Theology of the Body 2013/01/06

"The concept of 'knowledge' summarizes everything we've talked about thus far. … Adam named the animals, and he knew that he was different from them. This knowledge of his aloneness became the basis for his union with the woman. Because she, too, was created in God's image, Adam was able to know his wife in a way that he could not know an animal. By uniting with her so closely as to become one flesh, he knew her. 'Adam named his wife Eve,' Genesis 3:20 says, 'because she would become the mother of all the living.'

"The mystery of femininity is revealed in motherhood. Men and women are different, not only physically, but even at the deepest psychological levels. …

"Eve was revealed to Adam as a mother — one in whom new human life is conceived and nurtured. When Eve became a mother,  the mystery of Adam's masculinity was also revealed — the lifegiving, fatherly meaning of his body.

"By revealing the mystery of masculinity and femininity, procreation expands the knowledge shared between man and woman. In sex, a husband and wife know each other, and find themselves affirmed through each other. In procreation, a husband and wife come to know themselves through a third person, sprung from them both. This is a revelation. Looking at their child, their shared humanity — they see their own living image. When Adam first saw Eve, he declared, 'This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh!' And when Eve first saw her child, she exclaimed, "I have begotten a man!'" (Underlinings added.)