Can a mother forget her infant,
be without tenderness for the child of her womb?
Even should she forget,
I will never forget you. (Isaiah 49:15)
“Look at the birds in the sky;
they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns,
yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are not you more important than they?
Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?
Why are you anxious about clothes?
Learn from the way the wild flowers grow.
They do not work or spin.
But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor
was clothed like one of them.
If God so clothes the grass of the field,
which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow,
will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?
So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’
or ‘What are we to drink?’or ‘What are we to wear?’
All these things the pagans seek.
Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.” (Matthew 6: 26-32)
OUR TRANSGENDER GOD – A Reflection on Isaiah 49, Matthew 6, and John 1
The title of this reflection is rather provocative isn’t it? Calling God “transgender” seems a bit radical, but is it? These two scripture readings, used on the 8th Sunday of Ordinary Time, clearly indicate a female and a male image of God. Clearly Isaiah’s reference to God is as the Divine Mother. Jesus’ reference is clearly a Divine Father image. Which is it? It is both/and.
Referring to God as transgender is a misnomer, for God transcends our human notion of male and female. God is made only in the image of God’s self. However, as females and males, we are both made in the image and the likeness of God. This is an important distinction. It is we who are creatures of God, not the other way around. God is not made in either a female or male image. It is we, female and male, who are made in God’s image. As these two scripture passages clearly illustrate, God cannot be confined to our finite human images. God transcends all of that.
To muddy these waters of gender all the more, while Mary is the Theotokus, the mother of God, Jesus, the Logos, the Word of God, is the mother of Mary. How can this be? In the beautiful Prologue to the Gospel of John we read these words.
“In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came to be through him,
and without him nothing came to be.
What came to be through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race;
the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:1-5)
It is clear that all things came to be, were created, through the Logos, the Word of God. Jesus is the Word of God. John’s Gospel makes it clear that it was through Jesus that his mother, Mary, was created. And it was through her that Jesus was born into our world. This is somewhat reminiscent of the question, “What came first? The chicken? Or the egg?” The One through whom Mary was created, was created through Mary. Welcome to the mystery and the paradox of God.
What can we conclude from this musing?
When we encounter God, we encounter the One who defies all human knowledge. God is a vast mystery filled with wonder. We are unable to wrap our minds around God. Human comprehension and understanding of God is not quantifiable. Instead we enter into mystery of God and experience the wonder and love of God as both the Divine Mother who birthed us into life and nurtures us, and the Divine Father who provides for us, watches over us, and protects us.
Our inability to understand God will enable us to be content and at peace with all the other mysteries we encounter in our lives. There are plenty of mysteries. The mystery of adolescence, the mystery of growing older, the mystery of our own God given gifts, the mystery of love, the mystery of relationships, the mystery of our spouses, the mystery of sexuality and all of its components, the mystery of illness, the mystery of death, and, the mystery of that which lies beyond death.
And through all these encounters with the mysteries in our lives, we will know that we can always fall back on God as our Divine Mother and our Divine Father, whose tremendous love for us is the greatest mystery of all.
