percent of homeless refugees. Women and men are not yet equal in any country on earth.
The Church should be a place where women are empowered. St. Paul, in his Letter to the Galatians, (Gal. 3:28) stated in a beautiful hymn that the waters of Baptism bond men and women in a community of brothers and sisters, united by mutual love: "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus." Women such as Prisca, St. Paul's friend, helped found the original Christian communities, yet once Christianity became part of the mainstream culture, women became as marginalized in Church as they were in society.
It is no wonder that Pope Francis, recognizing the sin of sexism present in the Church, is calling upon the leadership of the Catholic Church today to discover new roles for women in the Church. Then women can reclaim their identity of being created in God's Image and Likeness and use their splendid array of gifts, including leadership and administration, for the Church's holiness and growth. But the path won't be easy.
This new initiative by Pope Francis is needed to counter the centuries' old tradition of males being dominant in the Church as well as in society. Unfortunately, the fact that women were omitted from the public sphere led to some men's conviction that they had a privileged place before God. Conditioned by society, some men viewed women as "second Eves," and the "gateway of the devil" who tempt men. Because of woman's (Eve's) sin, God had to die. (Tertullian.) Augustine taught that woman is not the image of God unless she is taken together with man who is her head. Aquinas thought that women were "defective males."
Yet through the centuries, although they have been wounded by the sin of sexism, women, through their own prayer lives uniting them with God, have realized that God loves women passionately. They have inestimable worth in the eyes of God. Their lives and their gifts give equal glory to God.
If we only use male images for God in our Liturgies, in our personal prayer, in our Art, our main view of God can be limited to that of a ruling male such as a Lord or a King, or we can think of God only as a Father, although in reality God is limitless, incomprehensible Mystery and Spirit. Few Preachers point out that Scripture is full of images relating to God in connection with women's daily lives. These Scriptural feminine images liberate us: they affirm that women's full sexual identity is made in the Image and Likeness of God. Praying with and pondering these images, men can reverence women anew as their spiritual equals, and women can find God totally within themselves and discover their own holy, spiritual power.
One of women's greatest, most life-changing experiences is mothering. The idea of mothering generates strong images of delivering new persons into life, of primal comfort, and nurturing, But motherhood is not only about self-sacrificial serving. Women need to have strong, moral thinking and planning skills, because, especially in Third World countries, the survival of their children depends on the mothers' clever initiatives and hard work.
The prophets often depict God as Mother. Their images depict the Holy One of Israel as a woman who is pregnant, crying out in labor, giving birth, breast-feeding, carrying her young ones, nurturing their growth. The image of God as Mother is used to evoke God's unbreakable compassion for the people of the Covenant: "Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you." (Isaiah 49:15.) Jesus compares himself to a mother hen gathering her chicks under her wings to protect them from harm (Matt. 23:37).
Biblical scholars point out that the Hebrew noun for compassion, or merciful love, comes from the root word for a woman's uterus, "rehem," which is also the root word for the verb "to show mercy" and the adjective "merciful."
Scripture scholar and theologian Elizabeth Johnson observes
"Here the life-giving physical organ of the female body serves as a concrete metaphor for a distinctly divine way of being, feeling, and acting. When Scripture calls on God for mercy, a frequent theme, it is actually asking the Holy One to treat us with the kind of love a mother has for the child of her womb."
In 1978, Pope John Paul 1, comparing war to a fevered illness, said in a Sunday address:
"God is our father; even more, God is our mother. God does not want to hurt us, but only to do good for us, all of us. If children are ill, they have additional claim to be loved by their mother. And we, too, if by chance we are sick with badness and are on the wrong track, have yet another claim to be loved by the Lord." ("Osservatore Roman," September 21, 1978.)
Yet, mothers also fight for justice for their children. The prophet Hosea speaks of God as a mother bear, rearing up to protect her cubs, even tearing the attackers' hearts out of their bodies in Divine Wrath. (Hosea 13:8.)
Not only the role of motherhood is depicted in Scripture images. God is depicted in other cultural womanly roles such as a woman kneading bread (Luke 13:18) or knitting (Psalm 139:15), or pursuing her lover (Song of Songs.)
Scripture blesses us with an abundance of beautiful images depicting God in both male and female terms. Yet, even taken together, these male and female images only begin to point us towards the limitless, mysterious, awesome wonder of the Other Who is God.
If we become more aware of and emphasize both the male and female images for God in our Scripture readings during Liturgy, and ponder them in our personal prayer, we can begin to help heal and liberate the women in our congregations, who have been held back and burdened by the sin of sexism in both their societies and Churches. We can re-introduce women to the glory of being made in the Image and Likeness of God. We can begin, as Church, to more meaningfully form the community of equal brothers and sisters united in mutual love and respect envisioned by St. Paul in Galatians:
"There is no longer male or female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus."