Part Three of a nine part series on Mulieris Dignitatem (On the Dignity and Vocation of Women) by St. John Paul the Great.
“Birds do it, bees do it. Even educated fleas do it. Let’s do it. Let’s fall in love!”
With all due respect to Cole Porter, I am not sure that my husband and I resemble fleas, even educated ones! There are those who truly see no difference between fleas and human beings. We are all earthlings, right?
Well, yes and no. God created everyone and everything, fleas and middle-aged matrons included. However, human beings are created in the image and likeness of God. Fleas are not. We know this truth from the Bible, but we also can experience this truth in our daily lives. It is written on our hearts.
Looking in the mirror, sometimes it’s hard to imagine what that means. If I’m fair, fat, and forty…how do I stack up as the image and likeness of God? Decades later, are my wrinkles and curves also divine?
St. Thomas Aquinas noted three ways in which we are “like” God. First, we have free will. Second, we are creative, both in the sense of building things and working together, as well as producing offspring. Third, we are capable of love. Love consists of wanting what is best for the beloved, so much so that we would sacrifice for that person, even unto death. Um, none of that really shows in the mirror.
The likeness is seen in our identity before the Lord. Humans dominate and control both plants and animals all around the world. We make choices and are creative in building homes and even civilizations. And we love one another—and even love God in ways that confound the skeptics.
Even the Greek philosopher Aristotle presented a hierarchy of living souls. He observed that plants can take in food, grow and reproduce: the vegetative soul. Animals add to this sensation and movement: the sensitive soul. But only human beings have an immortal soul that includes thought and reason. And love.
o, human souls can access and perfect all three of these faculties (vegetative, sensitive and immortal). Truly, we are the image and likeness of God because we can mirror the fruitfulness, action, and intellect that is proper to souls that transcend the earthly plane. Human actions are spiritual.
The one action in a worldly sense that images God most concretely is the sexual union of a man and a woman. No wonder people are so interested in this topic: it is central to the mystery of who we are! And although even dandelions and tigers “do it,” their “freedom” is based on instinct.
Although meant for higher perfections, we can also act in a lower way. Neither plants nor animals have ever tried to impede the procreation that results from sexual union. Only humans try that, in addition to other lustful power gambits, including rape.
There is sex (reproduction), and then there is *sex* (sexual union freely chosen). And *sex* is better when it expresses the fullness of freedom, creativity and love with the highest level of perfection. There’s a reason why married Christian couples are more satisfied sexually compared to other adults.
Catholics take a lot of heat for teaching that *sex* must remain open to procreation. Many times, humans fail to express sexuality as the sacred gift that it is supposed to be.
Hint: It’s supposed to image God.
That’s why widespread promiscuity is such a tragedy. Our hypersexualized popular culture treats sex as a recreational sport. And, even worse, children are seen as unwanted byproducts. Sexual sin results in humans acting in ways that are, well, less than human.
The creativity of *sex* also leads to a stronger union of man and woman. Full consent and intimacy leads to a powerful ond between men and women. This bond is the building block of society– a family.
Holy unions model the Trinity. God the Father loves God the Son in such a way that the Holy Spirit becomes a real Person, embodied Love, Who brings forth new life in the Holy Spirit. As a spiritual reality, God is neither male nor female. However, God created man and woman together as an expression of Divine Love.
In fact, birds “do it.” And bees “do it.” But when a man and a woman “do it,” that act can only image the Holy Trinity insofar as the persons are united to one another in full freedom, open to the creativity of God and as a special gift of the self which is called love. And ye shall know them by their fruits.
Mulieris Dignitatem(On the Dignity and Vocation of Women) by St. John Paul the Great is our study book for Volume Three of My Secret is Mine.
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