I'm a Survivor

So maybe Destiny's Child is a little corny, but you'll have to humor me here.
The song "I'm a Survivor" came into my head today, and it certainly lifted my spirits. If you have been feeling in any way exhausted, used, abused, abandoned, worn out, ignored, unappreciated, etc... you may want to think about what it means to say you will survive, that you will fight, that you will work harder.

My friends, life is a struggle. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying or has been hidden away with fairies or something. But I would argue that the reason I acknowledge it as such is probably not the same reason that is generally considered. Not to cut out the obvious fact of the struggle to survive and all of its sharp teeth, but more importantly it is the struggle to be whole, to be pure, to be good, that is the true task at hand.

There is much to consider about these terms, even just about the ideals. To be good, what is that?

Aristotle would tell us that as humans, we naturally seek the good that we see for ourselves. St. Thomas Aquinas would add that this natural good is our ultimate fulfillment in God, who is our source and end. Many various wise people (who I am not at liberty to cite here, being that my memory is not so strong) have expounded on these points and discussed (at ridiculously great lengths) what it means for man to desire his good, and how man can know what his good is, and if there is a universal good for all men or if each person's good is specific to his own being.

Today is not the day for philosophy (we started with Destiny's Child) so I will skip over those many arguments and discussions. Those are certainly questions worth mulling over, so take time to consider them. The Church would tell us that our purpose in existing is to "know love and serve" God (timeout to read the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1: "God, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life...God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Savior. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life"). So if our end is to know our Creator, that means a lot about our everyday. The beautiful thing here (though there are many) is that our Creator (whom we are to come to know) is a loving one.  He certainly is beyond and above our littleness, and yet he stooped to come amoung us and rescue us from our brokenness. Not only that, but he left us with a rather useful and sound map and compass (the Church) to lead us ever-more away from the brokenness and into his marvelous light.

So our good is to be fulfilled, to become who and what we were meant to be, to discover the glory that dwells within ourselves that we may have been unaware of. For us to pursue this, we need the tools given to us by the Church. We need the Sacraments. We need Baptism to irradicate the stain of original sin from our souls. We need the Eucharist to purify and sustain us, to transform us, that we would be made "holy by the power of your Spirit" and that our humanity may paritcipate in the glory of the Word made flesh. We need Confirmation, that our lives will be under the counsel and love and guidance of the Holy Spirit. We need daily prayer and communal prayer to lift us up beyond the darkness of this world. We need Confession that we can be healed of our many sins and discover the mercy and grace that God so abundantly lavishes on his children when they ask.

To learn habits of good, to develop virtues in place of vice - this is the ever-present task. Every action and thought and word we participate in will lead us further down the path of wholeness or further down the path of division. We are either fulfilling some potential for good in us or rejecting some potential for good in us. Certainly there are many things which in and of themselves are rather neutral (picking up the phone, eating an apple, smelling some cookies, going to the bathroom...) but when one begins to really examine this life, everything truly does take on some level of meaning in the greater picture. The battle is a life-long struggle. Every smaller battle trains us and strengthens us so that the greater challenges are not impossible to face. If I eat my apple and I'm enjoying it and I am grateful for its existence and then for its new existence in my stomach, I am certainly appreciating the gifts of one who loves me (God) and I am a happier person because I have received that which I did not deserve. Meanwhile, if I am eating out of functionality, or even bitterness because I would rather eat a cookie but I'm dieting, I am not finding praise or worship or gratitude in my heart but self-righteousness and maybe pride. Now certainly we can't go crazy being scrupulous about every little detail, but the idea is important because it does imply that we acknowledge God as Lord of our entire lives and our whole selves and not just a God who we visit on Sundays or think of occassionally.

For our persons to every be united as we are meant to be, to really understand our souls and bodies as a whole, as the true one being that each individual is, than we need to recognize both the divisive effects of sin on our lives and the unitive effects of virtue and grace on our lives. They stand in stark contrast...to discover oneself in an even deeper way it is required that we live (to our best ability, which can be very great with the aid of grace) in harmony with God's laws, and the natural law, which is given by God. We must understand that we are more free and more able to be who we are called to be when we not only obey the laws given to us but love them. They bring peace. They stir up a sense of self that is profound. They allow us to know our hearts, to see our inner selves, and yet to love and respect our bodies and how all of our person is intrinsically and intimately united. Just in the same way, every sin taps a wedge into the bedrock of our person. Every sin, whether purposeful or omission, leads us out of love and into darkness. Every minute spent thinking over the offenses of another is a minute not spent loving in this world. Where we might have forgiven and found healing, we are wasting ourselves on bitterness or malice. There are so many things that can lead to our bedrock breaking into pieces!

Sexual sins, or sins with our bodies, are perhaps the most dangerous. If we are willing to treat our very selves as a tool or function for accomplishing some good feeling or "act of freedom" or proof of our self-control or self-possession, what we are truly doing is proving how lost and blind we have become. No one who loves himself would harm himself. No one who is proud (in the good sense) would abuse himself. No one should seek what they think is "good" when it isn't good for them! But how often we are subject to that! How often we think that if we can only impress some person, we will have a better life. And so we wear things we would not normally wear, or say things we would not normally say. Or how often do we believe that the person we are is simply not good enough for whatever we secretly yearn for in the depths of our hearts, and so we settle for far lesser dreams and far more tragic treatment because we have forgotten who we are and who we were made to be. Just for the record, God never ceases to call us to be the beautiful and resplendent children he has made us. Never. We can spit in his face and the next moment he is still holding his arms out. Certainly it takes time and great effort (and most of all, real humility) for us to be reconciled if we have developed habits of sin that control our lives, but we are never outside of his mercy and love. Never!

