Following the words of
Genesis that establish marriage as a union of the two "in one
flesh" (Gn 2:24), we read that the first man and woman were both
naked yet "felt no shame" (Gn 2:25).
Suppose I were to suggest that these evocative words hold the key
to understanding God's plan for human life. Furthermore, suppose I
were to suggest that the only way to "see" the invisible
mystery of God is through the vision of the human body in its masculinity
and femininity? Even more, suppose I were to suggest that the inner
"logic" of the Christian mystery itself is simply unintelligible
unless we understand the meaning of sexual difference and our call
to nuptial communion?
At this point, you might think I am a bit preoccupied with the human
body. You might even think I've been overly influenced by our culture's
obsession with all things sexual. Understandable. But what if Pope
John Paul II were suggesting these things?
Indeed, these - among other things - are proposals John Paul makes
in the first major catechetical project of his pontificate known as
the "theology of the body." In this collection of 129 audience
addresses delivered between September 1979 and November 1984, John
Paul developed what promises to be one of his most enduring and important
contributions to the Church and the world.
The theology of the body is a scriptural reflection on the human experience
of embodiment connected as it is with erotic desire and our longing
for union. It's divided into two main parts. First, the Pope develops
an "adequate anthropology" based on the words of Christ.
In order to have a "total vision of man," we must look to
our experience of embodiment "in the beginning" (Mt 19:8),
in our history (Mt 5:27-28), and in our destiny (Mt 22:30). In the
second part of his catechesis, John Paul applies his distinctive Christian
humanism to the vocations of celibacy and marriage, and also to the
moral issue raised by Pope Paul VI's encyclical Humanae Vitae.
Of course, in a brief article such as this, we can only provide a
thumbnail sketch of the actual content of the Pope's revolutionary
catechesis. We'll begin with his main idea.
The Pope's thesis, if we
let it sink in, is sure to revolutionize the way we understand the
human body and sexuality. "The body, and it alone," John
Paul says, " is capable of making visible what is invisible,
the spiritual and divine. It was created to transfer into the visible
reality of the world, the invisible mystery hidden in God from time
immemorial, and thus to be a sign of it" (Feb 20, 1980).
A mouthful of scholarly verbiage, I know. What does it mean? As physical,
bodily creatures we simply cannot see God. He's pure Spirit. But God
wanted to make his mystery visible to us so he stamped a sign of it
into our bodies by creating us as male and female in his own image
(Gn 1:27).
The function of this image is to reflect the Trinity, "an inscrutable
divine communion of [three] Persons" (Nov 14, 1979). Thus, in
a dramatic development of Catholic thought, John Paul concludes that
"man became the 'image and likeness' of God not only through
his own humanity, but also through the communion of persons which
man and woman form right from the beginning." And, the Pope adds,
"On all of this, right from 'the beginning,' there descended
the blessing of fertility linked with human procreation" (ibid).
The body has a "nuptial meaning" because it reveals man
and woman's call to become a gift for one another, a gift fully realized
in their "one flesh" union. The body also has a "generative
meaning" that (God willing) brings a "third" into the
world through their communion. In this way, marriage constitutes a
"primordial sacrament" understood as a sign that truly communicates
the mystery of God's Trinitarian life and love to husband and wife
- and through them to their children, and through the family to the
whole world.
Of course, as the Catechism points out, this does not mean that God
is "sexual." God "is pure spirit in which there is
no place for the difference between the sexes. But the respective
'perfections' of man and woman reflect something of the infinite perfection
of God" (CCC, n. 370). This is why the Pope speaks of sexuality
precisely as a sign of God's mystery. Following the Scriptures, he
uses the man and woman's union as an analogy by which to understand
something of the divine mystery. God's "mystery remains transcendent
in regard to this analogy as in regard to any other analogy, whereby
we seek to express it in human language. At the same time, however,
this analogy offers the possibility of a certain ... 'penetration'
into the very essence of the mystery" (Sep 29, 1982).
In the beginning,
Adam and Eve experienced their communion as a real participation in
God's own mystery of love. The very sentiment of sexual desire as
God created it to be was to love as God loves in the sincere gift
of self. Since this call to love is the summary of the Gospel, John
Paul can say that if we live according to the nuptial meaning of our
bodies, we "fulfill the very meaning of [our] being and existence"
(Jan 16, 1980). It is for this reason that a man clings to his wife
and they become "one flesh" (see Gn 2:24).
