18 Week Old Stillborn

Today, I was blessed with a very unique opportunity.

I work at a funeral home, and a few times a month we get to deal with a family that has a baby, either stillborn, premature, or has died soon after death, that we receive and perform the necessary duties for a funeral. Today, we dealt with an 18-week-old stillborn.

It was an extremely well-formed body and a true testament of the Theology of the Body, on two accounts: the nature of pregnancy, and the funeral services the parents desired for their child.

In both of these accounts, we can see a common theme - the gift of self.

The pregnant mother, who truly lives a life of love, gives herself to the child. She allows her own body to be a house for the child. She sacrifices her own pleasures, whether they be food and drink or engaging in certain activities, so that her child can grow and develop in a healthy manner.

Similarly, the funeral services that the parents desired to have for their child showed that they too wanted to offer themselves for their child. The mother wanted nothing more than to be a part of her daughter's life. She wanted nothing more than to hold her daughter, after we had wrapped her in a little yellow blanket. She wanted to give herself to her daughter, and had her daughter grown up, I feel confident that her parents would have shown her a good example of what love really is: the gift of self.

In today's world, especially in Washington with all the politicians and the center of debate for laws that will govern our nation, we often see the other side of this. We often see those people looking out for their own profit, people trying to figure out what they can do to make money, people willing to compromise anything to get re-elected. Where does this all lead us? To a place where contraception and abortion are legal. A place where cloning is becoming legal. A place where homosexual "marriages," are becoming the norm. All of this and much more stems from this attitude that it's all about me. But, how satisfying is that really?

I would say look at the face of a mother who has just finished breastfeeding her child. I can gurantee that you're more likely to see joy in her face than in the face of the pharmacist who is handing out contraception. Not only because th mother is giving of herself. But furthermore, because when a woman breastfeeds, there is a natural chemical released that produces a sense of pleasure within her. Our bodies naturally choose the gift of self. Contraception, abortion, cloning, homosexual "marriages" do quite the opposite. It is not natural.

But, we can see within the human body the natural desire to live out the gift of self, to live in a sense where it is not about us but about the other. The next time you see a woman who has just finished breastfeeding, look at her face. I'm sure that you'll see the same joy that was on the face of the mother who held her 18 week old stillborn baby.

That is joy. That is love.

Here is a quote from St. Catherine of Siena's Dialogue that explains this well:
"Open the eye of thy intellect, and gaze into Me, and thou shalt see the beauty of My rational creature. And look at those creatures who, among the beauties which I have given to the soul, creating her in My image and similitude, are clothed with the nuptial garment (that is, the garment of love), adorned with many virtues, by which they are united with Me through love. And yet I tell thee, if thou shouldest ask Me, who these are, I should reply (said the sweet and amorous Word of God) they are another Myself, inasmuch as they have lost and denied their own will, and are clothed with Mine, are united to Mine, are conformed to Mine."

Womb for the Lord

To the left, we see the Blessed Mother as she visits her cousin Elizabeth.


To the right, we see a church dedicated to the Blessed Mother, of which pilgrims visit quite frequently.


In both, we see the dwelling place of the Lord. How beautiful to see the church as having a "pregnant belly," so to say. For under the dome is the location of the place of consecration, a place reserved for the Incarnation of the Lord, a place where bread and wine become the Body and Blood of the Lord.

Similarly, we see that in the Blessed Mother, a very visible pregnant belly exists. This womb also holds the place of the Incarnation of the Lord, a place that has been sanctified for the Lord, by His own work.

In both places we can actually see the dwelling place of the Lord. It becomes a living reality. The Word became Incarnate, and He still becomes Incarnate within the Church building every day. Far more does He exist in a perfect way in the consecration than He does simply in our mind and through our relationship to Him. Through the consecration and reception of the Most Blessed Sacrament, we participate in a bodily and spiritual way in an amazing reality that transcends space and time and brings us into communion with He who is. This is a true sense of the communion of persons - when God humbles Himself to bring man to that of the divine. The gift of self is present within the Church and within the womb of Mary.

Advent is quickly approaching. What better way to prepare for Christmas than through meditating on Jesus in the womb of Mary, and what better place to do it than in a church in front of the Blessed Sacrament.

