The Image of God

What does it mean to say: ''God created us in his own image''?

''To say that God has created us in his image means that:

• He wanted each one of us to express an aspect of his infinite splendour;
• That he has a design for each of us;
• That each of us is destined to enter by means of a journey which is specific to each person— into blessed eternity. That the creature is made in the image of God is thus properly by reason of the fact that it participates in immortality - not by its nature, but as a gift of the creator.

This orientation towards eternal life is what makes man the created being corresponding to God.

The dignity of man is not something which presents itself visually, it is neither measurable nor quantifiable.

In what sense is man created in the ''image of God''?

''The human person is created in the image of God in the sense that he or she is capable of knowing and of loving their Creator in freedom. Human beings are the only creatures on earth that God has willed for their own sake and has called to share, through knowledge and love, in his own divine life. All human beings, in as much as they are created in the image of God, have the dignity of a person. A person is not something but someone, capable of self-knowledge and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with God and with other persons'' (Compendium of the CCC, 66).

What is the relationship between man's being made in the image of God and his communion with God?

Being created in the image of God is the foundation of man's orientation towards God. It is precisely this radical likeness to God, one and triune, that provides the basis for the possibility of man's communion with the Holy Trinity. This is what God himself willed. The one and triune God willed, in fact, to share his own trinitarian communion with persons created in his image. More precisely, it is by reason of this trinitarian communion that man was created in the image of God. Man's end is therefore to know, to love and to serve God in this life and then to enjoy him in the next life, and to love his neighbour as God loves him.

''Created in the image of God, man also expresses the truth of his relationship with God the Creator by the beauty of his artistic works'' (CCC, 2501).

Why does the image of God manifest itself also in the difference between the sexes?

This is because a human being exists only as either male or female, and because this sexual difference, far from being an incidental or secondary aspect of personhood, is a constituent element of personal identity. Thus, the sexual dimension also belongs to being created in the image of God. Man and woman are equally created in the image of God, although each in their particular way. Christian faith speaks of the reciprocity between, and complementarity of, the sexes.

Essential element

Created in the image of God, human beings are called to love and to communion. Since this vocation is realised in a particular way in the unitive-procreative union between husband and wife, the difference between man and woman is an essential element in the constitution of human beings made in the image of God. ''God created man in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them'' (Gen 1:27, cf. Gen 5:1-2).

According to Scripture, the imago Dei manifests itself, right from the beginning, also in the difference between the sexes.

''Sexuality affects all aspects of the human person in the unity of his body and soul. It especially concerns affectivity, the capacity to love and to procreate, and in a more general way the aptitude for forming bonds of communion with others'' (CCC, 2332).

The roles attributed to one or the other of the sexes can vary according to time and place, but the sexual identity of the person is not a cultural or social construct. It belongs to the specific way in which the imago Dei exists.

The incarnation of the Word reinforces this specificity. He assumed the human condition in its totality, taking up one sex, but he became man in both senses of the term: as a member of the human community, and as a male (CTI, 34).

Furthermore, the incarnation of the Son of God and the resurrection of the body at the end of time extend even into eternity the original sexual identity of the imago Dei.

Why does being in the image of God also involve our relationships with other people?

Precisely because God is a Trinity, that is, a communion of Three persons in the unique divine nature, the person too, created in the image of God, is thus capable of relationships with others, that is, he is a being who:

• Has a fundamental orientation towards other persons;
•  Is called to form a community with them.

''The human being is truly human to the extent that he actualises the essentially social element in his constitution as a person within familial, religious, civil, professional, and other groups that together form the surrounding society to which he belongs'' (CTI, 42).

Trinitarian life

Marriage constitutes an elevated form of communion between human persons and is one of the best analogies for the Trinitarian life. In fact, ''the prime instance of this communion is the procreative union of man and woman which mirrors the creative communion of Trinitarian love'' (CTI, 56). When a man and a woman unite their body and their soul in an act of total openness and giving of themselves, they form a new image of God. Their union in one flesh is not simply a response to a biological necessity, but to the Creator's intention which leads them to share in the happiness of being made in his image (cf. CCC, 2331).

Humanity itself, in its original unity (of which Adam is a symbol), is made in the image of the divine Trinity. ''All people form the unity of the human race by reason of the common origin which they have from God. God has made 'from one ancestor all the nations of men' (Acts 17:26). All have but one Saviour and are called to share in the eternal happiness of God'' (COMPENDIUM of the CCC, 68).

How does being in the image of God also involve our relationship with created things?

