In the beginning, man and woman were assigned separate and distinct roles. Man was instructed to cultivate and care for the Garden of Eden. His role was primarily concerned with nature, that is objects, abstractions and things of the world. Woman was made as helpmate, companion and bearer of life. Her role was centered on life and love – centered on persons. Sheen says, “The man is much more concerned with action, the woman with the inspiration to action. She does not so much help man, as inspire him to help himself. …Woman, inasmuch as she is dedicated to life and is a symbol of rebirth and renewal, is personal.” Woman brings her focus on persons.
In line with his nature, man proceeds logically in thought. His thoughts are with objects, abstract ideals and business, while woman’s thoughts are more intuitive. “…woman is concerned with love and concrete reality…her intuition is rather immediate, like the eye when it instantaneously measures distance or dimension. She arrives at conclusions without taking intermediate steps, discovering undertones of character. Her knowledge comes through identification and co-naturality with others.” Woman brings her intuition.
Men are more apt to be heroes through some great passionate outburst of heroism. Whereas a woman is “capable of more sacrifices than a man. A woman’s love makes a thousand small sacrifices, sprinkling them through the days and the months; their very repetition gives them the character of commonplace.” Woman brings her ability to sacrifice for the sake of love.
“The essence of femininity was revealed when an angel came from heaven and saluted a Woman: ‘Hail, Full of Grace…’ and summoned her to be the bearer of the Divine.” Just as the Blessed Mother uttered her Fiat to the Divine Mystery being presented to her and submitted to the requirements of the Divine Will, so too every “woman by nature is meant to be a collaborator with God in a work which brings Heaven to earth, God to man, eternity to time. A pencil if conscious, would be happy when it is writing…so, too, a woman is happy when she is submissive to heaven’s holy purposes.” Woman brings heaven to earth by her collaboration with and submission to God.
Every woman is born to be a mother, either biologically or spiritually. This innate call to universal motherhood is the basis of a woman’s spiritual motherhood, even when she has no biological children. “A woman becomes a spiritual mother when she holds out her hand to the weak and the abandoned. …That’s why professions like doctor, nurse, social worker and teacher are not professions in the strict sense that they are for men, but are expressions of spiritual motherhood.” But that is not all. Woman, by being true to her feminine heart brings the Divine to the world. She brings life into the world not only physically, but also mentally and spiritually by her very nature and this ability to bear life is deeply connected to her mission and vocation. “Woman has to bring the Divine to the human; otherwise she is not happy. If she is denied, or denies herself the fulfillment of this spiritual mission of giving and surrendering herself to others, she has a far deeper sense of inadequacy and emptiness than a man can have, because of the greater depths of her fountain of love. The frustrated and unhappy women in the world today are so not because of the economic and political and social world in which they move but because of themselves; the wreckage is due to the loss of their mission in life. Woman has forgotten her nature, and she has forgotten that she is heaven’s instrument on earth. Man cooperates with nature, but woman cooperates with God. Woman, to be happy, must be a co-worker to the Divine; she bears what God alone can give. As Leon Bloy has said: ‘The more a woman is holy, the more she is a woman.’” ~ (emphasis mine)
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