English
EspañolEvery beloved child discovers love within its family in the daily experience of its parents loving each other. That couple – man and woman created in the image and likeness of God – are the first glimpse of the Trinitarian God in mankind, of the love of marital union and the fruitful love of paternity and maternity. These aren’t two different types of love but the same love that is a fountain of life at its core.
Text
“(…) At the center, we see the father and mother, a couple with their personal story of love. They embody the primordial divine plan clearly spoken of by Christ himself: “Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female?” (Mt 19:4) (…) God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (1:27) (…) the “image of God” here refers to 9 the couple, “male and female.” (The Joy of Love, n.9 and 10)
Commentary
The fact that humans are formed as people, from either gender, in all their dimensions: spiritual, psychological, corporal is a palpable reality we can see every day around us. We see it where we live and around the rest of the world. A human person is a spirit that incarnates its humanity in a masculine or feminine way.
However, given the condition of “person” that each human being has, whether man or woman, the sexual difference transcends the mere reproductive functions, unlike what occurs with impersonal living species. Since man and woman are persons, they are transcendent and so, they surpass the adjectives “male and female.” This masculine and feminine duality originated in the image and likeness of their trinitarian God: the ability to be a lover, loved, and a union of love. How is this so? When human nature is shaped into masculine and feminine, man and woman can give themselves and embrace their same, diverse and complementary humanity. They can then communicate and unite in the same flesh or human nature. Therefore, their love and union are the most intimate ones possible for humans.
In this manner, the union of love between man and woman – between lover and beloved – is the original and transcendent meaning of human sexuality. We can also call it the “spousal meaning” of the personal masculine or feminine body. We, humans, are either masculine or feminine persons, not simply male and female. This is true because we are created in the image and likeness of the Trinitarian God, who is a communion of eternal Love. In this context, we were made man and woman through love and for love. It goes without saying that each one of us, because we are people, can accomplish many things in life among which are working from dusk till dawn, earning a lot, or a little bit of money, voting, playing and being bored, parting, traveling, drinking a fine wine or watching TV… but the most excellent action and most intimate personal human experience is loving our concrete loved ones.
The first experience of love is our family. Which is not a herd or pack, neither is it a den or layer. It’s a home, the place and times where spouses, parents and children, siblings, grandparents, and grandchildren, among many other things, love each other above all else.