St. Claude de Colombiere wrote this most beautiful prayer:
"Lord, I am in this world to show Your mercy to others.
Other people will glofiry You by making visible the power of Your grace by their fidelity and constancy to You.
For my part I will glorify You by making known how good You are to sinners,
that Your mercy is boundless and that no sinner no matter how great his offences should have reason to despair of pardon.
If I have grieviously offended You, My Redeemer, let me not offend You even more by thinking that You are not kind enough to pardon Me.
Amen."

That is something to chew on.

So this is our hope and our task - to desire the good (which is our being-in-love with the One who has first loved us!!!) and to pursue it with all of our selves, even in the tiniest of ways, every day, come what may. If we can strive to avoid sin, and beg for the grace to avoid it even more, and beg for the grace to be sorry when we do sin and for the grace to recognize the things which lead us to sin or our inclinations to sin, we will slowly begin to weed out those things that so deeply wound us and allow ourselves to begin the weight lifting and strength training that we need for this war!

(If you would like to read more on the Church's teaching on the beauty and truth of the gift man has been given in sexual love and its right-ordering, I highly suggest reading Humanae Vitae http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae_en.html and The Theology of the Body http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/jp2tbind.htm.)


Say it with me now,
"I'm a survivor
I'm not gonna give up
I'm not gon' stop
I'm gonna work harder..."

Yeah... :)

This is a Great Mystery

I'm going to be honest here (not that I am ever not "pointedly honest" with this blog) -
this semester has been, without a doubt, my least productive. I have managed to work 20 hours nearly every week, write and present the "God's Vision of Love" talk series and organize and fundraise for a mission to Haiti this December... but despite my deep gratitude to the Lord for all of these good works, the truth is that I have certainly slacked on my actual school work, which really should be my priority.

So, my firm resolve is to dive back into my wonderfully nerdy self as soon as is physically possible (and that is probably not until Christmas break). Until then, seeing as how I am already behind in all of my reading, I might as well go ahead a write a blog post :)

I wanted to talk about touch.

Touch, I feel (haha), is one of the more neglected senses.
Certainly not in all areas of life, but I'm speaking in a universal way. Sight is often harped on, or spoken highly of, or at least observed, whether it is the way we look at some one, or the way we are perceived, or more obviously the things to be observed such as color and shape. Our ability to hear is possibly even more practiced (if your ipod isn't playing, music from the computer will be, let's not deny it.) Smell... well, ok, smell gets the shaft. Taste is certainly appreciated in our culture, I don't think that needs explanation (although many settle for tastes that are mediocre).
But touch.

Much of my thought is coming from all that has been discussed on this blog from the "Adequate Anthropology" series and the "God's Vision of Love" series, and those points are basically drawing on John Paul II's understanding of anthropology, of the human person. This anthropology is necessarily a theological one. You cannot have the gift without the giver.

But before Christ, the encounter with the Lord was very typically a spiritual one only. Of course, the prophets and those who were chosen to establish covenants with the Lord such as Abraham and David certainly encountered him while being in-body, or embodied, and so they heard him with their ears even if he was not physically before them (and I am not going to go further into that although there is much to be thought about). But with Christ came an entirely new revelation of God, and entirely new encounter...most importantly, an entirely new meeting place.

Christ is the place for encounter God, for seeing him face to face. And this is in a body, through a body. In the spiritual sense, this Body is the Church. In a physical sense, this Body is the Eucharist, given as the source and summit of the very life of the Church. But this Body was also a man who walked this earth for thirty-three years and spoke to people, was heard by people, was seen and was touched.
(Maybe you had forgotten I was writing about touch... I almost did.)

No, Christ brings this element of God's love to us in a new and dynamic way that we could not have comprehended before. The imagery of nuptiality that St. Paul uses to draw the analogy of God's love for man and the love between a husband and wife summarizes this. "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word..." (Eph. 5:25-26, emphasis added). And, "Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord" (Eph. 5:22, emphasis added). He says, "This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the Church" (Eph. 5:32).

Again, books have already been written on this mystery (many beautiful ones, by people much wiser and more learned than myself) and my point is not to enter into them here. Rather, I want us to reflect on the beauty and mystery of touch.

Touch is an encounter. It occurs at a place, on a body, that a person experiences. Whether it is a hand on your shoulder to encourage you before you face a crowd, or a quick hug to say goodbye, or a sure kiss from the one you love, touch says something, it signifies something. If nothing else, it is a more comforting promise of the meaning revealed in the touch, a deeper communication of what was meant to be made known. I can smile at you and you will understand my pleasure, but I can hug you and leave no doubt. The intensity behind our touch, positive as well as negative, communicates a level of our whole self that is embedded in the action.

To be perhaps less-than-tactful, if I have someone shake my hand at the sign of peace during mass who barely wraps their fingers around my hand and leaves enough space for all those germs that are inevitably jumping from my palm to theirs... well, let's be honest here, I don't feel like the touch they gave truly signified much wishing-of-peace to me. And I feel even less that someone wanted me to know the Lord's peace if I just get the head-nod of acknowledgement. Does this make the point? The firm grip of someone who says, "Peace be with you," or, "Christ's Peace," leaves me assured that they truly desire me to know that peace.

Perhaps a different analogy? When you meet someone you haven't seen for many months (or years) and embrace as if old friends, but you are given the "burp-the-baby" pat on the back rather than a friendly embrace... what is the encounter? One that communicates a less-than-comfortable knowledge of the other person. It says that there is not the same understanding that once existed. And if you were hugging someone you just met for the first time that day, you probably wouldn't be embracing them as you would a friend of five or ten years.

