The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 304: Male and Female (2025)

Episode Date: October 31, 2025

Why did God create us male and female? We begin our journey through the sixth commandment by learning about the meaning of human sexuality and the complementarity between men and women. Fr. Mike underscores the significance of the body in revealing our sexuality and our vocation to love. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2331-2336. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in scripture, and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a year is brought to you by ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 304. We're reading paragraphs 2331 to 2336. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the foundations of faith approach. But you can follow along with any recent version of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own catechism in a year reading plan by visiting

ascensionpress.com slash CIY. And lastly, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications today. 304, we're starting the new commandment, the sixth commandment. You shall not commit adultery. We're looking at, here's what it is to be human. You know, the last couple days we've been talking about when I say a couple days. I mean, it's been weeks, I think. We've been talking about the dignity of the human person. We talked about that yesterday. Today, there's some unique aspects to the human person as well.

And part of that uniqueness of the human person, as well as almost all of created animals, is from Genesis chapter one, male and female he created them, which is common to a lot of animals. And the same time is unique to human beings. It reveals something about what the human person is. and what the human person is made for, to realize that, okay, God made human beings male and female. There's something about the complementarity of the sexes. It's incredible. So here God makes us, you know, God could have made us like the angels. He made the angels first anyways, and the angels don't reproduce. God just makes them by surely willing their existence. But when he

made human beings, when he made this planet, he made creatures, male and female, he made us in his own image, male and female. And the fact that God has given us what we call sexuality is remarkable. It's worth stopping and noting. It didn't have to be this way. It is this way. So we have to ask, what does that tell us? And that's what we're looking at today. We're just beginning to look at this today. What does it tell us to be made in God's image and likeness and to be made male and female? So let's take a look as we dive into these first paragraphs. We first dive into the Lord's heart into His grace by praying. So we pray. Father, in heaven, we give you praise, and we thank you. I thank you for bringing us to this day.

Thank you for bringing us to this moment. Thank you for bringing us to the sixth of your commandments. We ask that you please open our hearts, open our minds, to be able to accept to receive your teaching, to receive your commands, to receive your guidance, and to receive the wisdom of what it is, not just to be human, but to be male and female. What it is to be, to have a body and to live in that body. Lord God, we ask you to please, pay attention to our prayers, pay heed to our prayers. Lord God, meet us, especially in places of woundedness

and places of where we've failed in places where we need your grace, whether that be your grace of mercy and forgiveness or your grace of just strengthening, encouragement, hope in the midst of discouragement. Lord God, meet every person who's listening to these words right now. need them with your grace and give them yourself.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It is day 304. We are reading paragraphs 2331 to 2336. Article 6. The Sixth Commandment.

You shall not commit adultery. Jesus said, You have heard that it was said. You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Male and female, he created them. God is love, and in himself, he lives a mystery of personal, loving communion. Creating the human race in his own image, God inscribed in the humanity of

man and woman, the vocation, and thus the capacity and responsibility of love and communion. God created man in his own image. Male and female, he created them. He blessed them and said, be fruitful and multiply. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them, and named them man when they were created. 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.

everyone, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity. Physical, moral, and spiritual difference and complementarity are oriented toward the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life. The harmony of the couple and of society depends in part on the way in which the complementarity needs and mutual support between the sexes are lived out. In creating men, male and female, God gives man and woman an equal personal dignity. Man is a person, person, man and woman equally so, since both were created in the image and likeness of the personal God. Each of the two sexes is an image of the power and tenderness of God with equal dignity, though in a different way. The union of man and woman in marriage is a way of

imitating in the flesh the creator's generosity and fecundity. Therefore, a man leaves his father and his mother, and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh. All human generations proceed from this union. Jesus came to restore creation to the purity of its origins. In the sermon on the mount, he interprets God's plan strictly. You have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery, but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. What God has joined it together, let not man put asunder. The tradition of the church has understood the Sixth Commandment as encompassing the whole of human sexuality.

