Be Thou My Vision

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart,

be all else but naught to me, save that thou art;

be thou my best thought in the day and the night,

both waking and sleeping, thy presence my light.

I would need infinite pages, it would seem, to express the thought that has taken my mind hostage. As it is, I will try to express it within reasonable confines. 

The late Pope John Paul II is well known for his philosophical and theological work on human anthropology and personalism in Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body. This book is a collection of Wednesday audiences that the Pope gave in Rome between 1979 and 1984. They were meant to be a catechesis, that is, a teaching for all on a matter of faith, and in this case specifically on some profound theological truths the Pope wished to communicate about the human person and his body. 

Among the many important and well-developed topics that play an integral role in the whole expanse of thought that is the theology of the body, one that recently struck me was what the Holy Father referred to as original nakedness. To be clear, this does not mean when we are first out of the womb and unclothed, nor does it mean a first time that we are seen naked by another, etc... The Pope explains this topic in direct correspondence to two other "original" topics - solitude and innocence. The Pope follows the Scripture passage from Matthew 19, where Jesus is confronted concerning divorce and marriage. Christ says, "Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female' and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate" (Matt. 19:5-6). Then in verse eight he reiterates his point saying, ""Because of the hardness of your hearts Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so" (Matt. 19:8). 

The Holy Father leads us through an exegesis of these verses, emphasizing the importance of "the beginning" in Christ's words to the people. He speaks of the original intent of God, our Father and Creator. He speaks of the innocence that was before the first sin, the fall of man. He is purposefully restoring the law and the covenant to the beauty of what was originally meant for mankind, but was lost through his disobedience. Jesus is revealing that through his life, his law and ultimately his death and resurrection, man will once again be able, by grace, to pursuit and attain this original goodness that he rejected. 

Therefore, in this context, the original nakedness of Adam and Eve is an integral part of the Holy Father teaching us the fullness of Jesus' meaning when he spoke to the people of his own time and that he spoke to all men through the Scriptures. Christ not only calls us back to that original innocence, where we are pure and humble of heart, obedient children who delight in the goodness of their Father, but also to original nakedness. Here he is specifying a type of purity of heart, mind and body that should be desired and worked for by us. Not only should we yearn and strive to be free from sin, but most especially in our physical bodies we should seek to reflect an inner purity through our outward expression of ourselves. As the body is the manifestation of the whole person, the unity through which we receive and give, communicate and act, it has the potential to reveal inner purity or inner darkness. 

In a very specified way, the revelation of the whole person in and through the body is free from concupiscence or any defilement at the original time of creation. This means that Adam and Eve were naked before each other and God, and felt no shame because they were clean of heart. Rather than shame, their bodies were unique revelations of the person to themselves and one another. It is through Adam's recognition of Eve in her nakedness and Eve's of Adam that they come to know and understand more fully the perfect goodness of God's creation of themselves and one another. There is no lust or inappropriate desire, no objectifying of the other, but only free and total gift. They are made whole in and through each other, body and soul, and this is expressed in the body. 

John Paul II is explicit that in its original state, the naked body is good, and there is no need for shame or to imagine that there was any impurity in their minds or hearts. However, after the fall, we learn that Adam and Eve quickly covered themselves and hid their bodies away. This is in direct correspondence to their inner hearts, to wills which have lost some of their true freedom. They now protect one another, in love, from temptations to lust or objectification because their hearts are no longer able to be so pure and free as they were created to be. 

This is all to say that we, as those people born long after the fall, have a great challenge before us in seeking to remain as free from sin as possible, and to love one another with the purest of hearts. The Pope goes on throughout his work to emphasize the beauty and goodness and sanctifying grace that comes through the Sacrament of Marriage, and that married people should not be in fear of failing to love one another properly or chastely. Certainly there may be times when we are tempted, even in such goodness, to be usury or selfish, vain or lustful, but we must trust in prayer and grace and the action of the Holy Spirit to enable us to live with the goodness found in the original nakedness. 

What I found most profound is that insight of the mutual nakedness of Adam and Eve, and even now of married men and women, that enables them to know one another. They see in each other not only an external body, nor only an interior heart, but the whole integrated person. They are not compartmentalized or broken down in any way, but in their true unity and goodness, known to the other person. Through this other person's seeing into you, you come to know yourself more fully and deeply. His affirmation of you, of what he sees and discovers, of whom he loves... this leads you to know more completely yourself. Likewise your seeing into him enables him to be more aware of his own heart, soul and body and to be sure of the gift he is giving to you of himself. 

I know it is a far cry from the same beauty, but I can't help but reference James Cameron's movie Avatar here. Despite some themes that were less-than-Christian in the movie, I found it very profound that the indigenous people greeted one another with the phrase "I see you" rather than "hello" or "good day." That phrase of seeing the other took on a deeper meaning in the movie as the loving relationship between Jake and Neytiri develops. Though they are separated by very different cultures and ethnicities, they come to understand and care for one another as the true person is revealed to each through their time spent together (and that is, time spent in the body). 

Analogy aside, the idea is one that we can comprehend as true through our own experiences. It would probably be hard to find someone who would disagree that through the eyes and body, the expressions and actions of any person, they come to know the whole person more fully. 

It is then a challenge to us to pray and seek the purity of heart that will enable us to see another and love another as they are for who they are. It is likewise the challenge to allow the Lord to instruct our hearts and minds as we strive to keep our bodies pure and holy temples for him and for any other that he might call us to through Holy Matrimony. If Jesus is the one looking into us, penetrating us with his gaze and seeing our hearts, our desires, our deeds, our wills and knowing us in our person through our physical encounters with him in the Sacraments and in adoration, then we should be affirmed in our goodness as persons through his love and likewise seek to see into his mystery even further, and to ever draw nearer to his heart.