Neither Male nor Female

 Bernadette Roberts

For a long time I’ve known an old Catholic monk who, one day, when I mentioned the Eucharist as the “Way” we are transformed into Christ, suddenly turned to me and said, “But women can’t be transformed into Christ because Christ is a man!” Oh dear, what do you think his problem was? … At any rate, I reminded him of Paul’s saying that “In Christ there is neither male nor female” – a good reminder, at least, to those who think Christ is a male man. Having said this, however, it is a good thing Jesus was a male, for had he been born a female, we’d never have heard of “her” or Christianity. There isn’t a religion in the world not founded by a male, or where a female played any strategic part – and to think it is all about the “Y” chromosome, tsk tsk! This is all the more reason then, to get beyond the male Jesus and find the Real Christ whose eternal, deified heavenly body and soul is no earthly male torso, but as Paul affirms, a “spiritual body” – even, “the summation of all creation".
(continued tomorrow)

The Real Christ: Reason for Writing