Our Body Language: Theology of the Body

By David Wong

The Theology of the Body refers to a series of 129 lectures given by Pope John Paul II between September 1979 and November 1984. In its simplest form, the Pope’s Theology of the Body answers two basic questions: "Who are we?" and "How should we live?" Once we understand these questions, we have to answer God's call.

Who Are We?

According to Pope John Paul II, God created the body as a sign of his own divine mystery. This is why he speaks of the body as a “theology,” a study of God.

Our bodies are not just vessels for our souls, but a way to understand and experience God. In Genesis 1, we are told that humankind was created in the "image and likeness of God, male and female" (Gen. 1:27). The Catechism of the Catholic Church (#1015) states that: "The flesh is the hinge of salvation... the Word made flesh in order to redeem the flesh”. When you know you are created in the image and likeness of God, you realize that through you others can experience the Light of Christ.

How Should We Live?
To truly understand how we are to live, Pope John Paul II challenges us to look at God’s Love.
One supreme example that the scriptures give us of God's love is the love between husband and wife. Here’s what the scriptures says about spousal love:

• James 4:4-5: St. James calls us adulteresses when we turn away from God, pursuing a friendship with the world.
  
• Eph 5:27: The Church is called the "bride" of Christ.
  
• Matt 22: Heaven is called the eternal wedding feast.
  

Next, let's look at how the Church defines marital love by looking at the marriage vows:

Have you come here freely and without reservation to give yourselves to each other? Will you love and honor each other as man and wife for the rest of your life? Will you accept children lovingly from God?

Break this apart and we have four key requirements of the marriage vows:

1. Free - Have you come here freely?
2. Total - Have you come here without reservation?
3. Faithful - Will you love and honor each other for the rest of your life?
4. Fruitful - Will you accept your children lovingly?

Similarly, God’s wants to “marry” us – in Hos 2:19, God says “I will betroth you to me forever… …in love and compassion”. And he wanted this great “marital plan” to be so plain and obvious to us that he impressed an image of it in our very being by creating us male and female and calling us to communion in “one flesh.”

Of course, this doesn’t mean that God is “sexual.” We use spousal love only as an analogy to help us understand something of the divine mystery. Pope John Paul II says that there “is no other human reality which corresponds more… to that divine mystery” Thus, the original vocation to be “fruitful and multiply” (Gen 1:28) is nothing but a call to live in the image in which we’re made and to love others as God loves.


Summary: What will you decide?

We are called to love everyone (pesky brothers, un-cooperative parents and even grouchy school teachers) with this sacrificial, unconditional love. The foundation of every relationship has to be love, freely given, with no strings attached.


Only when we understand that we are created in the likeness of God, and that God is love, are we able to understand sex at all. Right now our view of sex, shaped by the world, is very warped. The world tells us that we can find satisfaction in earthly things; that we can quench all desires with acts of lust - pornography, fornication, adultery, contraceptives, homosexual acts and etc. None of these behaviours expresses God’s free, total, faithful, and fruitful love. Does this mean that people who behave in such ways are “inherently evil?” No. They’re just confused about how to satisfy their genuine desires for love.

The Pope’s teaching of the theology of the body helps us distinguish between the genuine and counterfeit ‘love’. It helps us “un-twist” our disordered desires and orients us towards the love that truly satisfies.


For more about the Theology of the Body visit:
Christopher West's Web Site - http://www.theologyofthebody.com/
Pope John Paul II's General Audience -http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/JP2TBIND.HTM