Sanjose Thomas

The word ‘gender’ is one of the most understood and misunderstood words ever identified by man and many often this term is used with multiple connotations and in multiple contexts. Gender refers to a social construct built upon the sexual identity of human beings and when sexuality has a biological basis gender has a social dimension and it is expressed as a social construct. Jesus lived and actively involved in his public life in a society where gender roles were clearly earmarked and the social structure was highly skewed to one side often depriving the other. Male identity and male constructs dominated his time and womanhood or being a women was looked down upon. A Jewish man used to begin his day thanking God for not making him a women or an animal. Jesus truly was a liberator and it was on his spirit and vision of liberation that Christian families are built upon almost all over the world. This vision negates and strongly shuns all forms of gender based discrimination and promote equality in all forms amongst the gender identities. Today in this 21st century Christian families are at crossroads witnessing rapid changes over a period of time and experiencing strong currents of social transformation. This also redefined man women relationships and altered the existing structure of human interaction. The age old patriarchal and male centric familial identity got weakened and female gender roles are getting redefined in the modern era. The real and most vital challenge Christian family faces in this era is how it will deal with this phenomenon and how it respond to the same. Women started becoming financially independent and started contributing to family income in many forms and their social involvement also increased over a period of time. Church activities are no more a male bastion and now women are increasingly taking responsibilities in various forms and capacities in Church organizations and bodies. The gender specific roles assigned to women as care givers and household task doers is no more a reality and there is an increasing need to share responsibilities breaking the gender barriers.
Christian families accepted these changes in some domains of action and we can see the rapid increase in the number of women working outside and taking different roles as teachers, bankers, doctors and as engineers and other professional engagements and this altered their level and degree of social exposure. Their educational attainment and age at marriage both witnessed gradual changes and it is also evident in the participation of Christian women in the public life of Kerala society. At the same time it must be introspected that whether Christian family as an institution adapted itself to these changes and whether we could realign ourselves with the changing demands of time. It is often observed that instances of marital disorganization and adjustment issues increased manifold and the stability of our families are often undermined by such concerns. We must also seriously consider whether our religious training and catechism teaching mechanism could accommodate to these changes and could incorporate it into the teaching and learning process. This is where a Christian family especially a Catholic families can act as a trend setter by infusing the changed perceptions about gender roles into its purview. By imparting gender sensitive teaching and by avoiding gender stereotypes our Christian formation can become more democratic and humane. It should imbibe the spirit of Pope Francis in including all divergent shades of opinions and answering effectively to the multiple needs of the changing world which touches our families more deeply than anything. The forces of liberalization and globalization has unleashed a new spirit and the development of communication networks which led to better social and cultural exposure has altogether transformed the Christian families in almost all spheres of activity and now its high time we realize the changing demands and aspirations of both men, women and children and reaffirm our Christian values in the familial domain along with the religious arena. As exhorted by Pope John Paul 2nd in his encyclical Ecclesia in Asia let the Christian formation begin from families in Asia and let it be inclusive in letter and spirit.