Being created in the image of God is the foundation for:

• Our relationship with other created things;
• Our superiority over the visible world: man is the summit of the visible creation, in so far as he is the only creature to be made in the image and likeness of God;
• Our sharing in the divine government of the creation.

In what way does man share in God's sovereignty over the world?

To share in God's sovereignty over the world means that man:

• Exercises this sovereignty over the visible creation only by virtue of a privilege conferred on him by God;
• Recognises God as the creator of all, renders him praise and thanks for the gift of creation, and glorifies the name of God;
• Is not the principal master over the world. God, the creator of the world, is the Lord par excellence over the world. Man is a subordinate master (ministerial and subordinate sovereignty);
• Is appointed by God to be his collaborator and administrator. Man is called by God to exercise, in God's own name, a responsible stewardship over the created world. Such a stewardship ''is limited by concern for the quality of life of his neighbour, including generations to come; it requires a religious respect for the integrity of creation'' (CCC, 2415).
• Since he is a steward, has to render an account of his stewardship, and God will judge his actions.

Such sovereignty is exercised with respect for the creation: man, as an image of God, is not a dominator over the world. The human stewardship of the created world is really a service carried out through a sharing in the divine government.

Understanding

''Human beings exercise this stewardship by gaining scientific understanding of the universe, by caring responsibly for the natural world (including animals and the environment), and by guarding their own biological integrity'' (CTI, 61).

The same human work ''proceeds directly from persons created in the image of God and called to prolong the work of creation by subduing the earth, both with and for one another'' (CCC, 2427), collaborating with God the Creator.

What is the relationship between being in the image of God and the natural law?

Creating man in his own image, God placed in the depths of human conscience a law, which ''the tradition calls the ''natural law.'' This law is of divine origin, and man's awareness of it is itself a participation in the divine law'' (CTI, 60). The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church also affirms in this regard: ''The natural law which is inscribed by the Creator on the heart of every person consists in a participation in the wisdom and the goodness of God. It expresses that original moral sense which enables one to discern by reason the good and the bad. It is universal and immutable and determines the basis of the duties and fundamental rights of the person as well as those of the human community and civil law'' (416).

Is this law perceived by everyone?

''Because of sin the natural law is not always perceived nor is it recognised by everyone with equal clarity and immediacy'' (op.cit. 417). For this reason God ''wrote on the tables of the Law what men did not read in their hearts.'' (Saint Augustine)

What consequences for man's being in the image of God were and are provoked by sin?

Sin does not destroy or nullify the image of God in man. Man is the image of God in so far as he is human. And since he is man, he is a human being in the image of God. The divine image is connected with human essence of itself, and therefore it is not in man's power to destroy it completely.

Sin, according to its objective gravity and to the subjective responsibility of man, disfigures the image of:

God in man, wounds it and obscures it. Precisely because sin is like a wound in the image of God in man, it also wounds and obscures man himself:

• In his dignity, thereby provoking an internal division between body and spirit, knowledge and will, reason and emotions;
• In his relationship with God, with himself, with others, and with the creation.

Wounded by sin, man is in need of salvation. The infinitely good God offers him such salvation no less than in his Only-Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who liberates and heals man's wound through his Death and Resurrection.

The disfigurement of the imago Dei by sin, with its inevitable negative consequences for personal and interpersonal life, is therefore vanquished by the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ.

In what way is Christ the model for everyman in living in the image of God?

Christ is the model for man in living in the image of God in the sense that:

the original image of man which by his will represents the image of God, is Christ, and man is created out of the image of Christ and in his image. The human creature is at the same time a preliminary project in view of Christ, or rather, Christ is the perfect and fundamental image of the Creator, and God makes man really in view of Him, of His Son;

• The possibilities that Christ opens to man do not mean the suppression of the reality of man as a creature, but his transformation and realisation according to the perfect image of the Son;
• At the same time there exists a tension between the hiddenness and future manifestation of the image of God: we can apply here the words of the first Letter of John: ''we are already God's children, but what we shall be in the future has not yet been revealed'' (1 Jn 3:2).

Every human being is already in the image of God - in the image of Christ, even if it is not yet clear what they will become above all at the end of time, when the Lord Jesus will come on the clouds of Heaven that God ''may be all in all'' (1 Cor 15:28). The imago Dei can thus be considered in a real sense still in development (its dynamic character);

Our conformity to the image of Christ is to be fulfilled perfectly only in our resurrection at the end of time, in which Christ has preceded us and associated with himself his Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary.