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GENERAL AUDIENCE OF 9 JANUARY 1980
During the general audience on 9 January the Holy Father delivered the
following address.
1. Rereading and analyzing the second narrative of creation, the Yahwist text,
we must ask ourselves if the first "man" ('adam), in his
original solitude, really "lived" the world as a gift, with an
attitude in conformity with the actual condition of one who has received a gift,
as is seen from the narrative in the first chapter. The second narrative shows
us man in the garden of Eden (cf. Gn 2:8). Though man was in this situation of
original happiness, the Creator himself (God-Yahweh) and then also
"man," pointed out that man was alone—instead
of stressing the aspect of the world as a subjectively beatifying gift created
for man (cf. the first narrative and in particular Gn 26:29).
We have already analyzed the meaning of original solitude. Now we must note that
a certain lack of good clearly appears for the first time: "It is not good
that man should be alone"—God-Yahweh
said—"I
will make him a helper..." (Gn 2:18). The first man said the same thing.
After having become thoroughly aware of his own solitude among all living beings
on earth, waited for "a helper fit for him" (cf. Gn 2:20). None of
these beings (animalia) offered man the basic conditions which make it
possible to exist in a relationship of mutual giving.
With and for someone
2. In this way, therefore, these two expressions, namely, the adjective
"alone" and the noun "helper," seem to be really the key to
understand the very essence of the gift at the level of man, as existential
content contained in the truth of the "image of God." In fact, the
gift reveals, so to speak, a particular characteristic of personal existence, or
rather, of the essence of the person. When God-Yahweh said, "It is not good
that man should be alone," (Gn 2:18) he affirmed that "alone,"
man does not completely realize this essence. He realizes it only by existing
"with someone"—and
even more deeply and completely—by
existing "for someone."
This norm of existence as a person is shown in Genesis as characteristic of
creation, precisely by means of the meaning of these two words:
"alone" and "helper." These words indicate as fundamental
and constitutive for man both the relationship and the communion of persons. The
communion of persons means existing in a mutual "for," in a
relationship of mutual gift. This relationship is precisely the fulfillment of
"man's" original solitude.
Effected by love
3. This fulfillment is, in its origin, beatifying. It is certainly implicit
in man's original happiness, and constitutes that happiness which belongs to the
mystery of creation effected by love, which belongs to the essence of creative
giving. When man, the male, awakening from the sleep of Genesis, saw the female,
drawn from him, he said: "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my
flesh" (Gen 2:23). These words express, in a way, the subjectively
beatifying beginning of human existence in the world. Since it took place at the
"beginning," this confirms the process of individuation of man in the
world. It springs from the depths of his human solitude, which he lives as a
person in the presence of all other creatures and all living beings (animalia).
This "beginning" belongs to an adequate anthropology and can always be
verified on the basis of the latter. This purely anthropological verification
brings us, at the same time, to the subject of the "person" and to the
subject of the "body-sex." This simultaneousness is essential. If we
dealt with sex without the person, the whole adequacy of the anthropology which
we find in Genesis would be destroyed. For our theological study the essential
light of the revelation of the body, which appears so fully in these first
affirmations, would then be veiled.
Body expresses person
4. There is a deep connection between the mystery of creation, as a gift
springing from love, and that beatifying "beginning" of the existence
of man as male and female, in the whole truth of their body and their sex, which
is the pure and simple truth of communion between persons. When the first man
exclaimed, at the sight of the woman: "This is bone of my bones, and flesh
of my flesh" (Gn 2:23), he merely affirmed the human identity of both.
Exclaiming in this way, he seems to say: here is a body that expresses the
person!
Following a preceding passage of the Yahwist text, it can also be said that this
"body" reveals the "living soul," such as man became when
God-Yahweh breathed life into him (cf. Gn 2:7). This resulted in his solitude
before all other living beings. By traversing the depth of that original
solitude, man now emerged in the dimension of the mutual gift. The expression of
that gift—and
for that reason the expression of his existence as a person—is
the human body in all the original truth of its masculinity and femininity.
The body which expresses femininity manifests the reciprocity and communion of
persons. It expresses it by means of the gift as the fundamental characteristic
of personal existence. This is the body, a witness to creation as a fundamental
gift, and so a witness to Love as the source from which this same giving
springs. Masculinity and femininity—namely,
sex—is the
original sign of a creative donation and an awareness on the part of man,
male-female, of a gift lived in an original way. Such is the meaning with which
sex enters the theology of the body.
Called "nuptial"
5. That beatifying "beginning" of man's being and existing, as male
and female, is connected with the revelation and discovery of the meaning of the
body, which can be called "nuptial." If we speak of revelation and at
the same time of discovery, we do so in relation to the specificity of the
Yahwist text. In it, the theological thread is also anthropological, appearing
as a certain reality consciously lived by man.
We have already observed that the words which express the first joy of man's
coming to existence as "male and female" (Gn 2:23) are followed by the
verse which establishes their conjugal unity (cf. Gn 2:24). Then follows the
verse which testifies to the nakedness of both, without mutual shame (Gn 2:25).
This significant confrontation enables us to speak of the revelation and at the
same time the discovery of the "nuptial" meaning of the body in the
mystery of creation.
This meaning (inasmuch as it is revealed and also conscious, "lived"
by man) confirms completely that the creative giving, which springs from Love,
has reached the original consciousness of man. It becomes an experience of
mutual giving, as can already be seen in the ancient text. That nakedness of
both progenitors, free from shame, seems also to bear witness to that—perhaps
even specifically.
Blessing of fertility
6. Genesis 2:24 speaks of the finality of man's masculinity and femininity,
in the life of the spouses-parents. Uniting with each other so closely as to
become "one flesh," they will subject their humanity to the blessing
of fertility, namely, "procreation," which the first narrative speaks
of (cf. Gn 1:28). Man comes "into being" with consciousness of this
finality of his own masculinity-femininity, that is, of his own sexuality. At
the same time, the words of Genesis 2:25: "They were both naked, and were
not ashamed," seem to add to this fundamental truth of the meaning of the
human body, of its masculinity and femininity, another no less essential and
fundamental truth. Aware of the procreative capacity of his body and of his
sexuality, man is at the same time "free from the constraint" of his
own body and sex.
That original nakedness, mutual and at the same time not weighed down by shame,
expresses this interior freedom of man. Is this what freedom from the
"sexual instinct" is? The concept of "instinct" already
implies an interior constraint, similar to the instinct that stimulates
fertility and procreation in the whole world of living beings (animalia).
It seems, however, that both texts of Genesis, the first and the second
narrative of the creation of man, connected sufficiently the perspective of
procreation with the fundamental characteristic of human existence in the
personal sense. Consequently the analogy of the human body and of sex in
relation to the world of animals—which
we can call an analogy of nature—is
also raised, in a way, in both narratives (though in a different way in each),
to the level of "image of God," and to the level of the person and
communion between persons.
It will be necessary to dedicate other further analyses to this essential
problem. For the conscience of man—also
for modern man—it
is important to know that the revelation of the "nuptial meaning of the
body" is found in those biblical texts which speak of the
"beginning" of man. But it is even more important to establish what
this meaning expresses precisely.
Taken from: L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO - English Edition -- Reprinted with Permission -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana - The Holy See