Our sexual identity as man
and woman is not “socially
constructed” or merely
learned behavior—it is
God-intended and “reflects
in some way the mystery of
the Holy Trinity.”
Young couples around a banquet table, from a French sixteenth century illuminated manuscript (artres.com).
person, who is not just something, but someone. He is capable
of self-knowledge, of self-possession and of freely giving
himself and entering into communion with other persons.
And he is called by grace to a covenant with his Creator, to
offer him a response of faith and love that no other creature
can give in his stead” (no. 357).
This is why we all long for God and can only be satisfied
by God, because from the beginning, we have been created in
his divine image and likeness.
Damage from the Fall
But the question arises: why, then, do we not easily
recognize God’s beauty, goodness, and presence in ourselves
and in everyone we meet? The answer is because of the fall
from grace that Adam and Eve experienced as a result of original
sin. Our faculties have become wounded and compromised. We
have become alienated from God, from others, and even from
ourselves. In short, our original nature has become broken.
But thank God this is not the end of the story. During the
Easter Vigil, the Exsultet proclaims: “O happy fault, O necessary
sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a Redeemer!” Christ
came not only to save us from our sins but to restore, elevate,
and perfect our human natures, to make possible what the
Eastern Church calls theosis (deification). We now have the
potential to be better off than the pre-lapsarian Adam and Eve
(if we repent, believe, and become baptized).
The Catechism says that “the mystery of Christ casts
conclusive light on the mystery of creation and reveals the
Fr. John Vandenakker, CC, is graduate pastoral formation director and assistant professor of theology at Sacred Heart.
FAll 2014
SAcred HeArt MAjor SeminAry
3