Pope says exploitation, objectification of women is a sin against God
"Man without woman – as a mother, a sister, a wife, a colleague, a friend - that man alone is not an image of God". "Jesus doctrine on woman changes history. Women before Jesus is one thing, women after Jesus is something else”.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) – The exploitation, objectification of women or even using the female image for advertising purposes is a sin against God, it is doing the opposite of what Jesus taught and showed. Woman as "what is missing in all men to be the image and likeness of God ", was the topic illustrated by Pope Francis at Mass this morning at Casa Santa Marta, in which he emphasized the strong words used by Jesus regarding women.
Francis stated that these words "change history" because until then woman had been considered "second class", euphemistically speaking, "as slaves", who "did not even enjoy full freedom". " Jesus doctrine on woman changes history. Women before Jesus is one thing, women after Jesus is something else. Jesus dignifies the woman and puts her at the same level as man because she takes that first word of the Creator, both of them are the image and likeness of God, both of them; not the man first and then the woman a little lower down, no, both of them. And man without the woman next to him- as a mother, a sister, a wife, a colleague, a friend - that man alone is not an image of God ".
Francis focused in particular on the "desire" for a woman evoked in the Gospel passage. "In television programs, magazines, newspapers - he said - we see women as an object of desire, [an object]to be utilized", like in a "supermarket". Woman, perhaps to sell a certain quality of "tomatoes", becomes an object, "humiliated, without clothes", causing the Jesus’ teaching that bestowed "dignity" [on women] to fall. And, he adds, we don’t have to go "so far": "here, where we live", in the "offices", in the "companies", women are an "object of that disposable philosophy", as if they were "waste material", "in which they do not even seem to be ‘people’." This is a sin against God the Creator, rejecting the woman because without them we males cannot be the image and likeness of God. There is a anger towards woman, an unspoken anger... How often do girls have to sell themselves as disposable items in order to get a job? How often? "Yes, father I heard in that country ..." Here in Rome, we do not have to go far ".
And the Pope asked what we would see if we did a "nocturnal pilgrimage" in certain places in the city, where "many women, many migrants, many non-migrants" are exploited "as if in a marketplace": these women, he added, men "They approach not to say: 'Good evening'", but "How much?". And to those who wash their "conscience" clean calling them "prostitutes", Francis recalled that "you made her a prostitute, as Jesus says: whoever repudiates her exposes her to adultery, because you do not treat the woman well, the woman ends up like that , also exploited, a slave, so often".
The Pope concluded that it would do everyone good to look at these women and to think that, in the face of our freedom, they are "enslaved by this throw away culture ". "All this happens here in Rome, happens in every city, anonymous women, women - we can say - 'without a look' because shame covers their eyes, women who cannot laugh and so many of them do not know, they do not know the joy of breastfeeding and being called mother. But, even in everyday life, without going to those places, this ugly thought of rejecting woman, as a 'second-class' object. We should reflect better on this. And by doing this or saying this, upon entering this way of thinking, we despise the image of God, Who made man and woman together with His image and likeness. This passage of the Gospel helps us to think of the market of women, the market, yes, trafficking, exploitation, which we see; even of the unseen market, what one does and does not see. Woman is trampled upon because she is a woman".
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12/01/2022 10:49
26/08/2013