all right there we have it paragraph 2331 to 2336 basically teeing up the ball right here we are if we're going to get ready to launch into this sixth commandment that last line 2336 says this the tradition of the church has understood the sixth commandment about adultery as actually encompassing the whole of human sexuality so that's what we're going to talk about we're going to talk about in so many ways the whole of human sexuality now we'll come back to this in the ninth commandment but we're going to stick with the sixth commandment here let's begin at the very beginning a very good place to start. So 2331, God is love. Remember this, that the very identity of God, that God is love. Remember, earlier it said in the catechism, the innermost secret of God is he is an

interpersonal exchange of love. So God is love. And in himself, he lives a mystery of personal loving communion. So therefore, when we're created, again, this is review for all of us, when we're created in his image and likeness, God inscribed in the humanity of man and woman, the vocation, and thus the capacity and responsibility of love and communion. What's that mean? So remember, the term vocation, vocare, is to call. So by the very fact that God has made us in his image and likeness, he is love, therefore our vocation, our call, our identity is love. The capacity and the responsibility, you can do this. Like, because you're a human being, you have the capacity, because you're made in God's image, you have the capacity to love.

You also have the responsibility of love. And this is so important. We not only have the capacity, we also have the responsibility of love and communion. So, in fact, we even have in that same paragraph, 2331, but the next little stanza, I guess, for lack of a better term, it says that God blessed them and said, be fruitful and multiply. This is the first commandment, right? The first commandment that God gave to the human race is be fruitful and multiply, and you know this, that when God said be fruitful and multiply, he didn't mean grow oranges and do times tables, that he's saying procreate, right?

that this love of you coming together, male and female, that love will create more life, that love will be fruitful, that we're called to multiply as made in God's image and likeness. Now, this 2332, it highlights the fact that sexuality affects all aspects of the human person and the unity of his body and soul. So we know this, that as you walk through life as a woman, as you walk through life as a man, it affects all aspects of the human experience that how we think about this i don't know if you've ever thought about this but if you're a man you've only experienced life as a man if you're a woman you've only experienced life as a woman it affects all all aspects of the human person so there's something

so powerful john paul the second he had said the body because this is the thing how do you know if you're a man or woman it's not how you feel it's the fact that you have a body that's either male or female this is this is the key this is the core Your body matters. This is so important. Remember, we talked about this before so many times. You are your body. A human being is a body, soul, composite.

It's either an embodied soul or it's an insouled body. But it's either way, human being is a body and soul composite. Therefore, your body is either male or female. Now, in some very rare cases, there is the occasional person. There is the occasional body that may be ambiguous as to its sex. and such persons, they can identify their sex with medical assistance based on the totality of their specific physiological situation. But such persons are still human persons and every human person is either male or female. So even these individuals who may be ambiguous as to their sex

are still fundamentally female or male. In a similar way, let's make this kind of analogy that eyes are for seeing, ears are for hearing. There are people who have eyes. that don't see. There are people who have ears that can't hear. That doesn't mean that there's no such thing as sight or hearing. That also doesn't mean that, oh, some eyes aren't for seeing or some eyes aren't for hearing. It just means that some eyes aren't capable of doing what they have the potential to do, right? That some ears aren't actually doing what they have the potential to do. So keep this in mind. Therefore, okay, let's go back to this. The human person is a body, soul unity. The reason why you know you're a man or the reason why you know you're a woman

is not because you feel like a man or feel like a woman. It is because you have a male body or you have a female body. So therefore, 2332, sexuality, you're having a body that's either male or female affects all aspects of the human person in the unity of his body and soul. It goes on to say it especially concerns affectivity, right? Your affections, what you're drawn to. The capacity to love and to procreate, in a more general way, the aptitude for forming bonds and communion with others. So one of the things we have to do is 2333. Everyone, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity. Now, keep this in mind. We have these words that are thrown around in our culture these days. What's your sexual identity? Well, it's very simple. I don't mean it's

in a dismissive way at all. It just means it has a very, very clear way. It is one thing. Your sexual identity is, if you have a male body, you're a man. If you have a female body, you're a woman. extends to the whole of a person because even though the soul is not biological, the soul is so deeply united to the body that gender cannot be separated from the whole person. So a person's gender is derived specifically from his or her biological body that they're born with. And then it extends to the whole person. So everyone should acknowledge and accept their sexual identity. There's a struggle that some people have to accept and acknowledge their sexual identity, to acknowledge that because I have a man's body, I'm a man.