Introduction to the Theology of the Body

I'd like to offer my sincerest apologies for not posting this first, but for those who might be unfamiliar with the Theology of the Body, here is a brief summary of the teachings that Pope John Paul the Great conveyed through his teachings. You must keep in mind that this doesn't attempt to even begin to sum up what the Pope has given us in the Theology of the Body (TOB), but here is an effort to help lay some ground work to understanding the TOB.

So what is the Theology of the Body? Strictly speaking, it’s a series of 129 audiences given by Pope John Paul the Great during the beginning of his pontificate about human sexuality and what it means to be human. Less strictly, and more importantly, the theology of the body explains that through the nuptial meaning of the body, we can more fully know what it means to be human:

“It [the body] includes right from the beginning the nuptial attribute, that is, the capacity of expressing love, that love in which the man-person becomes a gift and - by means of this gift - fulfills the very meaning of his being and existence.” (audience of 1/16/80)

That sounds like a mouthful...through the nuptial meaning of the body, we can more fully know what it means to be human. So what does this mean, and why is it important?

The nuptial meaning of the body is the ability to convey love through our bodies, through our actions. We also know from the Book of Genesis, that we exist because God loved us into existence, and that the greatest commandments are to love God above all else and to love your neighbor as yourself (Matt 22:37,39). Thus, being human means loving God and others through our actions, or through our bodies. But, again, why is this important?

We live in a society that tells us that we need to do things for ourselves. Msgr. David Malloy (the General Secretary for the USCCB), on Sunday a few weeks ago, gave a part of his homily about how individualism builds nothing. As Catholics, we are called to live in communion with one another. More importantly, as persons, we are called to live in communion with others. The Theology of the Body delves into what it means to love one another and how to do that properly.

Only by really understanding what the Book of Genesis is talking about during the creation story, can we fully realize what it means to live in communion with others. By God creating man, both male and female (Gen. 1:27), He showed us that it is not good to be alone (Gen. 2:18). Adam didn’t find any other companions with the animals, but yet, he saw Eve as “bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh” (Gen. 2:23). He could see more fully what it meant to be who he was. And he was thus called into relationship with Eve. They weren’t just two people living separately from each other in the same garden. “The two became one flesh.” They were joined together and so lived out the call to love one another through their actions. They lived out the love of God through their gift of self to one another.

Similarly, we see that Christ has called us to love one another and lay down our lives for each other. This is true love; this is what it means to exist. Following Christ’s example of a gift of self will truly lead us to a life of holiness and a life of union with God. Christ’s becoming flesh changed the course of history. No longer what love mearly a thought or an idea that could be hinted at, but love became a reality. The Word became flesh, and as the Holy Father Benedict XVI reiterarted the words of St. John the Beloved: “God is love.” Through the Incarnation, love became a physical reality, and through the Crucifixion, that love is lived out to its fullest. This is what we’re called to; this is what it means to be human.

So as we go on in our daily lives, we need to make sure that we are living this life of love; that we are really being men of God. And there is no better way to learn how to do this than in front of the Blessed Sacrament. I can’t say it enough. Why not learn about the TOB in front of the best place possible: our Lord Himself in the Most Holy Eucharist, and what better way than through participating in the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

In learning about the TOB, I encourage you to spend time with the Lord, and learn from the Master what love really is. “Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find” (Matt. 7:7). The Lord has the answer, and if we really want to know what it means to exist, then we’ll find no better example than in the Lord Himself.

The Liturgy of the Hours

Psalm 63: 2-6

"O God, you are my God-- for you I long!

For you my body yearns; for you my soul thirsts,

Like a land parched, lifeless, and without water.

So I look to you in the sanctuary to see your power and glory.

For your love is better than life; my lips offer you worship!

I will bless you as long as I live; I will lift up my hands, calling on your name.

My soul shall savor the rich banquet of praise, with joyous lips my mouth shall honor you."

This Psalm, which the Church just used this past Sunday during Lauds, or Morning Prayer, from the Liturgy of the Hours, really opens up a great understanding of praying through words and actions.

In this Psalm, the psalmist says "For you my body yearns; for you my soul thirsts." This is amazing. Both body and soul long for that union with God. With that in mind, we can see why so many people really desire to have sex. Sex is a beautiful thing, and in the context of marriage, it is appropirately used. One of the results of this is the joining of two persons. This desire to union with another is part of who we are as humans (Gen 2:23). We were created male and female (Gen. 1:27), and this was realized under the creation of woman from man (Gen. 2:21-22). The Pope goes to great lengths to explain this in his beginning audiences to the TOB.

