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III. "MALE AND FEMALE HE CREATED
THEM"
Equality and difference willed by
God
369 Man and woman have been created,
which is to say, willed by God: on the one hand, in perfect equality as
human persons; on the other, in their respective beings as man and woman. "Being
man" or "being woman" is a reality which is good and willed by God: man and
woman possess an inalienable dignity which comes to them immediately from God
their Creator. Man and woman are both with one and the same dignity "in the
image of God". In their "being-man" and "being-woman", they reflect the
Creator's wisdom and goodness.
370 In no way is God
in man's image. He is neither man nor woman. God is pure spirit in which there
is no place for the difference between the sexes. But the respective
"perfections" of man and woman reflect something of the infinite perfection of
God: those of a mother and those of a father and husband.
"Each for the other" — "A unity
in two"
371 God created man and woman together and willed
each for the other. The Word of God gives us to understand this through various
features of the sacred text. "It is not good that the man should be alone. I
will make him a helper fit for him." None of the animals can be man's partner.
The woman God "fashions" from the man's rib and brings to him elicits on the
man's part a cry of wonder, an exclamation of love and communion: "This at last
is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh." Man discovers woman as another "I",
sharing the same humanity.
372 Man and woman were made "for each other" — not
that God left them half-made and incomplete: he created them to be a communion
of persons, in which each can be "helpmate" to the other, for they are equal as
persons ("bone of my bones...") and complementary as masculine and feminine. In
marriage God unites them in such a way that, by forming "one flesh", they can
transmit human life: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth." By
transmitting human life to their descendants, man and woman as spouses and
parents cooperate in a unique way in the Creator's work.
373 In God's plan man and woman have the vocation
of "subduing" the earth as stewards of God. This sovereignty is not to be an
arbitrary and destructive domination. God calls man and woman, made in the image
of the Creator "who loves everything that exists", to share in his providence
toward other creatures; hence their responsibility for the world God has
entrusted to them.
IV. MAN IN PARADISE
374 The first man was not only created good, but
was also established in friendship with his Creator and in harmony with himself
and with the creation around him, in a state that would be surpassed only by the
glory of the new creation in Christ.
375 The Church, interpreting the symbolism of
biblical language in an authentic way, in the light of the New Testament and
Tradition, teaches that our first parents, Adam and Eve, were constituted in an
original "state of holiness and justice". This grace of original holiness was
"to share in...divine life".
376 By the radiance of this grace all dimensions
of man's life were confirmed. As long as he remained in the divine intimacy, man
would not have to suffer or die. The inner harmony of the human person, the
harmony between man and woman, and finally the harmony between the first couple
and all creation, comprised the state called "original justice".
377 The "mastery" over the world that God offered
man from the beginning was realized above all within man himself: mastery of
self. The first man was unimpaired and ordered in his whole being because
he was free from the triple concupiscence that subjugates him to the pleasures
of the senses, covetousness for earthly goods, and self-assertion, contrary to
the dictates of reason.
378 The sign of man's familiarity with God is that
God places him in the garden. There he lives "to till it and keep it". Work is
not yet a burden, but rather the collaboration of man and woman with God in
perfecting the visible creation.
379 This
entire harmony of original justice, foreseen for man in God's plan, will be lost
by the sin of our first parents.
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