Because I have a woman's body, I'm a woman. We know this, and this has come into our culture, kind of writ large, in the last couple of years. But until the last couple of years, I would say this, we've all generally speaking understood that if I have a male body, I'm a man, if I have a female body, I'm a woman. Does that make sense? Again, I'm not dismissing. I don't mean to be dismissed.

We just need to speak clearly and plainly. 2333 goes on to say, physical, moral, and spiritual difference and complementarity, are oriented toward the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life. This is so, so incredible. Difference and complementarity are good. The fact that men and women are different. They're not simply different in isolation. They're different and complementary.

And then this is literally written in the human body. I mean, there's some, well, I'll bring this up again as we move forward because it's very, very important for us to understand this. But if you looked at any man's body or any woman's body, you were to say, okay, they have all these systems in their body, biological systems, right? Right. So we have the cardiovascular system. You have the neurological system. You have the epidermis, which is the largest organ in the body. I learned back in the day. You have all these systems in the human body. And they're all intact. They're all complete in and of themselves. There's one system in the human body that is not complete on its own. It can't actually perform the function it's made for on its own. And that one system in the human body is the reproductive system. The difference between men and women in so many ways comes down to this. And so there's this difference. And so there's this difference. right between male's bodies and females bodies, but there's a complementarity there. Whereas your cardiovascular system, if it's in working order, it works on its own. It doesn't need another

body. But every person's reproductive system, if it's intact and complete and, you know, it's working, good working order, it is not ultimately complete. It can't actually do what it's meant to do without the presence of another human body. And not just any other human body, this is so important. Not just any other human body, but the complementary body. So if you have two male's bodies or two female's bodies that does not complete and bring about the purpose of the reproductive system, right? You have to have the complementarity, not just different, but complementary. And this is meant to be so clear. I'm not trying to plant a flag or anything. I'm not trying to make any arguments or any fights. It's just pointing out the truth. And the truth is beautiful.

The fact that God has made us human beings male and female is incredible. It's beautiful. and the fact that he's made us different, but complimentary, is amazing, incredible. So, 2334, going on. In creating male and female, here we are. We're different. We're complementary. But God gives man and woman an equal personal dignity. It says, man is a person, man and woman, equally so, meaning male and female, right?

Since both were created in the image and likeness of the personal God. This is just, again, so incredible. Not only that. I mean, it goes from incredible thing to incredible thing. So paragraph 2335, each of the two sexes is an image of the power and tenderness of God with equal dignity though in a different way. So as men, my brothers, as men, you are an image of the power and tenderness of God, my sisters, women. You are images of the power and tenderness of God, equal and dignity in a different way. And it's just so incredible that the church is saying, men, you're good as you're made.

women, you're good as you're made. And not only that, but the union of man and woman in marriage 2335, the union of man and woman in marriage is a way of imitating in the flesh the creator's generosity and fecundity, right? So a man leaves his father, mother, cleaves his wife, they become one flesh. And all human beings proceed from that union, the sexual union of man and woman. Amazing. Now, we experience this in a broken way. And we're going to talk about this. We're going to talk about this, you know, as we move forward. We experience this union in a broken way where we're made to love each other, but we are tempted to use each other. We're made for love, but we often choose lust.

We are made to be self-gifts to others, but we sometimes choose to dominate others. And so this recognition that here we are, in the beginning it was not so. In the beginning, there is this union between human beings and God, a union between man and woman, a union even in of themselves. And yet what happened is we broke the world, the fall. 2336 highlights, Jesus came to restore creation to the purity of its origins. And so he came to give us new hearts as we launch into this next commandment, the Sixth Commandment, realize this, that yes, this is how God made the world,

is what he made us for in the very beginning. Then things broke. But Jesus still can redeem us. Jesus can still redeem not only our hearts, not only our souls. He can redeem our sexuality. He can redeem our relationships. Jesus can redeem it all. And so that's as we were launched. As we walk forward, we walk forward with confidence, not in ourselves. We walk forward in confidence with what Christ's plan is in your life and Christ's plan in my life. Christ's plan for the salvation of the world. And it happens even here in redeeming our sexuality, redeeming our brokenness and restoring creation

to the purity of its origins. This is the chance. and this is the invitation. That's a consistent kind of note, isn't it? The challenge and the invitation, the challenge. As we launch forward in this Sixth Commandment, I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name's Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.