Reflection on November 7, 1979
http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/jp2tb8.htm
I think it is interesting to reflect on the man being put to sleep. It is obvious that it is not normal “sleep” like we think of it but a deeper and different type of sleep. JPII points out that it is not just sleep, but almost a new beginning, that man stops “being” and is recreated as man and woman. 2 things this points us towards is that man (male) had no part in the creation of woman. I think many see male first and female second and assume there is a hierarchy of superiority. That just isn’t a part of the Theology here. Male has no participation in the making of female other than being used, and even that, I think, was to show unity not superiority. JPII speaks a lot about male and female being different, yet both equally human, on the same level in the creative spectrum.
I was thinking about that and it reminds me of how people used to look at black people during slavery, counted as 3/5 a person or how many see the fetus today. Many want to place male on a different level of creation than female because of Biblical chronology, but that is not what God is pointing to. Male and female are equally human, just as black and white, born and unborn.
God could have made female out of the dust. Using man’s rib teaches more about our unity than biology on man’s creation. Think about why God does something the way He did it. Woman could have come from dust, but what would that teach us about the unity between man and woman? What would that teach us about the unity of the Trinity? God uses man’s rib not because He had to, but to show us that male and female are made to be united to each other in a very special way, that we came from each other, we are bonded in our very creation and function. The unity of male and female is at the very foundation of what it means to be human. God does not want us to define human without understanding the uniqueness and special compatibility of male and female.
In the footnotes it talk about bones as a figure of speech for the human being, not just the body. I thought that put a lot more into God taking one of Adam’s bones. Instead of just one rib, it could be read that he took a part of his being or his whole essence, and from that made woman. I thought that spoke more to the increase in the unity between male and female, but maybe something about God’s plan for certain males and females, the idea of true love. To think that God made someone out there that you are supposed to be with that was not just made from a part of you, but God made you both with part of the same being and until you are united, you are not complete. Adam and Eve were made “for” each other and “from” each other. God has made someone “for” and (somehow mysteriously) “from” us as well.
Words I looked up
Somatic (Constitution) - of the body; bodily; physical.
Epoch - a particular period of time marked by distinctive features, events, etc.:
Stratum - a layer of material, naturally or artificially formed, often one of a number of parallel layers one upon another:
Torpor - a state of suspended physical powers and activities.
Homogeneity - composition from like parts, elements, or characteristics; state or quality of being homogeneous.
Consanguinity - relationship by descent from a common ancestor; kinship
Synecdoche - a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part, the special for the general or the general for the special, as in ten sail for ten ships or a Croesus for a rich man.