The position of women in past centuries was extremely difficult, and even to this day it has not been fully settled. At every level of life this problem proves to be excessively complex: at the level of state legislation, at the level of the structure of society, at the level of education and learning, and finally at the level of ecclesiastical life. Much has changed over recent decades; in many respects women have gained a position incomparably better than before, yet they have still not found their place in society. The proper measure for their evaluation has not truly been found.
In previous centuries, the man was the lawgiver, the master. The woman, however, was often excessively degraded, and in the search for truth and justice all those who desired an improvement in the position of women held the view that they should be made equal in rights with men at every level. This path bore splendid fruits. Many women attained a high level of education, hold positions of responsibility within the state apparatus, and began to play a historical role by participating in the election of governments. Within the family as well, the position of women changed to their benefit.
Indeed, all this is true. But can we really consider the problems resolved—not only those concerning women’s work, but even those concerning their position within the family? Historical experience has shown that the vast body of humanity is made up of cells, and one such cell is the family. To the extent that the cells are healthy, the body as a whole is healthy as well.
Therefore, the health of the vast body of humanity depends on the health of the cell of this body—the family. Can we truly consider its contemporary condition to be a happy one? Because women have become completely economically independent, working just as men do, the dissolution of families—that is, divorces—has increased. And even in cases where the family does not break apart, when a woman is compelled to work outside the home, the family still suffers, since the children essentially no longer have either a father or a mother at home. Children are left alone for many hours or are raised by relatives or strangers, or are entrusted to schools for their upbringing. Fundamentally, however, they are deprived of maternal affection.
If a woman works on an equal footing with a man, then justice is again undermined, because within the family, alongside her work, the woman also bears other burdens—additional duties—precisely because she is the mother of the children. One might think that, since the woman is burdened with greater responsibilities and fulfills a more complex role, she should therefore have the privilege of “directing” the family. Certainly, someone must guide the family, just as in any other human institution. Thus, in many families a struggle for power arises, which very often proves destructive for the family. Consequently, wherever we turn our attention, we see excessively complex problems everywhere, and we have not yet come close to resolving them.
I made these few observations in order to look at things as the majority of people see them. I believe, however, that we as Christians also perceive things that others overlook. We consider that the most important issue in general for every human being is the question: What is the human being? What is his destiny? Why and for what purpose did he appear in the world? What goal lies before him? What is the meaning of his existence? If we do not answer these questions, we will never be able to solve the problems we face—at any level. It is impossible, for example, to achieve a truly just structure of society without this knowledge. We cannot solve the problem of state organization if we do not have an answer to this fundamental question. The entire history of humanity is written as aimless wandering, irrational wars, and unjust oppression of the weak by the strong, as we see in the animal world. Therefore, what is the human being? We receive the answer to this question from Holy Scripture: “So God created man in His own image … male and female He created them” (Gen. 1:27). And a little further on we read: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7).
If, then, God created man and woman as a unified humanity, it is natural that the nature of the relationship between man and woman was and will always be one of the most important vital issues. If we turn our attention to the natural gifts of woman and compare them with the corresponding gifts of man, we will see from long experience that these gifts are varied: at times they coincide, and at other times they complement one another. We also know from history and from Holy Scripture that in the East, where all the great religions were born, the authority of the man over the woman was excessively strong. In the consciousness of the East, the woman was in some way considered an inferior being. Even in the Gospel we see similar passages, such as for example: “Now those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children” (Matt. 14:21). Only the men were taken into account, while the women were not even counted. But this phenomenon is not observed only in the East.
I happened to read, when I was young, some statistics compiled by certain educated German scholars regarding the role of men and the role of women in the history of civilization. These highly learned Germans presented the achievements of men as extremely significant (likening them to lofty mountains), while from the achievements of women they noted only a few that had, in any case, been recorded in the history of civilization.
It seems to me that this misunderstanding arose as a consequence of the loss of that awareness contained in Scripture: “So God created man in the image of God … male and female He created them” (Gen. 1:27). This is forgotten not only by men, but by women themselves as well. Therefore, in order to correct our life at all its levels, beginning with the family, women must be spiritually uplifted and reveal to the world their authentic value, their lofty role. For the Christian Church, the issue of the role of women becomes increasingly acute year by year.