Interestingly enough, a point that is made by Pope Paul VI in Humanae Vitae, albeit indirectly, and also a point that is then taken up by John Paul II in The Theology of the Body, this time directly, is the way that condoms and contraception also make a drastic change to the communication behind a touch. In the most intimate of human touch, within the bond of sexual union, the communication of the full love and desire of both lovers for one another is necessary and apparent. Much like the "not-quite-peace" or the "not-sure-hug," contraception is the barrier between the two that signifies a "not-quite-total-love." Again, this is not the point of this post so we'll have to return to this later, but I wanted to make that analogy. Touch, what you say through it and signify with it, means something!

Christ comes to us in the Eucharist as his very body. He allows us to approach him and touch him and to receive him into us. I think it is fair to say that if the source and summit of our faith revolves around the body of God, touch matters.

We therefore have a responsibility as people of faith to consider more deeply the touch we give and receive, and to recognize what we mean and signify with our actions, in hopes that we will come to better reflect the "glory of God [that] is man fully alive" (St. Irenaeus).

God's Vision of Love VI, Living in Freedom

Last part of the four-part series covering some of the major themes of the Theology of the Body by Pope John Paul II. Again, please see the previous presentations for a full context of this post. All of the information is drawn from the Theology of the Body, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Scripture (RSV) and other Church documents.

Recap: Context from the past three weeks –
o Original states of innocence, solitude, unity and nakedness, how God sees us and invites us into a relationship/knows us personally
o Being created in the Image of the Son means this new covenant, a new call to us
o Christ reveals to us what true freedom is, Christ reveals to us our gifted-nature, how God is Father and we receive all from him
o Christ gives us the Beatitudes as guides for how to participate in this new life, specifically purity of heart that enables us to understand the interior gaze of man and what it is meant to be between man and woman
o To return to our original innocence and purity but in a “new way” in light of Christ, we must learn to practice virtues and build habits of virtue (these are our remedies for concupiscence and sin)
o We want to learn to know ourselves and one another in the same authentic freedom and gift that Christ reveals to us
o The interior gaze and the language of the body are tied together, as we see how what we do and say expresses the inner parts of our hearts and what we desire and will are made real in our actions – the embodied soul – is understood here
o Christ’s whole life is a testament of love, laying down of his body and soul for the sake of the “other,” for his bride the Church and for each of us – this is authentic freedom and the nature of “gift” – being for another.
o Virginity or continence for the Kingdom is a revelation for us of the very special nature of God’s invitation to be in this personal relationship – a way of witnessing to us of what it will be like to be wholly God’s, in heaven, to know him fully
o Today we want to talk about marriage, family and the Church

"Living in Freedom"

Ephesians 5:21-33

o This call is very specific to real life and has practical applications and implications for us no matter what our state of life. The context Paul gives us in Ephesians is the perfect analogy that sheds light on all that Christ reveals to us about the truth and dignity of our personhood and especially our sexuality.


Sacrament

 o A sacrament is a visible sign of an invisible reality – the body itself is a sacrament (small “s”) for it reveals the interior truth of the whole person, as we have discussed

 o The Sacrament in the Church (big “S”) is a sign of grace, efficacious grace, transforming grace. They truly conform us more into the image of Christ and are specific gifts for our path to salvation

 o As Gaudium et Spes (joy and hope) says, not only does Christ reveal “man” to himself, what we are called to be, our most perfect hope and fulfillment, but in that he makes clear his supreme vocation (this life of holiness)


o We are learning about the eternal plan of man’s salvation in Jesus, from our Creation in His image to our final hope through his passion, death and resurrection. We are invited into his Body, as members of the Church. (This is the historical context of the whole mystery of the plan of salvation initiated in our creation in Christ and revealed in the Incarnation)


o What St. Paul says in Ephesians and John Paul wants to emphasize is that the mystery of Christ realized in the Church is the expression of the divine plan for man’s salvation, and that the Christian vocation is thus a life baptized and part of this Church


o Our humanity, our anthropology (and therefore, our sexuality) will only be brought to fulfillment in this context

o Remember at the beginning we said this is theology/anthropology/theology of the body – this is the context – Christ, and the Church.


o The two great goods of human sexuality expressed in its proper context are fidelity and fruitfulness or fecundity. The gift of self to another in sexual or conjugal union is meant to be free, total and fruitful. The beauty of such total trust, vulnerability and commitment is vital. The grace of the sacrament supports the husband and wife in their promise for fidelity throughout their lives and for the total love for the other, especially as it bears fruit in the gift of a new life.

Husband and Wife

o Proper context for man and woman bound together in love (and sexual union) is a lifelong commitment before God in the Church in the Sacrament of matrimony


o It is therefore their common relation with Christ that should unite them


o We are first and foremost brothers and sisters, adopted children of God, and in light of this we approach a holy love for one another knowing our respective value and dignity comes from God as a gift and that we belong to God first and foremost


o St. Paul speaks about subordination to one another – this is in love of Christ – just as virginity makes sense for the Kingdom, so mutual sacrifice, service and surrender to one another makes sense only in the context of Christ. It is a pious and holy call, to live a life of service, love and fidelity.


o We need to draw our energy, mercy and love from the only inexhaustible source of love, God himself. Our love for one another must be fed from his eternal and perfect love poured out into our hearts. Only then can we see one another with a purity and holy interior gaze, and love authentically. The efficacious graces of the Sacraments fundamentally make this possible, both the grace of the Sacrament of Marriage and then the continual graces of Eucharist and Confession.


o Marriage is this vocation for Christians to holiness directly as it corresponds to Christ’s love for the Church, the Bridegroom with his Bride, who laid down his life for her. St. Paul says that husbands are to love their wives even as Christ loved the Church, and that wives are to be subordinate as the Church is to Christ. It is the entrustment of the whole self to God in the context of the full, free and total giving of oneself over to the other in marriage.


