It is a great pleasure and an honour for me to participate at the Plenary of UISG as together we reflect on the conditions of life that exist for human beings often considered marginalized. Because woman, the subject of my presentation, is among the marginalized, and I hope, with a few considerations and observations, to contribute something to her search for answers.

 

It will be useful to start by clarifying what we understand by ‘spirituality’ in this context.  Are we speaking of a way of thinking that would influence our life and actions?  For me, personally, the words behaviour and attitude seem more concrete and appropriate than that of spirituality, if we mean to propose or to offer guidelines that aim at generating hope and life for all.  From this angle, I will speak of the woman with full and calloused hands.  She is the one who is called to a variety of responsibilities, often in difficult conditions, no matter where she lives, or to what nation she belongs on our planet.  She is called to nourish and defend life.  She is called to make God’s mercy a value and a reality all over the world, trying to weave the threads of peace where violence reigns supreme.

 

Praising John the Baptist, Jesus declared, “ I tell you solemnly, of all the children born of women, a greater than John the Baptist has never been seen (Mt 11: 11).

Jesus referred to Himself as the ‘Son of Man’ to emphasise His Incarnation by which He “became man among humans” (Ph 2: 7), then he introduced John the Baptist as son of woman.

 I allow myself a free interpretation of this expression.  I see here an echo of the greatness of this original being called: woman.

 

Who is she?

 

When we answer this question, we tend to think of all the women young and old we meet here and there in our cities and villages.  But shouldn’t we also think about the fact that, “ I am a woman!”   “You are a woman!”;    “We are women!”? We must not search far and wide; she is among us, she is in us since we are all women, all of us gathered here in this hall.  The one about whom we are thinking is our sister.  The great variety of pictures on the screen is a proof of this particular characteristic that well defines woman: a being of many faces.

 

In spite of this great variety of faces, it is important to be able to give a name to each one; but what name can we give her?  For a moment, let us be satisfied with introducing these women by an arbitrary category.  It is not logical; it is simply the result of what we observe around us:

 

“Women of the fields, women of the rivers” (this is an expression borrowed from a poem, “Black Woman, Woman of Africa” by Camara Laye, a Senegalese writer).  She refers to the peasant woman who depends totally on the soil and on her humble daily efforts for survival.

“First ladies or Citizens of their country”, wives of Heads of State

Women politicians: Queens, Ministers, Deputies etc.

(Báási ya kilo): Women of power, those are the influential and rich women, the businesswomen, or wives of well-known men.

Women widowed or divorced: often, they have a similar fate, they are left to their own resources, they are forgotten; they carry alone the weight of the education of their children.  They are women without any rights, without a voice.

Women prostitutes, trafficked, abused; they choose or are forced into prostitution for money.  They are merchandise to sell or to destroy at will, according to the mood of the “owner”.

Women, who are violated, marginalized; they represent a large number of women, victims of different forms of humiliation, of dehumanisation, and of the total negation of their dignity. In the countries where violence, war and terror reign, they have spent several months sleeping against their will, against their desire, with the soldiers and other invaders of their country.  Then, they are abandoned, rejected by their families.  In this category, there are many, many children also.

Women betrayed, misled by a whole gamut of vile tricks perpetrated by cunning men.

Women in Consecrated Life, all of us here today and our sisters back home in our communities.

Women who are educated, a small minority compared to the total number of women in many poor countries, a few more in developed countries.  These have the opportunity to hold honest jobs.

Women…there are so many others, without specific names. In my country, we call them resourceful (débrouillardes).  They are everywhere and nowhere; they work hard, but at jobs that leave no trace in the community where they live; nothing changes in their lives.

 

Where are these women socially?

