Experiencing the Male and Female Journeys to God
Written by Pio Peter Zammit, 1997,
for MA class requirement in Theology: Sacred Heart Major Seminary.
Introduction:
Since Jesus was fully human and gave glory to God the Father in His humanity, then to truly discover the divine in ourselves, we must become fully human. Since the quest of our humanity is union with Infinite Love and Truth and our capacity seems limitless, our approach to God must come from the depths of our humanity.
Our approach to God is a male approach and a female approach - since theology is basically coming from the male and female perspective. Christ’s approach to the Father encompassed both perspectives - which made Him fully human. Therefore, I would like my blog to be not a survey of all the insights from all the readings, but to use a few particular insights from the readings that support this fundamental truth - that we must approach God with a male-female perspective for men - and a female-male perspective for women; that is to say, that we cannot know ourselves fully as human until we have communion with the Divine; and we cannot have full communion or find God unless we understand the male-female spirituality as experienced in ourselves.
"Experienced" is the word - to know the experience of women in their quest for God is the "sine qua non" for finding God as a man. Knowing the male experience in his quest for God is the "sine qua non" for finding God as a woman. Jesus’ experience seems to have fully known both as evidenced in his fully relating to women and to men. His knowledge of women’s perspective is without parallel in human history. We men cannot become fully dignified as men - fully human - unless we not only know but experience female spirituality. Jungs’s concept of "anima" is helpful, but it must go beyond this. Knowing the spirituality of Theresa of Avila, Catherine of Sienna, our Lady, Joan of Arc and Julian of Norwich is a possible starting point, but head knowledge is not the basis of my thesis - EXPERIENCE is the key, and how do we get it? [Since Jesus is the expression/experience of the Father’s Being outwardly, then our experience of the divine will be in and through our humanness’ contact with Jesus inwardly - and expressed in Love for God inwardly - contemplation - and outwardly in Love for our neighbor.]
We, as men and women, can get the experience by knowing the struggles of the male and female journey to God in our own contemporary context. The dignity of our being fully human and its full realization are accomplished by seeing how Jesus did it and by seeing how men and women now - like Mother Theresa - are doing it - and by applying that wisdom in our life. Wisdom is right knowledge correctly applied. Getting Wisdom is what this course is all about. We can also ask for Divine Wisdom - it is a gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can illuminate the readings so they become our own experience.
Therefore, how the struggles of both impact our spirituality is fundamental to our becoming fully human; that is, experiencing the struggles will impact on our reflecting the Divine more fully - and ultimately to coming to Love God with all our hearts, minds, soul and will - both here on earth and heaven. Growth in Love of God is dynamic - it starts now and continues forever!
How all the above impacts our ministry, our perceptions of ourselves, our perceptions of our neighbor, our perceptions of our mission and above all our perceptions of God are paramount.
Jesus’ experience seems to have fully known both as evidenced in his fully relating to women and to men. His knowledge of women’s perspective is without parallel in human history/example.
The role of the Holy Spirit in the readings and in Moreno’s role playing as a possible technique:
. Implications for my own ministry now and in the future experience.
.Going beyond Jung’s concept of anima by entering into Jesus’ Spirituality
. Male and female spirituality as experienced in ourselves: how is that possible since we are only one or the other? Knowing the experience of the other. An exercise in Moreno’s reverse role playing method:
. Learning the experience and enter into female Spirituality through the Saints:
. Theresa of Avila:
. Catherine of Sienna:
. Our Lady:
. Joan of Arc:
. Julian of Norwich:
. The struggles of the male and female journey to God in our own contemporary context:
Therefore, how the struggles of both impact our spirituality is fundamental to our becoming fully human; that is, experiencing the struggles will impact on our reflecting the Divine more fully - and ultimately to coming to Love God with all our hearts, minds, soul and will - both here on earth and heaven. Growth in Love of God is dynamic - it starts now and continues forever!
Let us look now at:
.Spirituality and Personal Growth of Two Subjects
.On their Journey to Full Maturity in God
.Spirituality and Personal Growth
.The Inter-relationship between Psychology and Spirituality
Introduction
Who has fully known the human heart and the deep mysteries contained in it? If God is such a Great Mystery - the Absolute Absolute - known completely by God alone, then how mysterious is God’s creation - human nature - embodied as man and woman. Just as there are many different human faces in this world, so too there are as many different human spirits, all at different stages of personal development both psychologically and spiritually.
This paper gives two contrasting examples of the above: one is a 47 year old man; the other is a 40 year old woman. The man developed to age 11 and, because of trauma, remained there, where it was emotionally safe and where he had mastered the tasks appropriate to that stage of personal growth. Spiritually, he loves God very much and God loves him. Since my interview with him on April 22, 1997, there is clear evidence tht he is beginning to move out of his safe-harbor stage of pre-adolescence. The emotional and spiritual growth in his perceptions of himself is giving him an effective clear sign that it is safe to move beyond his past pseudo-safety stage to a new experience of the self, due (in part) to new parenting.
