lesson 6 - The root of the ethos of the human body

18th General Audience, February 13, 1980

Man’s existence continually renews itself through procreation -- self-reproduction. This is the creative perspective rooted in man’s humanity and the consciousness of the spousal meaning of the body.
 
Before becoming husband and wife, man and woman come forth from the mystery of creation first as brother and sister in the same humanity (Gen. 4:1). When man and woman cease being reciprocally a disinterested gift, as they were in the mystery of creation, they recognise that they are naked (Gen. 3:7)
 
Original innocence manifests, and at the same time constitutes, the perfect ethos of the gift.= giving of one self=ethos=disinterested.

​19th General Audience, February 10, 1980.
 
1. Subjectivity of man -- created in the likeness and image of God.
 
2. The woman is not just an object, although both are present to each other in the objectivity of being. The fact that they did not feel shame means they did not objectify each other.

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