o Reveals that the deepest essence of marriage emerges from the mystery of God’s eternal love for mankind, from the salvific mystery of Christ’s spousal love for the Church!!!


o Tobit 8:4-9


o The purposeful fruitfulness of marriage, the gift of self being so total that it brings about another total gift, a new human life, is also founded in this mystery, for as Christ is head of the body, so the body (the Church) bears fruit of his love in the salvation of souls won by his sacrifice on the cross.


o The spousal meaning of the body is inscribed in our sexuality, in manhood and womanhood, masculinity and femininity, the beautiful unity formed through two mutual self-gifts, receiving the other person in love.


o The unity of Adam and Eve at the very beginning of our history where “this one is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh” is now made more clear in the context of the unity of Christ and the Church – esp. in light of the Eucharist.


o The new creation that is made in the sacrament of marriage for man and woman is indissoluble precisely in this unity and therefore the covenant they enter into is both a grace and an ethos, a directive for a holy life.


o St. John Chrysostom – CCC 2365 - St. John Chrysostom suggests that young husbands should say to their wives: I have taken you in my arms, and I love you, and I prefer you to my life itself. For the present life is nothing, and my most ardent dream is to spend it with you in such a way that we may be assured of not being separated in the life reserved for us. . . . I place your love above all things, and nothing would be more bitter or painful to me than to be of a different mind than you.


Fatherhood and Motherhood

o Fatherhood and Motherhood are also inscribed into the person and into our bodies in our masculinity and femininity, within the spousal meaning of the body. Man and woman assist one another in becoming more fully themselves in seeing the other in light of fatherhood and motherhood, in willing the other to be in some way even more alive in the gift of a child. There is a fulfillment of what it means to be a man and to be a woman in being a father and mother.


o Masculinity has within its nature the gift that, imaged after Christ, is an initiator and protector, the Bridegroom who seeks to see his Bride pure and holy. Femininity has within its nature the gift, imaged after Christ’s body, seen in the Church, of receiving the goodness and love of the Bridegroom and welcoming his assistance is her holiness even as she is the one for whom he will lay down his life. It is a beautiful interplay of giving and receiving, and together they form an unity that is the foundation for new life to come forth and thrive within.


Family

o Therefore, the family can never be removed from the Church, and should always be intimately connected with her, esp. in the Sacramental life.


o The goal of Christ’s love for the Church is her sanctification – so the goal is for the family, for the mutual love of husband and wife and thus for their children too (which begins with Baptism and continues throughout life formed in Christ)


o Husband and wife are called to live in a holy unity of love, and therefore to raise their children with this understanding. As St. Paul directs us, husband and wife are to love one another as their own body, as Christ loves the Church, and to therefore seek the highest good for the other person and aid them on their journey to heaven. John Paul says, “The bridegroom (meaning Christ) examines his bride (Church) attentively, as though in a creative loving restlessness, whether he will find the good and the beauty he desires in her and for her.” This kind of moral and holy scrutiny needs to be present in our family life!


o Prayer must permeate the life of man and woman in the Sacrament of Marriage and their families. The Christian life is one of constant communication, constant dialogue with the Father, Son and Spirit, seeking to be made anew in the image of perfect love.


o Prayer together as a family is vital. Reading from Scripture, reading from the Catechism, reflecting on the teachings of the Church especially in the encyclicals and writings of recent Church history, as well as the many various devotions such as the Rosary and novenas are essential. Cultural Challenges/Issues to Faceo Concupiscence unfortunately does not disappear with the Sacrament of marriage (nor with religious vows or Ordination) – therefore it is so vital for us to be sensitive to the temptations and trials we face and to rely on Christ in his mercy and frequent the sacraments of Eucharist and Confession, and to pray daily.


o As we have said, the prayer for purity of heart and chastity aids us in seeing ourselves and one another with God’s vision, and assists us in healing the wounds inflicted by our sins.


o Chastity is not only a virtue for religious or priests but for married couples as well, for there are times when it is good for couples to abstain and a life of prayer and sacraments deeply aids couples in understanding this and living it out.


o A life of prayer and “in the Holy Spirit” enables couples to best understand their temptations and when they are truly loving one another in purity and wholeness and when they are falling short of this goal.


o There are many temptations outside of the inner self that are presented in our culture, everything from magazine covers to casual sex in TV and movies to the common acceptance of pornography, masturbation, contraception, cheating, hook ups, even just immodest dress – the world is not friendly to our desire for holiness so it is important for us to continually pray and seek purity and truth so that we do not fall into these sins, and if we do, to seek the healing and grace of confession.


o We want to always “speak the truth” with our bodies – concerning our own dignity, the dignity of another

* So once again, the entire context from beginning to end is that God has created us His Image, and we are invited into this personal relationship, the interior life, into a love and service of the Holy Trinity. In Christ we have the perfect Image of our humanity-as-holy. Without sin, He is perfect beyond our capabilities. But by the efficacious grace of the Sacraments of the Church and by his continual Mercy and Love, we are given the assistance to be transformed and "divinized" and to learn to live virtues of purity and chastity. We have a hope that cannot be disappointed, because of the promise of the eternally faithful God, who is all Truth and Love. We strive to deepen our understanding of the goodness that God has given us, the depth and breadth of his Gift, and we pray daily to allow this knowledge to fill us and transform our lives.

