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Mother Pelican
Meditations on Man and Woman, Humanity and Nature

Luis T. Gutiérrez
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Meditation Seeking Understanding ~ Liturgy


These pages are meditations on the mysteries of the creation, the incarnation, and the redemption. They explore the Christian understanding that all men and women are consubstantial in one and the same human nature, and are consubstantial with Jesus Christ as to his humanity. The meditations are based on a layman's reading of the Sacred Bible, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and the Theology of the Body as they pertain to the egalitarian complementarity of man and woman, which transcends the patriarchal binary of mutually exclusive male-female opposites. This understanding of the complementary equality of man and woman applies to all the sacraments, sheds light on the great nuptial mystery of Christ and the Church, and would seem to support the ordination of women to the ministerial priesthood and the episcopate.


Body Language in the Church Family

Working Draft - 10 April 2016

PRAELUDIUM 1 - Principle and Foundation

"Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul; and the other things on the face of the earth are created for man and that they may help him in prosecuting the end for which he is created. From this it follows that man is to use them as much as they help him on to his end, and ought to rid himself of them so far as they hinder him as to it. For this it is necessary to make ourselves indifferent to all created things in all that is allowed to the choice of our free will and is not prohibited to it; so that, on our part, we want not health rather than sickness, riches rather than poverty, honor rather than dishonor, long rather than short life, and so in all the rest; desiring and choosing only what is most conducive for us to attain the end for which we are created." St. Ignatius Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, 23.

PRAELUDIUM 2 - Principle and Foundation, Here and Now

Each human person is created in the image of God to live in communion with God; and everything else in the universe is created to enable every human person to become what he or she is. From this it follows that we are to use them and build on them, physically and culturally, to the extent that they help us on to this end, and discard them to the extent that they hinder integral human development. For this it is necessary to make ourselves indifferent to all created things and all artifacts, physical and cultural, to the extent that it is allowed to the choice of our free will and the common good; so that, on our part, we should not have an inordinate attachment to health rather than sickness, riches rather than poverty, honor rather than dishonor, long rather than short life, any given culture rather than another one, and so in all the rest; desiring and choosing only what is most conducive for us to attain the end for which we are created.

FLESH, BODY, AND PERSON

The body is a sacrament of the entire person but is not the entire person:

TOB.VENN.DIAGRAMS.9A.jpg
Colors: Grey = Biblical "Flesh" (Human Nature), Beige = Body, Pink = Female, Blue = Male, Purple = Intersex. NB: The grey (biblical "flesh," i.e., human nature) subsists under the other colors for all humans. Christ is 100% human and 100% divine. Each person is distinct (solid borders), but all human beings are made of the same flesh.

The body reveals the entire person but is not the entire person

ORIGINAL SIN AND PATRIARCHAL BODY LANGUAGE

The patriarchal culture of male hegemony derives from original sin:

MERCY-9.2A.jpg

Patriarchy is the old order of things, created by human hands

The patriarchal priesthood of the Old Law
conveyed unredeemed body language:
MALE, CLEAN versus FEMALE, UNCLEAN

INCARNATION, REDEMPTION, AND PENTECOST

After the redemption, the Church becomes the mystical body of Christ:

MERCY-9.3.1A MERCY-9.3.2 MERCY-9.3.2.5 MERCY-9.3.3 MERCY-9.3.3.5 MERCY-9.3.4 MERCY-9.3.5 MERCY-9.3.5.5 MERCY-9.3.6 MERCY-9.3.6.5 MERCY-9.3.6.6 MERCY-9.3.6.7 MERCY-9.3.7 MERCY-9.3.7.5 MERCY-9.3.8 MERCY-9.3.9

If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:
The old has gone, the new is here!

NUPTIAL COVENANT OF CHRIST AND THE CHURCH

Christ submits to the Church:

MERCY-9.4A.jpg

A rigid patriarchal interpretation of the bridegroom-bride analogy (Ephesians 5:21-33) reduces the Christ-Church mystery to cultural norms that no longer apply after the redemption for the same reason that male circumcision is no longer required for entering the sacramental economy (Acts 10 to 15).

In the new Christ-Church covenant, the Church
does have the authority (Mt 16:19, 18:18) to ordain women
to the priesthood and the episcopate

REDEEMED BODY LANGUAGE IN THE LITURGY

The language of the body, male and female, is the language of the Eucharist:

MERCY-9.5.jpg

Why should body language around the altar be exclusively male?

MERCY-9.5.1A.jpg

The sacramental priesthood of the New Law
can and should convey redeemed body language:
MALE, CLEAN and FEMALE, CLEAN

COLLOQUIUM 1 - Sentire cum Ecclesia

MERCY-9.5.2B.jpg
CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR LARGE CHARTS

MERCY-9.5.2.jpg
Source: Univision Global Survey of Roman Catholics, Bendixen & Amandi, February 2014

A global consensus among the faithful on female priests and bishops may not have been reached yet. However, the old "patriarchal" consensus is gradually desintegrating as patriarchy passes away. The Pope decides, but the Pope cannot decide in isolation from the entire Church (securus iudicat orbis terrarum).

NEW CREATION ~ NEW LITURGICAL BODY LANGUAGE

COLLOQUIUM 2 - Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam et Bonum Animarum

MERCY-9.5.2A.jpg

For the Church as a family,
and for the new evangelization,
the hierarchy must show
the maternal and paternal face of Christ.

Start ordaining some nuns!


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