The woman subject is far advanced beyond her years both in emotional maturity and spiritual growth. In the Teresa of Avila mode of spirituality, this woman is between the fourth and fifth mansions in the castle. She is actually further developed in the castle than Teresa was at the same chronological age of development. The accelerated growth of this subject is due to an early trauma that catapulted her to God as well as a result of loving, mature parents who gave her the best example of a faith response. Her responses to the questions are insightful as well as delightful.
The method of these two studies is that of the interview based on condensed parameters presented by Dr. Ana-Maria Rizzuto, psychiatrist. Dr. Rizzuto:
"shows how a person’s God-image is formed and developed, and she demonstrates the image’s potential for generating belief or unbelief...Her conclusion draws a direct correlation between belief, personal experience, and the God representation at a given developmental moment. That is, belief in God, or its absence depends on whether or not a conscious "identity of experience" can be established between the God representation of a given developmental moment and self- representations needed to maintain relatedness and hope."1
Let us examine the responses of both subjects in order to see their images of self and God, and their individual responses to life’s difficulties. The man’s response was to remain safe by not differentiating/separating from his protective mother until she died in 1993.
The woman’s response was to advance to being "mother" to the community by giving love, nurturance and examples of heroism in the Spirit. In the eyes of God, both are His beloved ones. The mystery of I-Thou relationships is only known fully by God, and known to the subjects in their ineffable experiences within their spirits. The mystery is heightened by our call from the Holy Spirit to full maturity in Christ. Our daring challenge is twofold: to grow from where we are just as the man dares to grow from where he is, and to mirror God as the woman does by her reflecting the beauty of God in her contemplative self.
Let us begin, then, with a brief review of definitions, terms and concepts from Theology, Spirituality, and Psychology which are mainly taken from hand-out notes provided by our professor:
For Fr. Karl Rahner: "Nearness to God and genuine human autonomy grow in direct and not inverse proportion. The more fully human one becomes, the more God is taking hold."
"Grace: God’s presence to and indwelling within the human person and human history."
"Theology is about the critical unpacking of the revelation of God that takes place in human experience through faith. (Fr.Dermot Lane, The Experience of God.)
"Spirituality: describes things of the spirit as distinct from things of matter."
"Spirituality concerns the way in which God influences conduct, our behavior and manner of life, our attitudes to other people." (The Study of Spirituality)
"Spirituality is the way a person leads his or her life. Christian Spirituality is the way we respond to God in the experiences of life, mediated through the life and teaching of Jesus Christ." (Roger Haight, "Liberationist Spirituality")
"Spirituality refers to the totality of human life energized by an inner drive for self-transcendence, that is , for moving beyond self-maintenance to reach out in love, free commitment to seek truth and goodness." Christian Spiritually: "this capacity is experienced in relation to the divine mystery as Source, and Incarnate Word, and life-giving Spirit there is Christian spirituality. (Joann Conn: Women’s Spirituality)
"Psychology is concerned with the study of the human person, mind and behavior, here and now for the purpose of healing and health." (Dr. Gerald May, Will and Spirit).
"The psychologist believes in the dignity and worth of the individual human being, He is committed to increasing man’s understanding of himself and others." (Professor’s notes)
Stagnation: As applying directly and critically to our male subject is paramount:
"The crises of which Erikson speaks is the challenge with which the person is faced as he or she experiences these opposing impulses. This is a decisive period in personal development, a critical time in one’s life. Some resolution must be reached. The person may decide not to face this new challenge, not to deal with the new questions raised, but rather to remain with the resolution of an earlier stage. But there is no reprieve. To choose not to face a new developmental challenge is to choose not stasis but stagnation. The ‘strengths’ of earlier stages of development remain so only as they are tested and transformed at later stages. Without this subsequent transformation, earlier strength atrophy into defended or immature responses." (Evelyn Eaton Whitehead/James D. Whitehead: Christian Life Patterns, p.31)
"Erikson divided Adolescence into three periods: the first is the Juvenile Period: early adolescence: 11-15 (Professor’s notes).