But, back to the Psalm. So we can clearly see that man's desire for union is desired for both the physical and spiritual parts of our being. Not that they can really be separated anyway. And that's why this is so beautiful. These lines from Psalm 63 go to show that the whole of the human person desires union. It's not just a physical or a spiritual thing. It's a personal thing (cf. Deus Caritas Est, 5). This desire for union is natural to our being created in God's image and likeness.

God exists as a communion of love (cf. 1 John 4:16). The Father gives to the Son, the Son receives the love, and the Holy Spirit is the love that perfectly exists between the Father and the Son. This communion of persons of the Trinity is the root of why man desires to be in communion with another. This is part of what the Psalm is talking about. In this, we can see man's plea to enter into the eschaton!

"My soul shall savor the rich banquet of praise, with joyous lips my mouth shall honor you."

On Priestly Celibacy

The other night, I was talking to a guy who seems to be at odds with the Church, and this most likely results from a lack of proper catechesis as a youth. We ended up discussing priestly celibacy, and so certain sections of the Pope's catechesis on the issue in the Theology of the Body naturally came to mind. But, the his catechesis was so skewed that it would take quite a while to bring him up to par on JPII's teachings.

It was funny however that he managed to present every argument against celibacy that he could think of. And yet, those arguments are all the same ones that Pope Pius VI wrote about in his encyclical Sacerdotalis Caelibatus - "On Priestly Celibacy", sections 5-12.

But right after listing these objections, the Pope goes on to talk about the answers to these objections starting with this line:

"The sum of these objections would appear to drown out the solemn and age-old voice of the pastors of the Church and of the masters of the spiritual life, and to nullify the living testimony of the countless ranks of saints and faithful ministers of God, for whom celibacy has been the object of the total and generous gift of themselves to the mystery of Christ, as well as its outward sign." (13)

Reading this made me immediately think of JPII's idea of celibacy being a gift to the Church, and how the celibate is living the eschatalogical on earth (cf. audiences of March 10, 1982-July 21, 1982). The "outward sign" is that very gift of self, that "generous gift of themselves to the mystery of Christ." What an amazing way to look at celibacy, and still furthermore, this is years before JPII even began to give his audiences on the TOB.

When we think of celibacy, we should remember that it is "for the sake of the kingdom." Those who are living the celibate life are living in anticipation of that total union with God that will exist in the eschaton, while they are still on Earth (cf. audience of March 10, 1982). And, they are doing it for the Kingdom of God. Through their gift of self, the Kingdom can spread, and the true understanding of the nuptial meaning of the body can be seen by the total gift of the self of the body of the celibate. This act of celibacy, in and of itself, is the living out of the nuptial meaning of the body. For the true celibate, this gift of self, will be a total one in which the celibate is living a life of martyrdom, a martrydom from their own desires for the sake of the other. What beauty is there in celibacy! Why should people even begin to raise questions about ending celibacy for whatever reason? I can't think of any.

Total gift of self, martyrdom, living the eschatological life while on earth...what more could you ask for?

Let me just close with another quote by Pope Paul VI in his encyclical that really sums things up:

"Nor can we overlook the immense ranks of men and women in religious life, of laity and of young people too, united in the faithful observance of perfect chastity. They live in chastity, not out of disdain for the gift of life, but because of a greater love for that new life which springs from the Paschal mystery. They live this life of courageous self-denial and spiritual joyfulness with exemplary fidelity and also with relative facility." (13)

Our Lady Full of Grace

Our Lady, Full of Grace...pray for us

In light of Blessed Fra Angelico's Annunciation above, think about the difference between the moments of the Annunciation and that of the Incarnation. Then look back at the image in light of the Incarnation.

If you look at the expression on Blessed Mary's face to the right, you will notice that she's not actually looking at St. Gabriel, she is staring off into space. At the same time she is holding her chest, indicating that she has already conceived Christ in her heart. Furthermore, in light of the more artistic points, there is no gate present (gates are often present in the Annunciation being that Mary is the Gate for Christ to come into the world, and He's already entered the gate at this point), and there is no Holy Spirit descending upon our Blessed Mother either.

