There are two creation accounts, the Elohist (Genesis 1) and the Yahwist (Genesis 2)
From the
UCCB Website…
The Yahwist is concrete, imaginative, using many anthropomorphisms in its theological approach, as seen, e.g., in the narrative of creation in Genesis 2, compared with the Priestly version in Genesis 1.
Regarding being made in “
our” image, yes, the Trinity. Many will use the example of God’s git of free will as an example of how we are made in God’s image and that is certainly true. I think an even greather example is human sexuality and our masculinity and femininity.
Pope John Paul II stated that union between husband and wife was the “Primordial Sacrament”. Remember that while it confers grace, a sacrament uses visible means to reveal to man invisible, divine truths about God.
The love between the Father and the Son that takes place within the Trinity, each giving himself totally to the other in self sacrifical love, holding nothing back, is what produces the Holy Spirit. Catholics bear witness to the fact that the Holy Spirit is a product of the interchange of perfect self sacrifical love between God the Father and God the Son in the Creed…
We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceedes from the Father and the Son.
Man and woman are made the same way. The interchange of love between husband and wife, though imperfect, produces a child in the same way in which the perfect interchange of love between God the Father and God the Son produce the Holy Spirit. Consider that the word “Spirit” (in Latin spiritus) means “Breath.” Think of the Holy Spirit as the breath of God - the “Heavy breathing” of God the Father perectly loving God the Son and God the Son perfectly loving God the Father, both holding nothing back from each other, and you will get the idea. In this way, sexual union between husband and wife, who give themselves totally to each other in matrimony, not only reveals to us the innermost working of the Trinity but is a way in which we are supposed to experience Trinitarian love to it’s fullest in our own lives.
I think this brings us back full circle to the original question…
***God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them. *
(Genesis 1:27)
It’s a sublime statement, and not just an observation about the characteristics of our first parents, as if the author was noting hair color or their hight or weight. Our masculinity and femininity are part of the divine image in which we are created. The bridal theme is then carried through the Old Testament, to the wedding feast at Cana, to the very end of the Bible to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb where the “Bride” of the lamb is mentioned all throughout chapters 18 to 22.
Just some random thoughts of mine, I guess…
-Tim-