Once again, let us end with Guadiem et Spes,
“The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a figure of Him Who was to come, namely Christ the Lord. Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear. It is not surprising, then, that in Him all the aforementioned truths find their root and attain their crown.” – G et S, 22

God's Vision of Love III, Purity of Heart

This was the third part of the lecture series. Of course, things are missing from what was presented, including some visuals that I drew to help make things more clear. Again, I do not have time to put this into paragraph format, so you'll have to make due with the bullets. Also, please see God's Vision of Love 1 and 2 for the complete context of these talks.

"Purity of Heart"

The Beatitudeso Matthew 5:1-17 (Read)


o Christ Fulfills the law by revealing True Love – Remember at the beginning of this class as we spoke about the beautiful original state of man and God’s intention in creating him, the “originals” before the fall? We also said that Christ, being the apex of history, the climax of the love story between God and mankind, the ultimate covenant where original sin and death are finally destroyed, brings something new. When we live the holy life we are invited to by Christ there is in some sense a return to that original state, but there is something even more dynamic occurring. This is what we hear in the Beatitudes. This is exactly what Jesus means when he says he “fulfills” the law. He has brought love, in all of its power and glory, into the law. Now mercy and compassion and love in its passion are the crowning jewels of a holy life.


o Each of the Beatitudes is a necessary guide, a light for us as Christians to find our way on the path to holiness – but we want to focus in a special way on “blessed are the pure of heart, for they will see God.”


Readjusting our Glasses – the Interior Gaze


o Genesis 3:1-10 (Read)


o If we go back to the first class once more and remember the beauty of original innocence and nakedness, what was the dramatic difference between Adam and Eve’s knowledge of one another and their knowledge after the first sin? It is the event of concupiscence, the staining of their vision by sin with lust and selfishness.


o We all understand that sin has a hold on us personally and as a whole in society. It is especially clear that concupiscence strangles the life out of human sexuality, as tv/movies/music, etc… reveal to us all the time. People are not integrated wholes, but pretty faces or toned bodies or skimpy clothes or only certain parts of the body…this is accepted and even expected.


o We may also be sensitive to shame. Shame is our natural response to the awareness of the effects of concupiscence on human sexuality. Even in Genesis, immediately after Adam and Eve’s “eyes are opened” and they understand their nakedness in the darkened state of sin, they cover themselves and hid themselves precisely because of this nakedness.


o There is much going on here, to say that “there eyes were opened” and that they understood that they were naked – where before they could freely look at one another in their naked bodies and see an integrated person, the whole other person, in no way without fear or any lust (as we said with original nakedness and innocence), now they were unable to see one another in this pure light, and were looking with eyes of sinful man rather than with the sight of God.


o So when Jesus says so specifically that the “pure of heart” will “see God,” the parallel seems easy to understand. Of course, this is just one context of Christ’s words, but there is an invitation here for us to seek to be “pure of heart” so that our vision will be cleansed and so that we can see with God’s vision, with his love.


o The Pope refers to the “interior gaze” of man, a sense in which Adam and Eve are able to see into one another, to know the person in the naked body as male and female, but as the whole person, with purity and love. Christ points us back to this peaceful gaze and also points us to how we learn to love and see one another in this holy light once more. The Beatitudes teach us to live in virtue, and to allow this virtue to build into our habitual way of life, so that we can be truly “pure of heart.”


Virtues – Purity, Chastity


o This call is very specific to real life and has practical applications and implications for us no matter what our state of life.


o As we have said, Christ calls us specifically to look at our lives honestly before God. We must consistently pray for the grace to be pure of heart. Purity of heart will always lead to a purity of the body. And we need to pray for the virtue of chastity, that we will also aid our interior purity through our physical modesty and holiness. We need to frequent the sacraments, especially Reconciliation, and we need to honestly examine our consciences to be aware of the ways we do lust after or degrade others or fail to see them in truth and love.


o These virtues act as a healing for our concupiscence…for every weakness and temptation we endure in purity of heart and body, we regain and strengthen our defenses by praying for and practicing chastity and purity.


Continence for the Kingdom


o We will talk in detail next week about the marriage, and so today I want to say a few things about virginity and consecration of self for the Kingdom, for Christ.


o There are so many things that could be said and feel free to ask questions if I don’t cover something, but I think there are two vital things to be pointed out concerning this call.


o One – Consecration of yourself through priesthood, religious or consecrated life, and therefore, a life of celibacy/virginity, is for the Kingdom. It is of the utmost importance that this end is understood. We’ll talk more about this is a moment.


o Second – This call to celibacy does not negate or exist in competition with the good of marriage – in fact, it sheds light on the good present in marriage while at the same time being its own good.


o St. Paul tells us that the life of virginity is the highest good for us to aspire to here on earth, but that there are many qualifications and that this does not injure marriage.


o It is such a good because-
a.) You are living in your physical body now what you will one day life in heaven – a life wholly and totally devoted to the worship of God. You are making present for others the hope and reality of Christ’s promise for all who believe, that in the Beatific Vision there will be a unique fulfillment of the person, a deep and perfect understanding of self-in-relation-to-God. We can only imagine what such a union will be like in its glory, but priests and religious witness to us each day of this hope that we should all share in.


b.) Part of the power of such a witness is the sacrifice of the world for the Kingdom – the “better life” – this means that what is being sacrificed is a good, because it isn’t a sacrifice if there is no effort in letting go. So very strongly the vocation to celibacy for the Kingdom at the same time affirms the beauty and good of marriage as it is the good that must be sacrificed.


c.) Being for the Kingdom means not only this witness of our hope of the future, but also accepting that there is a different form of Motherhood and Fatherhood (spiritual) brought to anyone who is called to be a “Bride of Christ” or to be in the image of the “Bridegroom for the Church.” Priests become “fathers” for us all – there is a specific spiritual fatherhood that is part of the grace and charism of the Sacrament of Holy Orders just as there is a special grace of for men who are physical fathers in the Sacrament of Marriage. Religious sisters are examples of the wise virgins who are awaiting the only true bridegroom, Christ, and who aid the lay faithful in preparing themselves for his coming in their witness and their prayers for us all.


d.) Lastly, it is important to note that St. Paul, and the Church, teach us that this is a specific call and a specific grace to live in celibacy for the Kingdom. It is a mystery for all of us that each Christian has a call to a life of holiness that is specific to their unique person, but that is another gift of God. Some are called to sanctify a mini-church, a family, through husband and wife and their children, and others are called to work for the sanctity of the greater Church, for all of us as brothers and sisters in Christ.


