The "She" of the Three

I love God. In all Their forms (Their.... see what I did there?) My favorite and go-to however is the Holy Spirit. She is the action! Since I tend to be a do-er, God the action is most relatable to me.  She's also the only identifier of God that doesn't require a specific gender indicator. Now, I am one to read the heck out of scripture and scrutinize the language for meaning.... which?... we all should do?

Are you ready? Are you sure?

The Holy Spirit is personified female and let me tell you why!

Scripture constantly genders wisdom as a "she". So it would only make sense that the wise counsel that Jesus sends down to us would be female as well.

"Why is this important?" you ask.

Well, it is not an insider trade secret that women aren't exactly sitting at the table with the big boys when it comes to Christianity. We are, however, half of humanity so it would make at least a little bit of sense that- created in God's image- at least one of the three would hold intrinsically female genderization. Without Her, where would the Maternal portion of God be housed? All of you screaming Mary, sit down and listen. Mary, though she is my homegirl, (not only Catholic but Portuguese- where are my Fatima fans?!?!?) she is not a God, nor should she be worshiped like one. The Holy Spirit is God. She has Her rightful place at the table of the three. The maternal love, the protection, the nagging persistence to make you do the right thing (eye roll SO HARD!) God the Father, Jesus the Brother, Holy Spirit the Mother. What better exemplifies the love THEY have for us then to see the love of a family. 

Now I hear you in the back, 

"Why does gender even matter! God is God, gender is not relevant to Their omnipotence."

True. God does not need gender, but we, as limited humans, need to be able to relate or identify in order to build relationship with God. How do I know this? I have a solid foundation for this answer: a movie!! (said with extreme enthusiasm and confidence... as the crickets can be heard from the audience.) Wait... hear me out. If you haven't already seen it then I recommend it strongly: watch "The Shack". If you've seen it then you know where I'm going with it- if not, then buckle your seatbelt.

The protagonist in this movie is about 60% bought by the notion of God. He goes to church, he prays but as he states his relationship is wide, not deep. His wife, on the other hand, has a very deep relationship with God, so much so that she calls him Papa. Anyway, this family suffers a tragic, tragic loss and as a result, the protagonist, the father of a family, shuts down. He also had a very strained relationship with his father, as a boy. This is relevant because going in- he has never had a strong positive notion of fatherhood. He didn't like his father at all. His father represented pain to him. What's my point? How could he turn to God the Father during his time of need when his example of a father was nothing but punishment and pain? Of course he would have thought that God the Father would let him down- would abandon him in his pain. That is what he has been taught about father figures.  God being, you know, smarter than us, chooses to appear to the protagonist, visually, as a woman. What does this do? Well, it makes him think this is God but his brain is processing a different parental figure, a Mother. This allows him to better relate and be more receptive to what he is being shown and told. Sidebar, in this movie the holy spirit, is female too.

God is vast. They are everything into 1. That is more than our brain can process. Have you ever tried to conceptualize what 1 million pennies look like? Go ahead, try it. I don't know about you, but I can't get an accurate picture of what that would look like. Its too big. Trying to relate to God without some kind of personification of Them is too hard. How does one even begin to build friendship, relationship, and love with an entity they can't conceptualize? I have been told over and over again in spiritual direction that I need to 'know" my God. How can I "know" something that is too beyond for human comprehension? That is the mystery of God, the wonder, the awe. 

If something as simple as perceived gender identity can help to build relationship with God, isn't that worth more than having the "right" pronoun based on centuries of patriarchal readings of sacred scripture?     

Holy Spirit continue to build in us hearts of knowledge and wisdom. May we always have a quiet heart to hear your gentle voice and the courage and strength to carry out your holy work.

Amen!