8. Male and Female

8.. "Male and Female He Created Them"
The communion of love between husband and wife finds its ultimate source in God.
Compendium 71-72
Genesis 2:18-24
The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
But for Adam[a] no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs[b] and then closed up the place with flesh.Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib[c] he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
    and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
    for she was taken out of man.”
That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

1. "God created mankind in his own image, male and female he created them" Genesis 1:27
2.  "Maleness" and Femaleness" are part of God's creative design and go the depths of one's very being and should inspire wonder and awe in us and in our relationship with God and one another.
3. Sexual differences do not exist in God who is pure spirit.
4. "Being man" and "being woman" are two equal and complementary ways of being human.
5. God created man and woman together and willed each for the other.
6. "Be fertile and multiply", Genesis 1:28 is at the heart of the Church's teaching against contraception.
7. Man and woman created as a "unity of two" in their common humanity, are called to live in a community of love and to mirror to the world the community of love that is in God. They give themselves to each other freely and completely in a holy communion which is a unity in differences which is fruitful and creative and not a business contract that is calculated and measured and exchanged as a commodity or seeking payment.
8. God in himself is love.
9. Each of the divine Persons is truly divine but in a way that the other is not. Similarly, male and female are two distinct ways of being human for the common good of society and the salvation of souls.
10. The best witness to God is a loving and joyful family that renews itself constantly, overcomes discouragement and missteps and begins every day to start again the great adventure of life on earth projected towards heaven.