Modesty and Purity


o It is easy to understand how what we have said about Christ’s invitation to us and challenge to us to be “pure of heart” so that we can one day “see God” and also gain the purity of heart and sight now to see one another with a holy interior gaze, also leads to our living out a similar chastity and continence for the Kingdom depending on our state in life


o Even though we may not be a religious, consecrated or a priest, all of the lay faithful share in the invitation to be examples in our world of the beauty of living for the Kingdom as much as possible.


o The most specific way this applies to our conversation is modesty in our dress and behavior, and purity in our physical actions (appropriate to our state in life.) If we are married this means being faithful to the vows we have made, faithful to our spouse, being open and honest with them, seeking to see and love them in wholeness and purity of vision. If we are single or dating this means dressing to reveal our true value and beauty, which would not be dressing to assist another in reducing us or failing to see us as a whole person. It would also mean not speaking, dancing, etc.. that would make it difficult for someone to love you in purity.
As always, we keep in mind that the entire context of Creation, Humanity and Salvation History, the whole story of love between God and man, is summed up in the life and Person of Christ, the Son of God. From Guadiem et Spes we read -
“The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a figure of Him Who was to come, namely Christ the Lord. Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear. It is not surprising, then, that in Him all the aforementioned truths find their root and attain their crown.” – G et S, 22

God's Vision of Love II, Called to Be Holy

My disclaimer from the first part of this series stands. Please see God's Vision of Love I for the context of these talks. They flow into one another and draw on the previous material, so it is important to read them in succession for the full context.

Also, I have little time right now, so I'm only posting the bulleted version of the talk, rather than the more filled-in style of the first lecture. Hopefully I'll have time to come back to it at another date.

"Called to Be Holy"

The Invitation

o As we have pointed out, Christ is the key to man coming to know his true value and dignity. As we read last week from Gaudiem et Spes (Joy and Hope), Jesus “reveals man to himself.” Only in the one whose image we have been fashioned will we come to really understand our own selves!

o Because of this goodness that constitutes us, we are given a very specific invitation. As we said last week, God desires an intimate relationship with us (he breathed life into man).

o By virtue of our Creator and our human nature, which is essentially good, though damaged by sin, we are invited to share in a new life, a life with God, a life in the Spirit, a life in Christ.

The Gift

o We know that God has “given” us life. But he has also given us everything else. The world has been created for man (remember in Genesis when God brings every creature before man to be named? And then later in Genesis God tells man to have dominion over all the created world). This is amazing!

o Not only has God given us the world and ourselves, but he’s given us himself. So we have everything by his generous goodness.

o We have to realize the beauty of this gift. God gives freely. As we said last week, he has no need of us as we do him. He did not create because he wanted little servants to fan him! He created in love.

o This is a kind of love we must take our whole lives to learn. It is the love that constitutes the Theology of the Body! The love that gave us our original dignity. The love that fashioned us in the likeness of the one, true and perfect Lover.

o The gift of our existence is free, even as this love is free. If what is given is free as it is given, it will remain free.

What is this Freedom?

o Our culture will tell us that “freedom” is one of two things – either it is a freedom from something (as in, you are free to skip work because you feel like it) or a freedom of choice (as in, you are not required to do anything. You have the choice to be here this morning or not to be here next week, essentially.

o It is not that these “ideas” or “senses” of freedom are not accurate to some extent, but that they are inadequate, not enough, not the whole truth. They are cheaper versions of what freedom is, as given by God.

o Much like our misunderstanding of the truth of love, the truth of our sexuality, etc… our idea of what freedom is has been sold short because we have not come to know it in light of the love of our Creator.

o Freedom is therefore not a freedom from, but a freedom for. This is what is revealed to us by God, that he exists totally and wholly for an other – that is the Trinitarian divine life! Father, Son and Spirit, all fully and freely giving themselves to one another, completely and eternally.

Gift and Freedom

o Consider this: if you give a gift to someone at Christmas, typically you give it to him or her totally. Most of the time they understand that you mean it to be theirs. They do not have to consult you on whether or not they can wear the sweater or ride the bike, etc..

o Likewise, if you give them something that comes from the heart – perhaps you knew they were hoping to get a certain set of dvds, or you knit them a scarf, etc… - the gift retains some of the giver within it. For example, my friend Matthew gave me and our other close friends mugs for Christmas one year – now we cannot drink our coffee without thinking of him.

o So God gives ourselves, fully and freely. We have free will, and can accept or reject all of his goodness. Yet, we are so personally formed by Him, that we can say what remains in the gift of the giver is very good, the image and likeness of God.

