When I read about Susanna, it always strikes a deep feeling of vulnerability in me….to think of being at the mercy of a ruthless man.
“I am completely trapped,” Susanna groaned. “If I yield, it will be my death; if I refuse, I cannot escape your power.
Daniel 13:22
In our world today, I hear men being offended by their job opportunities being biased not in their direction, by the stereotype of what men are, how the tables are turning, etc. My answer is…welcome to the life of women. That doesn’t make it right, for men or women, but it’s not a new problem.
This is the thing though, if women were given the freedom to be, who they were created to be as females throughout history, I believe this struggle of being “equal” would be naught. If women could freely be the beautiful image of God, as He created her…. what woman would want to be “equal” with men. Why would she want to be equal to man, when she could be God’s vision of woman. We aren’t equal, we are God’s daughters, as he loved us to be in Creation, as He loves us to be within Himself. Equal isn’t even a word that should be used here, because we are so much more than equal…we are life bearers…we are female created in the Image of God…. as men are male created in the Image of God.
I think as females, we need to look to our Father to find our worth, not to men to find equality.
We have made this such a tainted mess, and my intention is not to put men down. It’s quite the contrary: I hope to celebrate men and women as they were created. One isn’t better than the other, we are just created diferently.
Disclaimer: I think men need to find their worth in the image of God also. I believe there, they will no longer feel the need to dominate women. If men think themselves superior to women, they need to take that up with the creator, and if women feel inferior to men, they need to do the same. I think God would be offended on both fronts.
”For in giving themselves to others each day women fulfil their deepest vocation. Perhaps more than men, women acknowledge the person, because they see persons with their hearts. They see them independently of various ideological or political systems. They see others in their greatness and limitations; they try to go out to them and help them. In this way the basic plan of the Creator takes flesh in the history of humanity and there is constantly revealed, in the variety of vocations, that beauty-not merely physical, but above all spiritual-which God bestowed from the very beginning on all, and in a particular way on women.”
St John Paul II, Pope
Veronicas Veil 