Why do man and woman become one flesh?
St. Paul wrote that husband and wife become one flesh because we are members of Christ’s body. He pointed us to Jesus.
Jesus said that man and woman become one flesh because we are created in God’s image. He pointed us to the Garden. To meet a lonely man.
God said, “it is not good for the man to be alone.”
In the Garden, God said, “it is not good for the man to be alone.” God brought all things to him, but the man was still lonely. He needed help, and nothing of this world was suitable for him.
The man in the Garden was Heavenly Father’s Son. So why was he lonely?
It is because God is love, and owning all things is not perfect love, not for God, not for us. Admiring one’s image in a mirror is not perfect love, not for God, not for us.
Perfect love is to give oneself completely to a total other who has the capacity to receive you completely and return to you a new totality across a bridge that is nothing but love.
Who was the total other? It was nothing of this world. It was of God. It was the woman.
It took time for the man to realize that the total other was there with him all along, that the total other was made just as he was, flesh of his flesh, bone of his bones, dust of the ground, breath of life. And yet was totally other.
The woman would never know loneliness. God’s loneliness would end.
It took time for the man to realize that he was to leave all things behind, leave his very origin behind, and become one with her.
That she would never know loneliness. That God’s loneliness would end.
Two thousand years after Christ, the true Adam and Eve finally ended God’s loneliness. They brought God to dwell with us on the earth. Joining them, we end our loneliness.
(References: 1 Cor 6:16, Eph 5:31, Mt 19:5-6, Gen 2:18, 23, 7.)