The Response to the Invitation

o So understanding that we are so good, as we learned last week about the original states of human nature, and also knowing that Christ has come to offer us something even greater, this new life in him, and understanding that we are given everything as a free and total gift…we come to the point where we decide how to answer that invitation

o What is amazing is that the Theology of the Body teaches us that since this gift of freedom for another is so inscribed in the very nature of man, it is expressed in his body in a very specific way.

o This is where John Paul II teaches about a “language of the body.” Recall last week when we said that we are embodied souls, and that our internal and external selves are intrinsically connected and cannot be separated? We also said that we then expressed what was taking place internally specifically through the body – our facial expressions, our words, our actions.

o So when the Pope speaks of a language, he means that our intentions, desires, hopes, etc… are expressed through our body, and in the context of our sexuality, our freedom and our love are also expressed.

o Two main points are thus: to live in freedom for the other IN the body, and to speak in TRUTH in the body.

o What takes place in the intimacy of the unity of a man and woman in sexual union or conjugal union is a communion and a communication. Each speaks to the other, by their bodies. The trust that must be present. The openness. The faith in the other person to be acting in love and truth. The genuine love that exists between them, not only in an appreciation for the others’ body (which is good) but for the other as a whole, for his or her person – this all communicates an authentic gift. It communicates that “I give myself to you”.

o The opposite of this gift of self in freedom and authentic love would be what we sadly see promoted all over our culture today – lying with the body. There are so many ways that men and women communicate that does not include the whole person, but reduces the other to an object of pleasure or to only certain aspects of the person that are appealing. Whether a certain aspect of the body or an intellect or humor, we still often refuse to see others as integrated wholes. Therefore, when we give ourselves to them, we often withhold something. We often do not understand ourselves as wholes either. And we often expect that to be alright. The worst is when the communication of a lie is mutually agreed upon. Both parties are ok with this usury mentality. Whether it is too much work or commitment to know the other more fully, or whether they are not free to really be giving themselves totally in such an act, or whether it is selfishness that is driving them to keep back parts of themselves from the other, couples very often will not communicate in freedom and truth.

Once again, to close with the Quote from Guadiem et Spes -
“The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a figure of Him Who was to come, namely Christ the Lord. Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear. It is not surprising, then, that in Him all the aforementioned truths find their root and attain their crown.” – G et S, 22

If you have any questions/comments, please let me know. Thanks!

God's Vision of Love I, Created in His Image

I realize that my blogging has become far more infrequent. Forgive me. I'm a grad student who is going crazy. But on the bright side, I will be posting a series of talks I'm giving on Theology of the Body. They are not part of my "Adequate Anthropology" series, because that is a thing of its own.  They will cover some similar topics, however. They are meant to be addressed to an adult audience, and give a general overview of the principles taught in John Paul II's great work. I realize that reading the content is very different from hearing the presentation. We have been recording the talks, so I may be able to post them some day as mp3 or a podcast, but for now you'll have to be satisfied with text. I would also ask that if you would want to use this material/replicate it in some way, that you ask me first. 


So the series was titled "God's Vision of Love" as a way to communicate the idea behind the teaching - to come to know God as love and how human love is in his image. 


The first talk focused mainly on the groundwork - the story of creation and the fall, and how God made man in his original state, in His likeness. To be fair, I'm basically taking my talk outline and trying to embellish it a little, so bear with the poor structure of the paragraphs. The ideas are well ordered, but the reading might be challenging. So here is Lecture 1, "Created in His Image": 


 Scripture – New Wineskins (Lk. 5:37) + New Hearts (Ez 36:25-27)
These two passages speak about the Lord doing something new in us. To receive the truth in a new way, as Christ reveals it, we must be made into new vessels, purified and holy, to be able to hold the "new wine." Likewise, in the Old Testament the words of the prophet Ezekiel speak to this same message - that God desires us to be undone and remade, able to receive the good that he has to give us. 


So we want to approach this teaching with open hearts and open minds. This is not a new teaching in that the Holy Father only builds off of the Tradition of our faith throughout history, but it is a new approach, a new way of seeing. We want to be able to enter into this vision, to have our eyes opened. The program is going to be in the same context of Scripture and Creation, which is Jesus, the Word. Christ is our principle model and the Image we were created in. This is a fundamental point of the Holy Father’s teaching.

Basic terms and ideas that we need to define: 

What is the “Theology of the Body”? 

What is Theology? In simple and general terms, Theology is the study of God. Coming to know him, striving to understand the mysteries he has revealed to us.

What is meant by “body”? What is Anthropology? The study of man - likewise seeking to better know and understand human nature and what it is to be human. 

The Theology of the Body is coming to understand God’s creation, most especially mankind, made in His Image and Likeness, and what that means for our lives. It is coming to see what "anthropology" means to God, in his context, according to his plan. It is seeking to know what was intended for us from the beginning by our Creator. 

Some brief points on the whole series - 

This is a 4-part series, and each is going to flow into the other. They are meant to be understood in context of one another, in the context of the whole story.

Again, we are calling it God’s Vision of Love because this is a consideration of how God sees man, and the world, and how we are called to share in this vision. When we understand the love that holds us together, it changes how we see ourselves, one another and the world. Specifically, we will draw from a quote found in the Vatican document Gaudiem et Spes, or Joy and Hope, the Church in the Modern World: 

“The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a figure of Him Who was to come, namely Christ the Lord. Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear. It is not surprising, then, that in Him all the aforementioned truths find their root and attain their crown.” – G et S, 22

It is important to keep in mind that vital phrase, "Christ...fully reveals man to himself." 

So we begin where the Holy Father begins, with Genesis, “In the Beginning.”

Genesis 2:4-7, 18-25 and Gen. 1:27

The first questions we ask of this story is the why and what?

God creates.  Our existence comes as a gift. We are. This is the “What”.

Why? Because God is love. As love himself, he desires to share his goodness and perfection. So he creates us in His Image, after his Son, Christ.

What this part of the Creation story communicates is the beauty of human nature before the fall. And the beauty of the whole world, of all creation, before sin enters. It is our “original” state.

