Theology of the Body
Introduction
What is the Theology of the
Body?
•A book, that was a series of catecheses, by
Pope St. John Paul II.
•A reflection on what it means to be human, in
light of Divine Revelation
•A deep mystery…
Context of the Theology of Body
Industrial Sexual Technological
Revolution Revolution Revolution
• Human • Human • Human
person person person
needs to needs to needs to
acquire acquire acquire
pleasure pleasure
quickly
The body is not just biological, but
theological
● Contemplation of the body leads us to think about sexual difference,
● Sexual difference leads us to the mystery of communion in “one flesh”,
● Mystery of communion in one flesh leads to the mystery of Christ’s
communion with the Church,
● Mystery of Christ’s communion with the Church leads to the eternal
communion found in God, in the Holy Trinity.
Christianity is an enfleshed religion
• God made us incarnate spirits.
• The devil does not “have his own clay”. He must take God’s (very good) clay and twist
it.
• Redemption is “untwisting” of what sin and evil have twisted so we can recover the
good.
• Christianity doesn’t demonize the body, but divinizes it. “The flesh is the hinge of
salvation”(CCC 1015).
Sacramentality of the Body
• The body is a sign that somehow makes visible the invisible mystery
of God.
• Precisely in our creation as male and female and in our call to fruitful
communion, the human body becomes the greatest sign of the
divine.
• Theology of the Body is simply being made in the image and likeness
of God.
How can we say our bodies are good when
there are…
• physical illnesses,
• violence & suffering,
But Christ suffered in His
• sexual trauma,
Body to fix all of this – to
• gender confusion,
open a pathway to our
• addictive desires,
resurrected bodies. • inevitability of death.
John Paul II’s Thesis Statement:
• Because of sin, we have been blinded to the body’s significance.
• The body is not merely a biological organism. It is theological –
the most powerful sign of the divine mystery in all creation!
• When the Word became flesh, the body entered theology “through
the main door” (TOB 23:4).
● God Himself Is an eternal exchange of love: the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit.
● He created us for one reason: to share that eternal love and
happiness with us.
● God inscribed an image of this great mystery in the very form of our
bodies by making us male and female and calling the two to become
one flesh.
GOD’S INNERMOST SECRET
● All the mysteries of our creation, fall, and redemption are really a nuptial or marital
story. God invites each one of us, in a unique and unrepeatable way, to an
unimagined intimacy with Him that is most like the intimacy of spouses in one flesh.
● EROS: an “inner power that draws man toward all that is good, true, and beautiful”,
the cry of our hearts for the infinite.
●
AGAPE: sacrificial, self-giving love.
● IN GOD: Eros and Agape are united - the desire for the beauty of the beloved, and the
desire to give oneself completely to the beloved, become one.
The Spousal Analogy
The Essence of Biblical Faith
• God came among us in the flesh not only to forgive our sins, but to
become one flesh with us, so that we could share in His eternal exchange
of love.
• Our bodies tell the story that God loves us, wants to marry us, and wants
us to conceive eternal life within us. Not just a metaphor: Mary (CCC 505).
• Every woman is called to be the dwelling place of the Most High God -
literally Heaven on earth.
• Every man is called to lay down his life at the gates of Heaven by pouring
himself out utterly. The man images the eternal life-givingness of God as
Father.
“ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father
and mother and be joined to his wife, and the
two shall become one flesh.’ This is a great
mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and
the Church.
Ephesians 5:31-32
”
“This passage…reveals man to himself - makes his supreme
vocation clear – nuptial union with God.” (TOB 87:3)
“ On the Cross, God’s Eros for us is made
manifest…Eros, the force which does not allow the
lover to remain in himself, but moves him to become
one with the beloved…the mad Eros that led the Son of
God to make Himself one with us even to the point of
suffering as His own the consequences of our offenses. ”
Benedict XVI
Summit of the Spousal Analogy
In the Eucharist, Christ is united with His body the Church as the bridegroom with the bride.
“This sacrifice is the nuptial offering of Christ for his Bride, by which the Lord Jesus
accomplished our salvation” (CCC, no. 1366).
When all the distortions are untwisted, the deepest meaning and purpose of human sexuality is
to point us to the Eucharist, the “marriage supper of the Lamb”.
So why do we not experience the body this
way?
• If the union of the sexes is the main sign in this world of our
call to union with God, then it is the very place the enemy, who
wants to separate us from God, will strike.
• “The human race, its very existence and proper balance, is
literally determined by who is having sex with whom, and in
what manner” (C. West)
• The battle for man’s soul is fought over the truth of his body.
The interconnection of Sex and Life
● A culture of death is a culture that literally separates body and soul. It does not
recognize the body as a sign of anything spiritual, divine. Sex instead gets
reduced merely to the pursuit of pleasure.
● Sexual pleasure is great gift from God. But it is meant to be part of loving as
God loves, NOT an end in itself.
● When pleasure becomes the main goal of sex, society becomes UTILITARIAN.
The Theology of the body “Triptych”
The Theology of the body “Triptych”
Christ’s appeal to
the human heart
• Matthew 19 • Mark 12
• Pharisees ask • Matthew 5 • Dispute with
about divorce • Sermon on the
the Mount Sadducees
Christ’s appeal to Christ’s teaching on
the beginning the Resurrection
The Theology of the body “Triptych”
Original • Solitude
• Unity
Humanity • Nakedness
S
I • Concupiscence
N
SHAME
Historical • Commandments
Humanity • Ethos
• Resurrection
Eschatological • Divinization
DEATH
Humanity • Communion of Saints
