Having introduced the beginning, that is the original intentions of the Creator, Pope John Paul II turns to the creation of the help suitable for man. (And we note that the Hebrew word for “help” carries no connotation of inferiority.) In the previous podcast, we discussed the original solitude of the man, a solitude that arises from his being a rational being with a body. Through his body he can act in the world and through his mind he can name the animals. But among the animals he can find no true helpmate. So, God created the woman, who is also a person with a mind, with intelligence. She is a person with whom he can work in unity of mind and heart. This is the original unity that God intended for man and woman. In this communion of persons, man becomes more fully the image of God. And although they were naked, they felt no shame (Gen. 2:25). This was their original nakedness, a theme that becomes important after the Fall.
An important text for this lesson and the discussion going forward is from Gaudium et Spes, section 24:
Indeed, the Lord Jesus, when he prayed to the father, “that all may be one" … as we are one” (John 17:21-22) opened up vistas closed to human reason, for He implied a certain likeness between the union of the divine Persons, and the unity of God’s sons and daughters in truth and charity. This likeness reveals that man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, cannot fully find himself except through sincere gift of self.
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