In his exegesis of the creation accounts, the Holy Father speaks of
this original unity of the sexes as flowing out of the human being's
experience of original solitude. Man realized in naming the animals
that he alone was aware of himself and free to determine his own actions;
he alone was a person called to love. It's on the basis of this solitude
- an experience common to male and female - that man experiences erotic
desire and his longing for union.
While among the animals there was no "helper fit for him,"
upon awaking from his "deep sleep" the man immediately declares:
"This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh"
(Gn 2:23). That is to say, "Finally, a person I can love."
How did he know that she too was a person called to love? Her naked
body revealed the mystery!
Prior to the rupture of body and soul caused by sin, the body enabled
them to see and know each other "with all the peace of the interior
gaze, which creates… the fullness of the intimacy of persons"
(Jan 2, 1980). Living in complete accord with the nuptial meaning
of their bodies, the experience of original nakedness was untainted
by shame (Gn 2:25).
The entrance of shame
indicates a radical change in their experience of embodiment. It indicates
the loss of grace and holiness. "Original man" gives way
to "historical man" who must now contend with lust in his
heart.
Lust is erotic desire void of God's love. Hence, if we even look lustfully
at others, we've already committed adultery in our hearts (see Mt
5:28). Christ's words are severe in this regard. John Paul poses the
question: "Are we to fear the severity of these words, or rather
have confidence in their salvific content, in their power?" (Oct
8, 1980).
Their power lies in the fact that the man who utters them is "the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (Jn 1:29). Christ
didn't die and rise from the dead merely to give us coping mechanisms
for sin. His death and resurrection are efficacious. They effectively
"liberate our liberty from the domination of concupiscence,"
as John Paul expresses it.
On this side of heaven, we will always be able to recognize a battle
in our hearts between love and lust. Even so, John Paul insists that
"the redemption of the body" (see Ro 8:23) is already at
work in men and women of history. This means if we open our bodies
once again to the "breath" of the Holy Spirit, we can experience
a "real and deep victory" over lust. We can progressively
rediscover in what is erotic that original nuptial meaning of the
body and live it. This liberation from lust and the freedom it affords
is, in fact, "the condition of all life together in truth"
(Oct 8, 1980).
What about the experience
of embodiment and our longing for union in the eschaton? Didn't Christ
say we'll no longer be given in marriage at the resurrection (see
Mt 22:30)? Yes, but this doesn't mean our longing for union will be
done away with. It means it will be fulfilled. Sacraments are merely
earthly signs of heavenly realities. We no longer need signs to point
us to heaven, when we're in heaven.
Heaven is the eternal consummation of the marriage between Christ
and the Church. "For man, this consummation will be the final
realization of the unity of the human race, which God willed from
creation. ...Those who are united with Christ will form the community
of the redeemed, 'the holy city' of God, 'the Bride, the wife of the
Lamb'" (CCC, n. 1045). This is the union for which we're ultimately
created. And this is what the "one flesh" union points us
to from the beginning (see Eph 5:31-32).
Hence, in the resurrection of the body we rediscover - in an eschatological
dimension - the same nuptial meaning of the body in the meeting with
the mystery of the living God face to face (see Dec 9, 1981). "This
will be a completely new experience," the Pope says, but "it
will not be alienated in any way from what man took part in from 'the
beginning,' nor from ...the procreative meaning of the body and of
sex" (Jan 13, 1982).
Only by understanding
who man is originally, historically, and eschatologically can we understand
how man is to live. In other words, having outlined an "adequate
anthropology," the door is now opened to a proper understanding
of the Christian vocations of celibacy and marriage.
Those who are celibate "for the sake of the kingdom" (Mt
19:12) are choosing to live in the heavenly marriage on earth. In
a way, they're "skipping" the sacrament in anticipation
of the real thing. By doing so, they step beyond the dimension of
history - within the dimension of history - and declare to the world
that the kingdom of God is here (Mt 12:28). Authentic Christian celibacy,
then, is not a rejection of sexuality or a devaluation of marriage.
It's the expression on earth of its ultimate purpose and meaning!
As a vocation to holiness, marriage is meant to prepare men and women
for heaven. But in order for it to be adequate heaven preparation,
the model must accurately image the divine prototype. The sacramentality
of marriage, then, consists in the manifesting of the eternal mystery
of God in a "sign" that serves not only to proclaim that
mystery, but also to accomplish it in the spouses (see Sep 8, 1982).
