Today’s letter from the CDF, a meditation on man and woman, reminds us that in the Christian understanding of reality, God created beings with distinctions among them, and he created humanity in two kinds. These differences are not illusory and baneful, but good and based in the ontological character of the created beings.
WIthout distinctions between beings, there is no relationship between them. Certain Eastern religious ideas affirm only one Being, with no fundamental difference between God and us, and even all the things and persons that we experience. Christianity affirms the difference between the Creator and the creature as true and as the most fundamental distinction of all. This difference makes possible a relationship between an ‘I’ and a ‘You’, not merely an ‘I’ and itself.
CDF writes:
The first text (Gn 1:1-2:4) describes the creative power of the Word of God, which makes distinctions in the original chaos. Light and darkness appear, sea and dry land, day and night, grass and trees, fish and birds, “each according to its kind”. An ordered world is born out of differences, carrying with them also the promise of relationships. Here we see a sketch of the framework in which the creation of the human race takes place: “God said ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness’” (Gn 1:26). And then: “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gn1:27). From the very beginning therefore, humanity is described as articulated in the male-female relationship. This is the humanity, sexually differentiated, which is explicitly declared “the image of God”.
The very first sin, as described in Genesis, involves the failure to acknowledge the difference between Creator and creature. This breach disrupts the relation of God and man, and has repercussions on all the other relationships: that between man and woman, and between man and other creatures.
Acknowledging the other as other, and as good, is absolutely necessary. Without it, there is no possibility of love.
I’m sure I disagree with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (I usually do), but I’ll let you know for sure when I’ve actually read the document. Nevertheless, thanks for posting something that had nothing to do with politics! Kudos! lol.
nothing to do with politics???? disagree with the CDF? Nathan….you are Catholic?
He converted to Cafeteria Catholicism this spring, Peter: orthodox Catholic on March 3, ex-Catholic on May 2, Cafeteria Catholic on May 20. Obviously one sufferin’ and erratic dude. But enough about him. He’s becoming a tiresome troll.
Yes, and the reason I was an ex-Catholic for eighteen days was because of comments like that. Be proud.
Are you taking responsibility for your actions or blaming others?
Okay, let me clarify: I was willfully an ex-Catholic for eighteen days, because the Church’s hierarchy and especially its laity ticked me off (and continues to do so). I willfully came back because I was not going to be run out of the Church by Republican Rite Catholics, and I’ll be staying here no matter how much Republo-Catholics anger me.
So what I was saying was that comments like the one you made above greatly contributed to my willful decision to leave the Church. Comments that good Catholics, like Fr. Keyes and Mark Windsor, made contributed to my willful decision to come back.
Nathan, I was 20 once (many years ago), and I remember my own desire to fight the world. Let me tell you, it’s impossible. I realize now that a large part of that was my own prideful desire to be right, and my desire for justice was not as important as it should have been.
It’s better to give up your pride, and the sooner, the better. Be a student, not a critic, at least for a while. Drink in the wisdom of those who are far more advanced in the faith than we are, and you’ll be much better off.