Mother Pelican
A Journal of Solidarity and Sustainability

Vol. 14, No. 3, March 2018 Luis T. Gutiérrez, Editor

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Rediscovering the Natural Consubstantiality of Man and Woman Luis T. Gutiérrez 8 March 2018 International Women's Day That human bodies are male or female or intersex is a fundamental anthropological reality; but it is not less so that human persons are engendered. Patriarchal gender ideology (the infamous gender "binary") is no longer credible, socially and scientifically. Rather than inventing any new set of artificially separate gender classifications, it is a matter of rediscovering what we already know, i.e., that all human beings, male or female or intersex, share one and the same human nature. For all men and women of good will to effectively contribute to integral human development it is indispensable to sanitize human relations, as much as possible, from the hierarchical mentality that is generally manifested as male hegemony and female subservience, and extends to human hegemony over the human habitat. Overcoming this mindset is becoming increasingly crucial for integral human development, social/ecological justice and the survivability of human civilization. Introduction The body is a sacrament of the entire person but is not the entire person. From the begining, the human person, man and woman, was created as a "body-soul" reality that subsumes the "body-gender" reality, which in turn subsumes the "biophysical body" reality, which in turn subsumes many other realities such as biological sex, the five senses, the color of the skin, etc. All men and women are made of the same created dust, the same created flesh, animated by the same kind of created soul. All men and women are naturally consubstantial, with unity in diversity in the image of the Trinity. That the second person of the Trinity became incarnate as a male means that God assumed all the limitations of the human condition ("like us in all things but sin") without in any way ceasing to be a divine person. Natural Complementarity and Consubstantiality of Man and Woman From the beginning, the male and female human beings are both naturally complementary and naturally consubstantial. In other words, man and woman are both ontologically complementary and ontologically consubstantial. Consider the following diagram: The colors represent layers in the structure of each and every human person: Grey = Biblical "Flesh" (body-soul, or spirited body), Beige = Body, Pink = Female, Blue = Male, Purple = Intersex. The body is male or female or intersex. Gender is deeper in the structure of the personal subject, with a unique combination of masculine and feminine polarities abiding in each human person. The grey (biblical "flesh," i.e., human nature, body and spirit) subsists under the other colors for all humans. Each personal subject is unique, but all human beings are fully homogeneous in one and the same human nature. All human beings (male, female, intersex) are made of the same "flesh." Source: Meditations on Man and Woman This diagram, like all models, is a simplification of reality, but attempts to deconstruct the oversimplistic sex/gender binary of the patriarchal culture. Basically, it means that each human being is a body animated by a soul (gray circle). All men and women are fully homogeneous, made of the same dust, of the same substance, of the same flesh; and share one and the same human nature (brown circle). The body of each person is sexually differentiated, and is male *or* female *or* intersex (pink, blue, and purple circles). So, again, the body is a visible sacrament of the entire person, but is not the entire person. The physical body makes visible the invisible metaphysical person, but is not the entire person. Sex is biophysical. Gender (gradient pink-blue circle) is psychosomatic, a personal synthesis of somatic constitution and cultural conditioning. Sex and gender are constitutive of the human person more deeply that other, more superficial attributes such as skin color, height, and weight; but all men and women are homogeneously constituted of the same flesh in one and the same human nature. The sexual complementarity of man and woman does not limit them to mutually exclusive roles except when they come together to share the gift of love and the gift of life. Modern science (biology, psychology, neurology) has shown ancient cultural stereotypes to be unnatural. In contrast to the patriarchal mindset of male domination and female subordination, a healthy complementarity of man and woman actually requires their joint participation in most human activities and the reconstruction of their interpersonal communion as fully equal partners in the nuclear family, and in the Church as the family of God, including apostolic succession. The body is a sacrament of the entire person but is not the entire person. Other than genitally, the complementarity of man and woman does not mean mutually exclusive roles. Such mutual exclusion of gender roles is a heritage from radical patriarchy, not divine revelation. All humans are consubstantial in one and the same human nature. Our Lord Jesus Christ is consubstantial with all humans in his humanity. The Eucharist is the flesh and blood of Christ. Metaphysical "transubstantiation" happens when the priest consecrates the bread and wine, but is really consummated in the flesh when the person who receives the Eucharist becomes "eucharist" in sacrificial service to others. Patriarchal gender ideology (the infamous gender "binary") is no longer credible, socially and scientifically. But it is not necessary to invent any new set of artificially separate gender classifications; rather, it is a matter of rediscovering what we already know, i.e., that all human beings, male or female or intersex, share one and the same human nature. There is no such thing as two separate human natures, one exclusively masculine and the other exclusively feminine. Sex and gender can be distinguished but cannot be separated, and bodily sexual complementarity does not cancel natural human consubstantiality. For all men and women of good will to effectively contribute to integral human development it is indispensable to sanitize human relations, as much as possible, from the hierarchical mentality that is generally manifested as male hegemony and female subservience, and extends to human hegemony over the human habitat. The patriarchal culture, ancient as it is (10,000 years or so) was manufactured by human hands and is, therefore, artificial; it is not natural. Many families are already evolving from male headship to joint father-mother headship. This egalitarian complementarity of man and woman in family and society, rooted in their natural consubstantiality, is bound to gradually propagate to all human communities worldwide. Fostering this cultural evolution may be the best way to ensure the survivability of human civilization. Conclusion In brief, human bodies are male or female or intersex, but human persons are engendered. This is a fundamental anthropological reality: "Human development, if not engendered, is endangered" (United Nations, Human Development Report, 1995). A man is a man and a woman is a woman; but there is man in woman, and there is woman in man. All human beings share one and the same human nature, in the flesh. As long as the patriarchal binary prevails, subjective human development remains defective, with pervasive repercussions in human relations as well as human-nature relations. There can be no fully integral human development as long as both the objective and subjective dimensions of the body-person are not taken into account. There can be no fully integral ecology as long as humanity behaves as the dominant male and treats nature as a submissive female. There can be no lasting social justice, and there can be no lasting ecological justice, as long as human behavior is driven by the patriarchal mindset. Gender justice is the most crucial "sign of the times." References This article is based on the author's Meditations on Man and Woman, Humanity and Nature, specifically the following: Natural Unity of Man and Woman Natural Consubstantiality of Man and Woman Unitive Complementarity of Man and Woman Integral Complementarity of Man and Woman Patriarchal Disunity of Man and Woman Natural Complementarity of Man and Woman Reconstructing the Original Unity of Man and Woman Reconstructing the Original Harmony of Humanity and Nature Here and Now: Laudato Si' and the Year of Mercy Here and Now: Integral Humanism and Evangelization An Adequate Anthropology for an Integral Ecology The Twilight of Patriarchy and the Dawn of an Integral Ecology Consubstantial Complementarity of Man and Woman ABOUT THE AUTHOR Luis T. Gutiérrez is the editor of the Mother Pelican Journal of Solidarity and Sustainability. |Back to Title| LINK TO THE CURRENT ISSUE          LINK TO THE HOME PAGE

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