On a note that rings more of the TOB, the expression on her face is similar to Batoni's The Ecstasy of Catherine of Siena:


When we think about ecstasy in the saints, we must not separate the bodies from the souls. In images of St. Catherine of Siena or St. Teresa of Avila in ecstasy, we can clearly see that their bodies are feeling the effects of the ecstasy as well. Other saints have levitated in ecstasy or even caught on fire with the fire of Divine Love. Just imagine how much union must exist between body and soul for if the soul is in bliss, then the body should be in bliss too.

St. Thomas Aquinas talks about Christ exuding grace from His Body, especially at the Transfiguration. Thus, grace must've become tangible in some sense at the Transfiguration. After all, the rock, which can still be found at the spot, changed to a marvellous white color that still cannot be replicated by modern science.

Thus, when we think of the Blessed Virgin, and how she is called "Full of Grace" by the angel Gabriel, we have to wonder what that really means.

Our Lady, Full of Grace...pray for us

(Happy feast of the Presentation of the BVM)

St. Bernard on the "Canticle of Canticles", PT I

"It [the bride] does not ask for liberty, nor reward, nor nor heritage nor even knowledge, but a kiss - clearly after the manner of the chaste spouse burning with a holy love and altogether powerless to conceal the flame that consumes her." (St. Bernard, On the Canticle of Canticles, Chapter 4)

Chaste love. What a beauty! The love that the bride shares for the Bridegroom in the Canticle of Canticles is simply amazing. It is nothing less than the epitome of love. This love comes from a desire for union with the beloved rather than from the selfish desire to be pleased herself.

St. Bernard further comments how the love between the bride and bridegroom is pure when it mirrors the love of the Trinity. This he explains:
"Certainly if the Father is rightly interpreted as giving the kiss and the Son as receiving it, it will not be very far from the fact to understand the kiss itself as the Holy Spirit who is the unalterable peace, the indissoluble bond, the indivisible love, the inviolable unity between the Father and the Son" (Chapter 5).

This love of the Trinity, the exchange of the kiss (which comes from Canticle of Canticles 1:1), is the summation of the eternal exchange of love that is the goal of the bride and the bridegroom. This peace, bond, love, and unity all wrapped up into one is what love is about. Far from the selfish desires that society tells us make up love, St. Bernard seems to hit love right on the head. Maybe that's why he's the Mellifluus Doctor, to which Pope Pius XII quotes him saying,
"O holy and chaste love! O sweet and soothing affection! . . . It is the more soothing and more sweet, the more the whole of that which is experienced is divine. To have such love, means being made like God." (Encyclical Letter, Mellifluus Doctor, 17)

Bishops statement on the Most Holy Eucharist

In light of the Bishops document, "'Happy Are Those Who Are Called to His Supper': On Preparing to Receive Christ Worthily in the Eucharist" here is a reflection on the Most Holy Eucharist and how the Theology of the Body applies to the Most Blessed Sacrament:


“This is my Body…this is my Blood”(Mark 14:22-24). “My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink” (John 6:55). “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life” (John 6:54).


Jesus’ words in the Gospels clearly indicates His presence within the Eucharist, especially in the sixth chapter of John. Christ says, “My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.” This is the Eucharist: the Body and Blood of Christ. And what does Christ then tell us? “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life” (John 6:54). We have this gift in the Eucharist: the sacrifice of our Lord for us.

This sacrifice is a gift and an act of love, an act which Christ also calls us to participate in, every time we go to Mass. His sacrifice on Calvary and His sacrifice at the Last Supper share in the same message: Christ came to save us. He loved us so much that He was willing to give Himself to us fully for our redemption. That is the message of the Eucharist: a loving sacrifice.

But, he did it in a most special way. He became human. Christ could have opened the gates of heaven for us just by willing it. But, He wanted to show us how much He loved us. So He opened His arms wide on the cross to show us that He was willing to embrace us. As He bore the weight of our sins on the cross, He continued to reach out, and welcome us back. He took on human flesh to share in our earthly life.

And by His death, Resurrection, and Ascension, He elevated the human person to be like God. In the words of Pope John Paul the Great, he opened “to all people the prospect of being ‘divinized’ and thus of becoming more human” (Incarnationis Mysterium 2). He elevated the dignity of the human person to an even more glorious state than was found in the Garden of Eden. All out of love for us.

