“The Lord God said: It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suited to him.” Here in Genesis 2:19, we see the prefigurement of man’s desire for companionship and God’s call for him to the vocation of love.
This argument from the perspective of the man’s desire to bestow love requires there to be a recipient of that love, a beloved. This recognition necessitates that both the lover and the beloved take active part in the unique relationship that is representative and symbolic of the Triune Love of God.
Through the relationship between man and woman, the truth of the gender distinction is revealed. Both the feminine and the masculine possess certain proclivities and characteristics that are held in common, but also have attributes distinctly their own. Although they possess some truth, this is not a reference to stereotypical habits or the likes and dislikes of the respective sexes. Rather, it is the understanding that male and female in their unique, individual creation have the ability to participate in God’s Creation in a particular way.
A man’s body and a woman’s body are orientated in such a way that grants them a greater capacity to partake in the mystery of God’s love. The woman receives the love that the man offers to her, specifically in the love shared between a husband and wife. Love in its very nature of giving and receiving requires a lack, or deficiency that the lover aids the cultivation of in the beloved, it requires a COMPLEMENT. The difference between males and females allows for the manifestation and cultivation of this love.
The Catholic Church teaches “God created man and women together and willed each for the other” (CCC 1605, 371) [emphasis added]. As Genesis 1:21 states, “God created mankind in His image; in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.” This distinction in the creation of man and woman was no accident. God oriented humanity in such a way that we may have the gift of partaking in the mystery of creation as a result of the union of two distinct individuals, one male and one female.
Each individual’s creation—yours, mine, and the person you pass on the street’s—is a gift from God. Our bodies and souls are uniquely our own, created in such a way that they may aid us in the discovery of our vocation on the path to union with God in pure love.
“You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb. I praise you, because I am wonderfully made; wonderful are your works! My very self you know” (Ps 139: 13-14). Only by accepting AND embracing the gift of being with the gratitude and joy of Psalm 139:13-14 are we truly able to answer God’s call for our lives.
Our differences as male and female allow us to love in our own unique, particular way. God grants us the gift of our body and sexuality to help us accomplish and fulfill our vocation to love as God loves.
To reject that gift by seeking to alter that which God has not only created but has deemed good and beautiful prevents us from graciously accepting that gift, frustrating our journey on the road to holiness. Let us not be ashamed of the great blessing of manhood and womanhood which ever has been bestowed upon us, but rather seek to embrace it in a way unique to our individual membership in God’s Creation.
Julia Danehy is a Sophomore in the William F. Connell School of Nursing a hop, skip, and a jump away from her home town of Fort Myers, FL. With the variety of her interests spanning about a million miles long, in her spare time she can be found exploring history, painting, spending time outdoors, whipping up some form of baked good, or reading anything to do with The Theology of the Body/philosophy in general.
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