Theology of the Body for Beginners TOBPPL#2 The Words of Christ Before the Fig Leaves: God’s Original Plan for the Body “This is the body: a witness … to Love” John Paul II (TOB 14:4)

“Jesus Christ…by the revelation of the mystery of the father and his love fully reveals man to himself and makes his supreme calling clear.” (Gaudium et Spes “The Pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world” , 22)

Christ fully reveals what it means to be human! Genesis can only be fully understood in the light of Christ.

In the Beginning It Was Not So Mt 19:8 “For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.” In a sense, something has gone wrong. God did not create the world to have such male-female tension. Christopher West uses an analogy. People driving their cars around with flat tires. How would that feel to drive with a flat? Something is wrong … now how do we fix it?

We have to look back to the beginning before sin distorted things. We have all fallen short of God’s plan. But Christ came into the world to “re-inflate” the tires not to condemn us for having the “flat tires” We cannot return to a state of innocence. That has been left behind. But, we can be better.

Original human experiences JPII wanted to consider the experiences that the first man and woman had of the body and sexuality. An “echo” of this beginning exists within us – according to JPII In other words – the original “human experience” is at the root of every human experience We approach these experiences through “the symbolism of biblical language” (CCC375) Symbolism helps us to understand deep spiritual truths Remember that in the Bible we are to learn Religious/Spiritual Truth The Bible is not science or history nor were those stories ever meant to be science or history! We are looking for and talking about Spiritual Meaning for our existence. Science cannot tell us that!

According to JPII 3 Experiences in particular define the human person in the state of innocence Solitude Unity Nakedness

Original Solitude: The First Discovery of “Personhood” Gn. 2:18 “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” In this Creation Account the word “adam” is not just a name – in Hb. The word means “man” in the generic sense. Man is “alone” because he is the only bodily creature made in the image and likeness of God Adam differs from the animals b/c he has freedom Adam has “the breath of life” He is not just a body he is a somebody

A person can choose what to do with his/her body Adam experiences himself as a self He has a “inner life” / “inner world” No other bodily creature shares the dignity of being created in God’s image Adam is endowed with FREEDOM because Adam was called to LOVE and without freedom – love is impossible LOVE is Adam’s – origin, vocation and destiny As it is for us all!!!! Adam is invited to a “Covenant of Love” with God Therefore, he longs to be with another creature like himself

Adam discovers his two-fold vocation – Love of God & Love of Neighbor Adam also discovers his capacity to negate this vocation. Adam is invited to love NOT forced – b/c forced love is not really love “Solitude - the first discovery of personhood and freedom – is something spiritual, but it is ‘experienced’ bodily.” (West, 23) TOB 7:2 “The Body expresses the person” God gave us freedom but some choices negate our vocation to love

“We are ‘free’ in a sense to ‘do whatever we want with our bodies “We are ‘free’ in a sense to ‘do whatever we want with our bodies.’ However, we are not free to determine whether what we do with our bodies is good or evil.” (West, 23) Remember… How do we make a moral decision? What factors do we need to consider in order to determine if an action is moral?

Original Unity: The Communion of Persons Gn. 2:23 “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh!” Adam is fascinated with her body because her body expresses the body of a person! For a Jew “flesh” & “bone” signified the Whole Human Being! Creating woman from one of Adam’s bones is the figurative way of expressing that both men and women share the same humanity. They are “alone” in the world in the sense that they are different from the animals Both are called to live in the “covenant of love”

“Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh” (Gn. 2:24) The human union in “one flesh” is worlds apart from the copulation of animals Human sexual union Not just a biological reality It is also a spiritual and theological reality “In marriage, the physical intimacy of the spouses becomes a sign and pledge of spiritual communion” (CCC2360) Remember – marital union is meant to be an icon in some way of the inner life of the Trinity

Original Nakedness: Key to Understanding God’s original Plan Gn. 2:25 “the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed” JPII says that this passage is “precisely the key” for understanding God’s original plan for human life. “In short, if we do not understand the meaning of Gn. 2:25 then we do not understand the meaning of our creation as male and female; we do not understand ourselves and the meaning of life.” (West, 25) Yet, we have inherited the “fig leaves” – which means what?????

Shame We need to look at our own experiences of this word and flip it over! Shame can be a self-defense against being treated as an object The body is not “bad” or “shameful” but the way someone might look at the body with a lustful or even evil intent is bad/shameful. Adam & Eve have no shame b/c lust had not entered into the human heart “Hence, our first parents experienced a total defenselessness in each other’s presence because the other’s look posed no threat whatsoever to their dignity.” (West, 26)

Understanding nakedness without shame Key to understanding God plan for our lives – the original truth of love JPII says that the sexual desire of Adam & Eve was not out of compulsion or instinct but instead for their union to be a gift -- entirely freely given -- to one another.

B/c of sin -- our experience of sex has become distorted Leading us to think that there must be something wrong with sex itself

Adam and Eve knew their goodness They knew God’s glorious plan of love They saw it inscribed in their bodies and they experienced it in their mutual desire With sin this vision was lost CCC 2336 “Jesus came to restore creation to the purity of its origins” This will be complete in heaven yet, through redemption we can begin to reclaim what was lost even in this life.

The Spousal Meaning of the Body Because lust is often the root of sinfulness; nakedness is often intertwined with all that is not holy. But, JPII says that it was the very nakedness of humanity that revealed God’s holiness in the visible world. In a sense the exchange of love between Father, Son & Holy Spirit was the example of how humanity was to express the sincere “gift of self” “Man can fully discover his true self only in a sincere giving of himself” (GS 24)

John 15:12 “Love one another as I have loved you.” Jesus gives us a New Commandment Luke 22:19 “This is my body which is given for you” Love is expressed and realized in the body TOB 15:1 “Spousal love is the love of total self-donation. The spousal meaning of the body, therefore, is the body’s ‘power to express love: precisely that love in which the human person becomes a gift and – through this gift – fulfills the very meaning of his being and existence”

The purpose of life is to love as god loves Man and Woman are meant to be gift to one-another and will often result in a third gift – a child.

Gn. 1:28 “Be fruitful and multiply” Not just a call to have children… But, a call to love in God’s image and fulfill the meaning of our existence

The Fundamental Element of existence Whenever we imitate Christ in “giving up our bodies” for others, we express the body’s spousal meaning. Those who choose the charism of celibacy forego marriage to devote themselves to follow the call of Christ in a particular way.

Pop Quiz #1 Yes or No – Is it possible for humanity to return to the state of innocence experienced before the fall of Adam and Eve? Fill in the blank: “This is the body: a witness … to _____” In Matthew 19:8 what does Jesus say that Moses allowed? Who taught than an echo of the beginning exists within all of us? (no abbreviations) What type of truth are we supposed to learn from Scripture.

Pop Quiz #2 Yes or No – Is it possible for humanity to return to the state of innocence experienced before the fall of Adam and Eve? Why does the “bodily creature” known as human share in the dignity of God (when no other creature does)? Why is man “alone” at the beginning of the creation story? What does symbolism help us understand? In Matthew 19:8 what does Jesus say that Moses allowed?

Pop Quiz #3 Write out the GS24 quote Write out the New Commandment given to us by Jesus. According to Christopher West why do Adam and Eve have no shame at the beginning of Creation? Why is Genesis 2:25 so important to John Paul II? What type of truth are we supposed to learn from Scripture?