God is love, as Benedict XVI has told us. He desires us to share in this love. And He gives us this chance each week at Mass. In fact, we can participate in His love for us each and every day at daily Mass. Moreover, He is present within the tabernacle in every Catholic Church. His true presence, Body and Blood, right there in the tabernacle. All we have to do is walk into a Church, and just say hello. It’s that simple. And, it’s just to return His love, to let Him know that we love Him.

So we should receive this gift of the Lord in the Eucharist and remember that each time we receive His gift of self, we are called to that same gift of self. Christ offers us His Body and Blood. He gives us all of Him as He did upon the Cross. In the same way, we are then challenged to respond to His offering of a gift by offering a gift back to Him: our own selves. We too are called to give all that we can, our own body and blood, back to Him. That is how we imitate Christ through a gift of love, and this is what our “Amen” means when we receive Holy Communion.

But, this extends far beyond the confines of the Church building. At the end of Mass, we are sent forth to “Go in peace.” And in our own way, we are all sent as missionaries of the Eucharist. Just as the Blessed Mother brought the gift of Christ to her cousin Elizabeth, so too should we seek to allow Christ to dwell within us and bring Him to others. Thus, we should allow ourselves to be conformed to the King of the Universe who resides within us, after we receive Holy Communion.

Thus, when we receive the Body and Blood of Christ, we should imitate His most Blessed Mother when she said yes to the Angel Gabriel: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

It is purely a gift that we are able to be like the Blessed Mother, bearers of Christ into the world. For as Christ came into the world that we might become like Him, let us also take Christ into the world so that others may know Him. Let us bring Christ to the world so that it may know what true holiness is, what true happiness is:
“The Son of God came to share in our lowly humanity that we might come to share in his holy divinity. When we receive Christ in Holy Communion, we are united to the Risen Christ and come to share in his divine life. Thus, through Christ’s indwelling, we are likewise united, in the Holy Spirit, to God the Father, the source of all holiness.” (USCCB, “Happy Are Those Who Are Called to His Supper”: On Preparing to Receive Christ Worthily in the Eucharist, pg. 3, Nov. 14, 2006)

Bodily Persons

Spirit AND Body = Good

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (1 Cor. 6:19-20)

The human body is a beautiful thing. Society often tells us otherwise. For so long, we have lived in a world where we are told “Spirit good…body bad.” If we fall into this error, our lives will be devoid of something very important: a way to communicate who we are. The body is the surest means to this. Pope John Paul II wrote, “The body, and it alone, is capable of making visible the invisible.”(1) If we did not have our bodies, how could we communicate? How would we survive as humans? For instance, if we close our eyes, our mouths, and cease to move, is there a way to communicate to another? Is there a way to fulfill the two greatest commandments: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and with thy whole soul and with thy whole mind,” and “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”(2) Our bodies are intricately entwined as a part of us.(3) Just as without our souls, our bodies would lie lifeless, so too without our bodies, our souls would not be able to rightly communicate during our earthly lives.


Body Good?

But what makes our bodies good? Why should we respect ourselves, not only in regard to the spiritual aspect of our being, but also that of our bodies?

We can begin to answer this question by looking at Sacred Scripture: “God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them….God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good.”(4) This is clearly visible when looking at Michelangelo’s paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel. One frame shows God and man touching nearly touching fingers. In looking at this image of the creation of man, the man looks very similar to God.


The “Imago Dei”

So man is made in the image of God. He looks like him, as we can see in paintings throughout the history of the Church. Pope John Paul II tells us, ““Man has been given a sublime dignity, based on the intimate bond which unites him to his Creator: in man there shines forth a reflection of God himself.”(5) But, what does this really mean?

