When God created him, man "was missing something in order to reach fulfillment; he lacked reciprocity. The woman is not a 'replica' of man. She comes directly from God's creative act. The image of the 'rib' does not express inferiority or subordination, but rather indicates that man and woman are of the same substance and complementary, and even have this reciprocity." Pope Francis said this yesterday morning, during the Wednesday General Audience, as he continued his catechesis on the family with the theme taken from Genesis, "Male and female he created them."
With sin, which "generates distrust and division between man and woman," their relationship "will be undermined by a thousand different kinds of abuse and subjugation, of deceitful seduction and demeaning humiliations, reaching even the most dramatic and violent forms. History bears the marks. Consider, for example, the excesses of negative patriarchal cultures. Think of the many forms of 'male domination' where the woman is considered a second class citizen. Think–the Pope continued–of the instrumentalization and commodification of the female body in the current media culture. But let us also note the recent outbreak of distrust, skepticism and even hostility that is spreading in our culture–which stems in particular from the understandable mistrust on the part of women–with regard to an alliance between man and woman that could, at the same time, sharpen the intimacy of communion and guard the dignity of difference."
Thus, "the social devaluation of the stable and generative alliance of man and woman is certainly a loss for all. We must restore the honor of marriage and the family! Now, the Bible says a beautiful thing: the man finds the woman, they meet ... and the man must leave something in order to fully find himself. And this is why he will leave his father and his mother to go to be with her. This is beautiful! It means setting out on a road. The man is all for the woman, and the woman is all for the man."
"The custody of the alliance between man and woman, although they are sinners and wounded, humiliated and confused, discouraged and uncertain, is–the Pope concluded–for us believers a challenging and exciting vocation in today's reality."
