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giving their whole selves to each other and opening themselves to the creation of new life.
Every time a husband and wife come together in this way, they rediscover the mystery of creation.
common humanity,
reenacting in a special way that first meeting of man and woman, when...
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is now bone of my bones and flesh of m...
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They are now a communion of persons.
The body, through its masculinity and femininity, makes this communion possible.
unity depends on a choice. “For
This kind of mutual self-giving can only come about by free choice—it can’t be forced.
they discover anew the unifying significance of the body.
renews the mystery of creation in all its depth and power.
Formed in the image of God, and uniting to form a communion of persons, Adam and Eve became the model of marriage for all future couples.
words: “they felt no shame.”
“knowing.” Instead, there has been a radical change in the meaning of the original nakedness of man and woman in front of each other. This change emerges from their conscience; it’s a fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Shame is a fundamental human experience.
With
original solitude—his aloneness among the other living creatures. This solitude, together with the creation of man as male and female, prepared the way for Adam and Eve’s joyful discovery of their shared humanity.
The naked
body was the visible source of this realization, which estab...
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This interior perspective is necessary to discover the fullness of interpersonal communication that allowed Adam and Eve to be naked but unashamed.
We communicate on the basis of our shared humanity.
Original nakedness can only be understood in the context of this communion.
“they felt no shame” indicate an original depth of understanding between persons.
In the state of original innocence, they looked upon each other in wonder and gratitude.
“Nakedness” signifies the original goodness of creation in God’s eyes. It characterizes the fullness of God’s vision, through which we see the high value of man and woman and the purity of sex
At the time of creation, there was no opposition between the physical and the spiritual. There was also no opposition between male and female—the two existed in unity. Adam and Eve looked at each other not just with the exterior gaze of their eyes, but with the eyes of their hearts.
Shame limits our ability to see each...
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Why did he call all things from nothingness into being?
he is love (1 John 4:8).
only love gives birth to goodness and delights in what is good (1 Cor. 13). Creation is a gift.
only man is really capable of giving and receiving a gift. Only man can understand that creation is a gift, and offer himself to God in return.
Creation is God’s gift, bestowed on man. But man is not only the recipient of a gift—he is also a gift himself, with the freedom to give himself to another.
communion. A man reaches his full potential only by living with someone—or, even more completely, by living for someone.
flesh.” Adam and Eve were gifts for each other.
The body reveals the “living soul” that man became when God breathed life into him.
Human sexuality is fundamentally about mutual self-giving, mirroring the Creator’s love.
In freedom, we have the power to offer ourselves as a gift—to another person, or even to the kingdom of heaven.
We were created by Love, and we’re called to love in return. A
For us to achieve freedom, we must learn self-control.
The gift-giving, nuptial meaning of the body can only be realized when we’re free from sinful passions.
Life is sacred, and we cannot put a price on it.
This mutual self-giving, first manifested in God’s self-giving love, is the basis for the communion of persons.
This joyful communion explains why Adam and Eve existed in a state of original happiness.
body as a gift given in the freedom of love.
She was entrusted to his eyes, his sensitivity, his heart. To complete the exchange of the gift, he must give himself to her in return.
This mutual self-giving creates the communion of persons, enriching both the man and the woman. Love begets love.
We’ve seen how the body becomes a gift when it is given and accepted in freedom and innocence.
After the Fall, man lost his original grace, making it harder to see the nuptial meaning of the body. But the meaning of the gift remains inscribed in the depths of the human heart. Through the veil of shame, man must continually rediscover himself as the guardian of the gift. He must defend the body from being reduced to a mere object.
Man was created as the highest visible expression of God’s gift of creation, because he bears the stamp of the gift within himself.
its innocence, grace, love, and justice—is hidden in their hearts. “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” (Gen. 1:31).