Pope John Paul II tells us, “In the life of man, God’s image shines forth…at the coming of the Son of God in human flesh. ‘Christ is the image of the invisible God’…He is the perfect image of the Father.”(6) So to be in the image of God, it means to be like God in all things, and Christ is the best example of that, especially since He is a part of the trinity. And most especially, “God’s image shines forth…at the coming of the Son of God in human flesh.” Thus, we can see that God made man is the best example of the image of God. Afterall, “He is the perfect image of the Father.”(7) So to be like Christ is to live out our design as being made in the image of God. To be in the image of God is to follow Christ’s command, “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”(8)


New Dignity of Man

But, what does this have to do with the body? We know from the Book of Genesis that the image of God is stamped in our bodies. And by Christ becoming man, our bodies are raised to a new dignity. Pope John Paul II tells us, “Christ has imprinted new dignity on the human body - on the body of every man and every woman.”(9) Furthermore, St. Athanasius writes, “For He was made man that we might be made God.”(10)

Not only did God became man to restore us to our former dignity, the dignity of Adam and Eve before the fall, but he also raised us to an even greater dignity than before so “that we might be made God.” In God becoming man, he raised the dignity of the human person.(11) This includes the body. We should not see the body as the enemy of the soul, but as an integral part of who we are. If it is dignified, we need to treat it as such. We need to control the desires of the flesh to match that of the spirit. If we are to become better people, if we are to follow the will of our Lord, than we need to train our bodies to be visible images of what it means to be Christian. We need to strive for purity, which is “the capacity of controlling one’s body in holiness and honor.”(12) For, as Pope John Paul II tells us, “the fruit of purity“ is “the sight of God,” or growing in holiness.(13)


The Meaning of Life

Thus, to become holier, we must control our bodies, and thence we will be able to live more as ourselves. The more we understand how we are created and live in the idea that we are dignified beings created in God’s image, the more we will know ourselves, and the more fulfilling life will be.(14)

As already mentioned, the greatest commandment is to love God above all else, and the second greatest is to love your neighbor as yourself. So if loving God and neighbor is the best thing that we can do, and control of our bodies helps us to live a more fulfilling life should not loving God and neighbor through the control of our bodies be the best thing that we can do?

Again, Pope John Paul II tells us that the body “includes…the capacity of expressing love, that love…which…fulfills the very meaning of his being and existence.”(15) So through our bodies, we can fulfill Christ’s commands to love one another. And this, simply put, is the meaning of our existence: to love. And through our bodies, we can fulfill just that. We have the capacity to love or to lust. To live fulfilling lives, we must choose love, for lust is only a degradation of the human person, both ourselves and those whom we encounter. And this leads us back to our original point.

“God created man in his image…male and female he created them…and he found it very good.” It is good that we are bodily creatures. In and through our bodies we are able to love God and one another, and in and through our bodies we are able to learn what it means to be who we are. We are not merely something but rather someone, and our bodies help to make this a visible reality.(16)


(1) Pope John Paul II, Theology of the Body, pg. 76, audience of February 20, 1980; In the same audience, Pope John Paul II further wrote, “It [the body] was created to transfer into the visible reality of the world the mystery hidden since time immemorial in God, and thus be a sign of it.” Furthermore, “By means of his corporality, his masculinity and femininity, man becomes a visible sign of the economy of truth and love, which has its source in God himself and which was revealed already in the mystery of creation.”
(2) Matthew 22:37, 39.
(3) cf. CCC, 365: “The unity of soul and body is so profound that one has to consider the soul to be the ‘form’ of the body.”
(4) Genesis 1:27, 31.
(5) Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Letter, Evangelium Vitae, 34.
(6) EV, 36.
(7) cf. Col. 1:15
(8) Matthew 5:48.
(9) TOB, pg. 207, Feb. 11, 1981.
(10) St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation of the Word, 54.3; Furthermore, St. Thomas Aquinas writes, “The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods” (Opusc. 57:1-4).
(11) Pope John Paul II also writes, “Christ has imprinted new dignity on the human body - on the body of every man and every woman” (TOB, pg. 207, Feb. 11, 1981).
(12) TOB, pg. 209, March 18, 1981.
(13) TOB, pg. 210, March 18, 1981.
(14) cf. Gaudium et Spes, 22: “Jesus Christ fully reveals man to himself.”
(15) TOB, pg. 63, Jan. 16, 1980
(16) cf. CCC, 357: “Being in the image of God the human individual possesses the dignity of the person, who is not just something, but someone.”

Imago Dei

Man is made in the image and likeness of God. Through God, man may begin to fully realize who he is. Man is made in God's image, not the other way around. The bodies we have are made in the likeness of the body that Christ was to assume. It is in that light that our bodies are made the way they are, male and female.

The intricacy and connection between male and female shine forth in their complementarity to one another. It is in seeing them both as reflective of God's design for man that we can more fully understand what it means to be male and female, both made in the image and likeness of God.