Simon Peter said to them: Mary should leave us because women are not worthy of the life. Jesus responded: Look, I'll lead her in order to make her male so that she can become a living spirit as you males are. For each woman who makes herself male will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Saying 114, The Gospel of Thomas.
[This saying appears to have been tacked on to the Gospel of Thomas. Not only is it inconsistent with the tone of Jesus' earlier sayings (especially Saying 22b), it starts out with "Simon Peter said." This advocacy of male supremacy became a cornerstone of dogma of the institutional church and has helped lead to its weakening and downfall. The appropriate ending of the Gospel of Thomas is Saying 113. Nevertheless, I will provide a commentary.]
Some men have trouble accepting the feminine part of themselves, want to drive it away, saying it is not worthy. They like hard-core, slam-dunk masculinity and regard the open compassionate aspect of themselves as weakness. That adamant maleness irrupts here.
Each of us is an interflow of male and female energies. When we recognize that, allow that, we enter into a state of higher consciousness, of greater awareness. We have transcended gender. We have, as Jesus said in Saying 22b, made "the male and the female the same, so that the male isn't male and the female isn't female."
[This saying appears to have been tacked on to the Gospel of Thomas. Not only is it inconsistent with the tone of Jesus' earlier sayings (especially Saying 22b), it starts out with "Simon Peter said." This advocacy of male supremacy became a cornerstone of dogma of the institutional church and has helped lead to its weakening and downfall. The appropriate ending of the Gospel of Thomas is Saying 113. Nevertheless, I will provide a commentary.]
Some men have trouble accepting the feminine part of themselves, want to drive it away, saying it is not worthy. They like hard-core, slam-dunk masculinity and regard the open compassionate aspect of themselves as weakness. That adamant maleness irrupts here.
Each of us is an interflow of male and female energies. When we recognize that, allow that, we enter into a state of higher consciousness, of greater awareness. We have transcended gender. We have, as Jesus said in Saying 22b, made "the male and the female the same, so that the male isn't male and the female isn't female."
geo, this is so interesting from many perspectives: socio-political, historical, cultural. wow. the seedlings of a value and the manifestation of a legacy.
ReplyDeletethx
Sounds like female-to-male transgender individuals are the Chosen People of the LBGT world! ;-)
ReplyDeleteI remember the terror. My inability to accept my feminine self was catastrophic. I closed off so much of my world. It took years to start getting over it. I can think of more than one friendship that was diminished as a result of my intolerance. With John dead, it's hard to go back and make amends... And sadly, amends are so inadequate at resurrecting what could have been.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your kindness back in those days.
Joe