What does it mean to be
end for which ‘in the beginning God created the heavens
and the earth’: from the beginning, God envisaged the glory
of the new creation in Christ” (no. 280). This is why Christ is
the linchpin of Christian Anthropology.
Beyond Secular Anthropology
The difference between this “good news” and other
philosophical anthropologies can be seen in other areas,
as well. For instance, Plato described the soul as being
imprisoned in the body. This is why the soul longed for
release from the body, so that it could return to its originally
exalted, unsullied state. This idea led to a very dualistic
conception of man, with the soul being held in far greater
esteem than the body.
But this is not the view of Christian Anthropology.
The Catechism describes the unity of the soul and body as
comprising a single nature (cf., no. 366). Hence, man does
not have a body and a soul; rather, man is a body and soul.
Through his Incarnation, Christ sanctified the body; through
his Resurrection, Christ also glorified it.
For this reason, man must not despise his bodily life. In
Heaven we will continue to exist as embodied souls, albeit in a
glorified state. Referencing Pope Pius XII’s encyclical Humani
Generis, the Catechism
in no. 367 states: “The
Church teaches that every
spiritual soul is created
immediately by God—it
is not ‘produced’ by the
parents—and also that it
is immortal: it does not
perish when it separates from the body at death, and it will
be reunited with the body at the final Resurrection.”
That the soul is immortal forms the basis for the Catholic
Church’s teaching on the inviolable dignity of the human
person.
Human life is sacred—all men must recognize that
fact. From its very inception it reveals the creating
hand of God. Those who violate His laws not only
offend the divine majesty and degrade themselves and
humanity, they also sap the vitality of the political
community of which they are members (St. John
XXIII, Mater et Magistra).
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.
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.
So, though we have been created equal, we have been
made to be different. Humans exist as masculine or feminine
beings. Hence, far from sexual differentiation being merely
an accidental or secondary aspect of our humanity, it is
something constitutive of it. The sexual differences between
man and woman, while certainly manifested in physical
attributes, in fact transcend the purely physical and reveal
something fundamental about the very mystery of our
humanity (and what it means to be created in the Imago Dei).
Complementary but Fully Complete
Humanity shares one common nature, but man and
woman are two complementary aspects of that same nature,
so that the unity and difference between them lies at the
level of being. This means that man and woman, although
complete in and of
themselves, together
are able to fully reveal
the nature of God to
the world. They are
able to experience and
live out life differently,
while building each
other up and drawing each other closer to that which they
were created for, a relationship with God.
The insurmountable diversity between men and
women transforms them both, reciprocally, in the
greater sign of the Other, not as a threat, but rather as
a gift, a gratuitousness and a promise of life; it is also a
sign of a unity that is free and founded on the love on
which the perfection of human beings depends.” (Bp.
Alfonso Rouco)
“The sexual differences between man and
woman transcend the purely physical.”
Sexual Differentiation “Willed by God”
Another essential dimension of our being human is
our sexual identity as male and female. As no. 369 of the
Catechism expresses:
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 oth