 

In society women are found just about everywhere: we are half of humanity after all!  But neither laws nor rights put us on par with the other half.  Often the woman is not even visible socially, even if she carries the heavier burden every day.  It is true that there are a small number of visible women; I call them “exceptions”.  They are at the top of any pyramid, and now and then, they do leave their mark on society.  But there is a large number, almost two thirds, of women who do not count at all.  They are often rendered invisible because society refuses to recognize and appreciate their talents and abilities:  they are even categorically opposed.  Therefore there is no space where they can develop.  This explains their absence from the social scene.  They are the women whose hands are full, because they have so much to give to help construct or reconstruct our world; but their hands are calloused by work, by the need to struggle against unjust laws and structures that support the inequality of human beings, preventing women from really existing. This situation affects their beauty, that is, their dignity. 

 

A brief look at the realities and experiences lived in our world, through our diverse societies, and we must ask, “ Where is the greatness of woman that Jesus spoke of?  Is there a reason why she is scoffed at by a whole gamut of measures, down to small details? Where does this conviction come from, that woman is inferior and must be treated as such?”

The laws of society, the customs, the way of thinking remain firm on this question and are even used as reference.  With few exceptions, the greatness of woman is an empty formula, beautiful on paper.  The reality is quite different.  The identity of woman is often that of the victim, the ignored and the absent, in places and forums where important decisions are made, even if these decisions affect her life.  They are the women bent-over by the conditions of their own existence.

The saddest observation is the fact that, in many cases, the woman herself contributes to her misfortune by spontaneous acts of submission that do not respect her dignity.

 

And now…. What are we to do?

 

This is the question asked by the disciples gathered in Jerusalem after having heard the discourse of Peter (Act. 2: 37). We ask ourselves the same question.  But before looking for an answer, let us ask, “ Have I heard some cry for help? From whom did it come?  To whom was it addressed?  Am I concerned?  To what degree?”  It is not possible to answer if we have not heard any call, any distressing cry for help.  The questions may vary. The “What are we to do?” may become, “Where am I in all this? Where is my place in this?”  Remember, that woman is me, she is my sister!

 

A person crushed by the weight of a load or a responsibility must ask to be relieved, or at least, to have the weight lighten somewhat. Here, the bent woman looks for someone whose hands are full to help raise her up.  They need the hands of persons-sisters who will reach out to keep them company, to walk along with them, the hands of persons who understand them and love them.

 

This is how I interpret the term “new spirituality” used in the title of our reflection.  For me, it is a question of “a new way of thinking” that influences our life and actions to start again (after having been shocked by what is happening around us).  We especially need to adopt concrete attitudes that lead us to redress situations, so as to generate hope and life for all.

 

Some attitudes of trust for the future:

 

Bent-over women are not new. Jesus met some more than two thousand years ago.  But, once they met Jesus, a new life began for them. He put an end to their suffering. “Do not cry”, he told the widow of Nain, who was bent-over by sadness, the death of her only son (Lc 7: 14). He gave life back to the son and to the mother.  As followers of Jesus, we are invited to meet these bent-over women in our societies who yearn to stand upright.  They will succeed only if they can find:

 

Their own name: so far they are designated by pitiful adjectives that recall their misery and make them carry guilt, as the ‘divorced’, ‘trafficked’, ‘abandoned’, etc.  Jesus always called them by a name that revealed their true value, “daughter of Abraham”(Lc 13: 16), “my daughter” (Mt 9:22).

Their appropriate SPACE: woman has a space that is uniquely hers and that varies according to the societies and the epochs of history.  What she will not accomplish will never be accomplished!  What must the religious women gathered here today do to help their marginalized sisters to occupy their space validly?

Their DIGNITY: they will become Women once again when they will have heard pronounced over them this life-giving word, “Woman, you are now delivered from your infirmity” (Lc 13: 12).  Then they will learn to discover and to appreciate who they are, and what they have in particular.  The rest will follow.

It is not with reasoning that we will determine the future of the woman.  We need actions of daring solidarity to move ahead together towards the rediscovering of this greatness so long unrecognised.

   Are we ready to meet this woman bent-over in front of us?  She is one of us! She is all of us!