All of married life constitutes this sign. But nowhere is this sign
more dramatically manifested than when husband and wife become "one
flesh." Just as the body expresses the soul of a person, the
"one body" that spouses become in conjugal intercourse expresses
the "soul" of their married life. "Indeed the very
words 'I take you to be my wife - my husband,'" the Pope says,
"can be fulfilled only by means of conjugal intercourse"
(Jan 5, 1983).
John Paul's original
insights provide a whole new context for understanding the Church's
teaching on sexuality, particularly her teaching against contraception.
This is, in fact, the linchpin of all sexual morality. For as soon
as sexual union is divorced from its inherent link with procreation,
any means to sexual climax can be justified (the sexual revolution
of the 20th century has certainly demonstrated this in practice).
Based on the logic of the theology of the body, one can speak of morality
in the sexual relationship according to "whether or not it has
the character of the truthful sign" (Aug 27, 1980). All sexual
morality, then, comes down to this simple question: Does this behavior
incarnate God's love or does it not?
For those who have been enlightened by the Holy Spirit to understand
the "great mystery" of nuptial union, contraception is simply
unthinkable. Nuptial union is meant to proclaim the mystery of the
Trinity - that "God is life-giving love." In this sense
the Pope says the "language of the body" is prophetic. However,
an intentionally sterilized act of intercourse proclaims the opposite.
It changes the "language of the body" into a specific denial
of God's creative love, making the spouses "false prophets."
Nuptial union is also meant to be a sacramental sign of Christ's union
with the Church. But for sacraments to convey spiritual realities,
the physical must accurately symbolize the spiritual. Insert contraception
into this picture and (knowingly or unknowingly) a couple engages
in a counter-sign of Christ's union with the Church. This is why an
intentionally sterilized act of intercourse can never consummate a
marriage - it is a contradiction of the very essence of the "great
mystery" of the sacrament.
If, as John
Paul teaches, the body and it alone is capable of communicating the
mystery of God's love to us; and if there is an enemy of God who wants
to keep us from God's love - where, then, would he go to do it? The
Church Father Tertullian says that Satan attempts to counter God's
plan of salvation by plagiarizing the sacraments. And where better
to begin than with the "primordial sacrament"?
Satan's goal is to scramble the language of our bodies. And look how
successful he's been. How many people, for example, think that the
body and the gift of sexuality are the last places to look for the
presence of God?
Much is at stake in our failure to understand the language of our
bodies. As John Paul II says, this is obviously "important in
regard to marriage." However, it "is equally essential and
valid for the understanding of man in general" (Dec 15, 1982).
The theology of the body is, in fact, according to John Paul, the
basis of the most suitable education in what it means to be a human
being (see Apr 8, 1981). Yes, the battle raging in our Church and
our world regarding sexual morality is nothing short of a battle for
the very meaning of human existence.
Hence, the theology of the body should not be considered merely a
minor discipline among many in the overall scope of Catholic teaching.
Again, according to the Holy Father, what we learn by reflecting on
Christ's words about the body in its creation and redemption "is,
in fact, the perspective of the whole Gospel, of the whole teaching,
in fact, of the whole mission of Christ" (Dec 3, 1980).
The theology of the
body is a clarion call for the Church not to become more "spiritual,"
but to become more incarnational. It is a call to allow the Word of
the Gospel to penetrate our flesh and bones. When this incarnation
of the Gospel takes place in us, we see the Church's teaching on sexual
morality not as an oppressive set of rules, but as the foundation
of a liberating ethos, a call to experience the redemption of our
bodies, a call to rediscover in what is erotic the original meaning
of sexuality which is the very meaning of life. And this is the first
step to take in renewing the world.
As John Paul asserts, man and woman's call to form a communion of
persons "is the deepest substratum of human ethics and culture"
(Oct 22, 1980). Thus, the dignity and balance of human life "depend
at every moment of history and at every point of geographical longitude
and latitude on 'who' she will be for him and he for her" (Oct
8, 1980). In short, a culture that does not respect the truth about
sexuality is doomed to be a culture that does not respect the truth
about life; it's doomed to be a culture of death.
This is why John Paul made the theology of the body the first catechetical
project of his pontificate. At the heart of the new evangelization,
at the heart of building a civilization of love and a culture of life,
is marriage and the family. And at the heart of marriage and the family
is the truth about the body and sexuality.
Let us live it and proclaim it. If we do, we will not fall short of
renewing the face of the earth!