6
A Profound and Inseparable Unity
Within man—male and female—there is a profound and inseparable unity of body and
soul. As the Church explains, “the body is an intrinsic part of the human person and thus
participates in his being created in the image of God;” 14 in other words, man “does not have his
body, but is his body.” 15 This mystery precludes any mind-body dualism that would minimize or
denigrate the importance of the body in the life and perfection of man. However, it is more
precisely in the unity of masculinity and femininity, i.e. marital union, that man reflects this
image most perfectly. 16 St. John Paul II asserts that this divine reflection in marriage is as “two
different ‘incarnations’… two ways of ‘being a body’ of the same human being created ‘in the
14
International Theological Commission, Communion and Stewardship: Human Persons Created in the
Image of God, Vatican.va, 2004, sec. 29, accessed May 27, 2018,
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20040723_communion-
stewardship_en.html.
15
Ibid., para. 28.
16
John Paul II, “By the Communion of Persons Man Becomes the Image of God,” Vatican.va, November
14, 1979, para. 6, accessed May 27, 2018, https://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-
ii/en/audiences/1979/documents/hf_jp-ii_aud_19791114.html.