Wednesday, 10 June 2015

A superb statement on the male and female principle in our religion

On Catholic view of male and female...Why we refer to God as male, the Father, and why we know the Incarnation is the Son of God...from a comment on another blog....(not by me, btw).

Femininity is defined as receptivity to the other - eg Our Lady - full of Grace
- the very generative nature of motherhood - this requires potential yet In God -
being Pure Act - there is no potential.. God is Pure Act &
Perfection & receives nothing save from Himself.Ontologically God is
the ONLY Pure Male - even Angels who are male in being unique species
are feminine in their receptivity to the Godhead.. God gives and
receives His entire Being unto Himself in Pure Act.God is the Holism -
femininity is gift to Creation to receive from that Perfection -So
technically speaking all souls are female in their receptivity to God's
Love and Grace. Angels &men may be physically spiritually
intellectually male but not absolutely for their receptivity is female -
femininity is a mere shadow of the internal absolute self- receptivity
within the Godhead. BUT in God this is not female in that it is not
external requiring another - it is Constant giving - Pure Act. To define
God as anything other than male fails to understand the very nature of
God as God - requiring nothing save Himself - it also dangerously falls
into the Pantheist Omega-Chardinism heresy of a developing God - a
mutable God - an imperfect God - a God who is not absolute Truth, Love,
Beauty and Goodness.
Basic Thomism grounded in the Aristotelian, material, formal, efficient
and final causes shows us that 'feminine' by its very formal nature is potency - its
efficiency is receiving - its final end is to achieve perfection by
receiving to its fullest - and what's more its material cause is intrinsically to have been created - for the Creator has no Potency.
This is why even Angels [who are male by being each unique individual species
unto themselves] and men are within their souls feminine in their
receptivity of God's Love and Grace.
We're not referring to analogy but the reality of the situation.
Our Lord is not a liar - He called God the Father because that is the Ultimate Truth about that Person of the Trinity - The Son is The Son - and the Spirit - being absolute Pure Act -
constantly Proceeding - constantly giving - can never be defined as female.
Only the created is female - for female is merely a shadow of the Universal self-receptivity within the Godhead.
Can this be defined as absolute feminity also? No - why? because it's forver part of Pure
Act never having any potential. It's not mere analogy or custom or equivocation to explain some ineffable mystery - it's the reality!