64. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.  Genesis 1:27

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Faith Lesson 64

Ave Maria series

64.  Why did God create man male and female” 

God, who is love and the archetype of community, created man male and female so that together they might be an image of his nature.  [369-373, 383]

Saint  Teresa of Lisieux  1876 with inset photos of her mother St. Zelie Martin and father St. Louis Martin. Photoshop images by Don L. Bragg. ......64

God made man in such a way that he is male or female and longs for fulfillment and completion in an encounter with the opposite sex.  Men and women have absolutely the same dignity, but in the creative development of their masculinity and femininity they give expression to different aspects of God’s perfection.  God is not male or female, but he has shown himself to be both fatherly (Luke 6:36) and motherly (Isaiah 66:13).  In the love of man and woman, especially in the community of marriage, in which man and woman become “one flesh” (Genesis 2:24), people are privileged to sense something of the happiness of the union with God in which every man finds his ultimate wholeness.  Just as God’s love is faithful, so also their love seeks to be faithful; and it is creative, as God is, because from marriage new life comes forth.  260, 400-401, 416-417

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.  Genesis 1:27

It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.  Genesis 2:18

[369-373, 383]

"MALE AND FEMALE HE CREATED THEM"

Equality and difference willed by God

369 Man and woman have been created, which is to say, willed by God: on the one hand, in perfect equality as human persons; on the other, in their respective beings as man and woman. "Being man" or "being woman" is a reality which is good and willed by God: man and woman possess an inalienable dignity which comes to them immediately from God their Creator.( Compare Genesis 2:7,22.)²⁴⁰ Man and woman are both with one and the same dignity "in the image of God". In their "being-man" and "being-woman", they reflect the Creator's wisdom and goodness. –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

370 In no way is God in man's image. He is neither man nor woman. God is pure spirit in which there is no place for the difference between the sexes. But the respective "perfections" of man and woman reflect something of the infinite perfection of God: those of a mother and those of a father and husband.( Compare Isaiah 49:14-15; Isa 66:13; Psalm 131:2-3; Hosea 11:1-4; Jeremiah 3:4-19.)²⁴¹ --CCC

"Each for the other" - "A unity in two"

371 God created man and woman together and willed each for the other. The Word of God gives us to understand this through various features of the sacred text. "It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him."( Genesis 2:18.)²⁴² None of the animals can be man's partner.( Genesis 2:19-20.)²⁴³ The woman God "fashions" from the man's rib and brings to him elicits on the man's part a cry of wonder, an exclamation of love and communion: "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh."( Genesis 2:23.)²⁴⁴ Man discovers woman as another "I", sharing the same humanity. --CCC

372 Man and woman were made "for each other" - not that God left them half-made and incomplete: he created them to be a communion of persons, in which each can be "helpmate" to the other, for they are equal as persons ("bone of my bones. . .") and complementary as masculine and feminine. In marriage God unites them in such a way that, by forming "one flesh",(Genesis 2:24.)²⁴⁵ they can transmit human life: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth."( Genesis 1:28.)²⁴⁶ By transmitting human life to their descendants, man and woman as spouses and parents cooperate in a unique way in the Creator's work.( Compare Gaudium et Spes 50 § 1.)²⁴⁷--CCC

373 In God's plan man and woman have the vocation of "subduing" the earth(Genesis 1:28.)²⁴⁸ as stewards of God. This sovereignty is not to be an arbitrary and destructive domination. God calls man and woman, made in the image of the Creator "who loves everything that exists",(Wisdom 11:24.)²⁴⁹ to share in his providence toward other creatures; hence their responsibility for the world God has entrusted to them. --CCC

IN BRIEF

383 "God did not create man a solitary being. From the beginning, "male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:27). This partnership of man and woman constitutes the first form of communion between persons" (Gaudium et Spes 12 § 4). --CCC