Transformation: As applying directly to our female subject is paramount:
"The Interior Castle, as a document of religious experience, is describing a series of conversions or transformations. The call of God moved Teresa into the unknown, into the anti-structure with its liminal experiences. The images in her document can be understood as symbolic vehicles for the greater awareness and new meanings born in the unknown."(John Welch: Spiritual Pilgrims, p.25)
"In other words, religious experience is not religious experience until it is communicated. I communicate it when I find some way of paying attention to, and reflecting upon, the experience. The communication may only be from myself to myself, but I am attending to my experience when I story it and I am hearing that experience as it is storied."(John Welch: Spiritual Pilgrims, p.23)
Images: As applying directly to all spirituality:
"Images for God should come from what matters most to us in life." (Professor’s notes)
‘In reflecting upon the Interior Castle, I believe it is possible to say that Teresa was using a process of active imagination. She was taking the images which spoke to her of her experiences with God and engaging them in a literary form. As one might sculp or paint images, Teresa imbedded hers in a story for reading and reflection. The story expresses her religious experience. Teresa is communicating her transformations, her conversions through image." (John Welch: Spiritual Pilgrims, p.23)
"Jung writes about the role of image in human experience. It is important to note that image aids our spirituality when we enter into our experience with the belief that God is calling us to union. Teresa’s entire castle story is the result of hearing God in her life." (John Welch: Spiritual Pilgrims, p.23
"The fourth dwelling place (mansion or room in the Castle image of Teresa of Avila)marks a time of transition in the prayer life of the traveler. Prayer becomes less and less discursive or activity totally controlled through human effort. Gradually, the experience becomes one of God drawing the soul into an interior state of recollection. The individual becomes passive in prayer."(John Welch: Spiritual Pilgrims, p.18)
"The fifth dwelling place is a time of deepening contemplative prayer which Teresa calls the prayer of union. In this prayer there is an experience of union with God..."(John Welch: Spiritual Pilgrims, p.23"
"Just as the persona is a mediating function between the ego and the outer world, so the anima or animus is a mediating function between the ego and the inner world. They lead the way in one’s spiritual development--just as Dante was led by Beatrice in his vision of ultimate truth. Thus the contrasexual psychic (anima/animus) entity also serves a positive function, and plays an important role in the journey toward wholeness." (Jung and Christianity: The Structure of the Psyche p22-23
"Other archetypal images are frequently encountered in the individuation process. Among these are the archetype of the great mother, the archetype of the spiritual father, the archetype of transformation, and what might be called the central archetype, which expresses psychic wholeness or totality: the archetype of the self." (Jung and Christianity: The Structure of the Psyche p22-23
Conclusion
These two stories are "ongoing". By the time this paper is read, both subjects will have advanced and changed because of their new experiences of the self. But this paper, a snap-shot in time of their spiritual and psychological growth, gives us a glimpse of how their God-imaging and self-imaging are dynamically related. Their real parents were key, but all their new "community parents" also have keys to unlock their hearts to God.
We are all reflecting images for good or ill to one another: Husbands are mirrors for their wives as wives for their husbands; brothers for their sisters, sisters for their brothers, pastors for their parishioners, the Church for the faithful, the faithful for their clergy, fathers and mothers for their sons and daughters. St. Theresa of Lisieux’s growth in the spiritual life was a mirror of how she saw herself as her father’s "little princess". So, too, she saw God as her Father who considered her His little princess. She dared to crawl up in God’s eternal lap with such familiarity as to almost treat God as an equal in her bold intimacy with Him. As she saw herself mirrored in her own dad, so she advanced spiritually with the confidence of a princess who had as good a God-image and self-image as any little girl could possibly have. Thus our image of self and our God-image are dynamically linked for belief or unbelief, trust or mistrust, intimacy or alienation, self esteem or low/no esteem, care for others or self absorption, subservience or dominance, capacity to love or not to love, safety to move successfully through the stages of life or to remain stagnated -- from early childhood of differentiation and identification to the later generative stage of caring for the community and finally letting go, having reached integrity in old age.
As our male subject’s image of himself changes, so does his identity of self change. And as that changes, so does his God-image. By parenting him, the community now mirrors for him a better image of himself than he saw as a child. He can begin to move out of pseudo safety, dare to set sail on a new adventure, and become the marvelous person God intended him to be. He can grow in his special relationship with God who is becoming more known with each new experience of his true self.
How does all this relate to our ministry:
Because of the inter-relatedness of Theology, Spirituality and Psychology, human and spiritual growth are moving together synergistically in the human person’s spiritual and personal growth.
Since Karl Rahner’s words: "The more fully human one becomes, the more God is taking hold" are being fulfilled contextually in the lives of both subjects of this study and can be experienced as true in their and our own very selves, then ministry must be multi-deminsional. Our awareness must be heightened:
We must be very aware of what we are mirroring to others about themselves. Are we mirroring as Jesus did the woman at the well: "I will give you living waters that well up within you." The adulterous woman: "Neither do I condemn you." Peter:"Do you love me, Peter?" Nathaniel: "Here is a man without guile." Judas: "Do you betray with a kiss?" For my ministry and yours, the most central thing from this course is that we are co-creating each day the image people have of themselves; and this will have dramatic effects on their God-imaging and faith in God.
Peace and love, Pio
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