We see that in countries where atheistic communism wages an open struggle against the Church through the application of every kind of coercion, it is the courage of women, their self-sacrifice, and their readiness for every kind of suffering that preserves the Church. Everywhere we observe that women constitute the largest proportion within the Churches. We can say that during church services women form the majority—sometimes three quarters, and sometimes even more. If all women were now to withdraw from the Church, then it would not be able to exist, because the men who fulfill high pastoral ministries, holding elevated hierarchical positions, would remain few in number and, quite simply, it would be materially impossible for them to sustain the Church.
Therefore, the role of women in the Church is great, and all of us must reflect on this phenomenon. In our Christian teaching about the human person, speaking theologically, woman is presented in exactly the same measure as a human being as man. The possibilities of her ministry throughout history are limitless. The fact that the Word of God was incarnate through a Woman demonstrates that woman is in no way diminished before God.
Here, however, I wish to express the central meaning of my talk. Everything I have said up to this point has been merely introductory, so that we may all stand on a clear path of thought. If we speak of the great importance of woman, then women themselves are obliged to justify this importance—to vindicate themselves at all levels of human life. The most essential work for them, however, their most important ministry, is Motherhood: “And Adam called his wife’s name Life, because she was the mother of all living” (Gen. 3:20). In order for women to uplift humanity, they must bring children into the world in the way taught to us by the word of God. Yet there are two kinds of birth: one according to the flesh, the other according to the spirit. Christ said to Nicodemus: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again’” (John 3:6–7).
Because the women of our time have lost this lofty awareness, they have begun to give birth primarily according to the flesh. Our children have become incapable of faith. They often struggle to believe that they are the image of the Eternal God. The greatest sin of our time lies in the fact that people have sunk into despair and no longer believe in the Resurrection. The death of a human being is perceived by them as final death, as annihilation, whereas it should be regarded as the moment of a change in the form of our existence—as the day of our birth into higher life, into the full plenitude of life that belongs to God. Indeed, the Gospel says: “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life” (John 3:36). “Truly, truly, I say to you… he who believes in Him who sent Me has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life” (John 5:24). “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word, he shall never see death” (John 8:51). Many similar expressions could be cited.
I often hear people say: How or why do all these things happen? Why has the majority of people lost the ability to believe? Is not the new unbelief a consequence of broader education, when what Scripture says is regarded as myth, as an unrealizable dream?
Faith, the capacity for faith, does not primarily depend on a person’s level of education. Indeed, we observe that in our time, as education spreads, faith diminishes, whereas essentially the opposite should be happening; that is, the broader a person’s knowledge becomes, the more reasons they should have to recognize the great wisdom of the creation of the world. In what, then, does the root of unbelief consist?
First of all, we must say that this matter is primarily the responsibility of parents, of fathers and mothers. If parents approach the act of giving birth to a new human being with seriousness, with the awareness that the child being born can truly be a “son of man” in the image of the Son of Man, that is, of Christ, then they prepare themselves for this act not in the way it is usually done. Here is a wonderful example: Zechariah and Elizabeth prayed for a long time to be granted a child… And what then happened? “And there appeared to him (to Zechariah) an angel of the Lord standing at the right side of the altar of incense. And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, ‘Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great before the Lord… and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb, and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God’” (Luke 1:11–16).
We see, moreover, that John, while still in his mother’s womb, recognized the visit of the Mother of Christ, leapt for joy, and his joy was transmitted to his mother. At that moment she was filled with the prophetic Spirit (see Luke 1:40–41). Another example is the prophetess Anna (see Luke 2:36).
So it is also now: if fathers and mothers bring children into the world with an awareness of the utmost importance of this work, then their children will be filled with the Holy Spirit already from their mother’s womb; and faith in God, the Creator of all things, as their Father, will become natural to them, and no science will be able to shake this faith, because “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Thus, the existence of God and His closeness to us is, for such a soul, an obvious fact. And the unbelief of the learned or the unlearned, in the eyes of these children of God, will simply be proof that those people have not yet been born from above, and precisely for this reason they do not believe in God, because they are entirely flesh, born of flesh.
That which constitutes a real problem for the Church, for her mission, however, is how to convince people that they are truly sons and daughters of the eternal Father; how to show the world the possibility of another life, similar to the life of Christ Himself, or to the life of the prophets and the saints. The Church must bring into the world not only faith in the Resurrection, but also certainty about it. Then the demand for any other moralistic teachings becomes unnecessary.
Fr Sophrony (Sakharov)
Source: Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov), The Mystery of the Christian Life. Holy Monastery of St John the Baptist, Essex, England, pp. 180–189.