This original state remains with us all, even after the entrance of sin through the Fall. We still retain aspects of this original purity within us, simply by being human.

Some important definitions to aid us in understanding our "original state" of humanity:

Original Innocence – there is a purity of heart within man, for no concupiscence exists. We do not suffer temptation or lust, we do not reduce others or fail to love them fully. God is our first and whole occupation.

Original Solitude – This is first and foremost our solitude before God. It is each man and woman known totally, inside and out, by the Lord and Father in heaven. It is also the solitude of all of mankind in the world, as we are set apart, finding no equal among creation, being the “height” of God’s creative work.

Original Unity – This is the ability to be in a deep union with God and one another that is premised upon the original innocence and lack of sin in our relationships. There can be a total vulnerability, a full openness, a perfect giving and receiving between persons because there is nothing to hold us back, no failure to love as we ought. Also, it is the shared nature of man and woman, the sameness that they experience in their similar nature of child of God. They are in a unity that is equal but different. (Will talk about that more later)

Original Nakedness – As Adam and Eve first see one another and are sure of the goodness of the other person, expressed in the naked body, they know no sin or shame. There is no lust present. Neither demean the other or think only of certain parts of the other person. Because of their original innocence, they are able to see the other person as they are, sharing in this vision that God has of them. There is no shame because neither is tempted to use the other.

We are embodied souls, a union of physical and spiritual. All that we are interiorly is made visible and expressed exteriorly. All that we are exteriorly directly speaks of what is interior. They cannot be separated! In the original nakedness, we are able to know the person in the seeing of the body. This is the holy vision.

These "originals" are gifts inscribed in the being of man, in our nature.

Sin, sadly, is also carried on through our nature after the fall. It does not cancel out these good things that constitute us, but it does create a struggle for us.  Man now has to deal with sin and its effects. 

What is Concupiscence? It is the disposition in the heart of man to selfishness, pride, evil…to sin. It is the invitation to disobedience that arises so often in our lives. It is the scales on our eyes that make it impossible to see ourselves, others or the world in the light of Truth and Love that God has created them in, unless we have help. We will talk more about the remedy for concupiscence that Christ brings us later in the program.

Christ comes to free us. The Church teaches that Scripture is always to be understood as a “whole”, with the Old Testament and New Testament completing one another. Christ is the key to the Scriptures. He is the Word. All of human history points to him. He was at the beginning, when we were created in Love. He is the final end which we are moving toward. Christ comes to free us from sin, to invite us into a new and different participation in the life of God than we would have known even before the Fall. We are able to be made even more new, new wineskins and new hearts.

There was a good question brought up during this talk concerning the very First Sin. If concupiscence did not exist yet, why would Eve even have been tempted? If this original innocence was so pure, why would she choose sin. I have heard the question before, and the answer that I have heard given which I found to make sense is as follows: Satan did not tempt even in the way we know temptations now. It was not a lust for an apple that looked too good to pass up, as we might not be able to walk by starbucks some days. It was much worse. The devil's words went to the very heart of the original state of man. He says, "The serpent asked the woman, "Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?" The woman answered the serpent: "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, 'You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.'" But the serpent said to the woman: "You certainly will not die! No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is bad." (Gen. 3:1-5) 

It is not even that the serpent tempts them to thinking of making themselves "like God" rather than allowing that God has already made them so much like himself, when they were made out of nothing. Even before this temptation, what he is doing is casting doubt on the gift of God. Casting doubt on God himself, on his love, on who he is. Doubt that he would be honest, that he would be always perfect, that everything that he does or says is good and true. Doubt that he would actually make creatures so like himself. 

This is a serious crisis. If God is not God, and his love is not perfect, all of life is upside down. This does not excuse the sin, and so there is certainly just punishment from God for the disobedience, but it is easier to understand how the innocence was confused by this lie, rather than the heart tempted as it is by concupiscence.

(And as an aside, I hope that is helpful and also not heretical in any way, lol. I will always reiterate my disclaimer - when speaking of things theological, I may be very wrong. We are speaking of the One, Holy, Triune God. So first I strive always to be in agreement and obedience to the Roman Catholic Church and our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, and then I hope and pray that the Holy Spirit guides my words. But if I am ever out of place, I beg forgiveness and hope to correct it.)

Ok, so that's basically the first talk. I will get around to the next three soon enough. If you ever read this, pray for me. And pray for our Church, and the world, and our family of brothers and sisters in Christ. Pray for purity. Pray for humility. Pray that hearts be made new. Mary, Queen of Peace, pray for us.

Adequate Anthropology I

"Love. Above all things, I believe in love. Love is like oxygen. Love is a many-splendored thing. Love lifts us up where we belong. All you need is love!"

... thank you Ewan McGregor for your stunning performance, and please ignore that some parts of that movie are less-than-tasteful. We're talking about a message here!

Currently, in real life, I am a student and one of my classes entails going through the entire work of Pope John Paul II's "Man and Woman He Created Them, A Theology of the Body." This is a great undertaking (that's 663 pages of John Paul II's depth), and it will hopefully reap great rewards (I LOVE it). As it is, I enjoyed having a structure to the blog (the series on the Beatitudes) and so I'm going to attempt to have a series of posts about love, humanity, sexuality, anthropology, etc...

I don't plan to go in order because to attempt to explain the topic in fullness would be to recopy the entire work and basically reiterate all of my class. I do not wish to do that here. Rather, I want to highlight small sections or even just statements that spoke to me specifically, and discuss them here.

So in that context, beginning with a quote from Moulin Rouge may seem a little... heretical? But in truth, this is exactly what the Holy Father was speaking to - our world, our educated average person, hungry and seeking for an adequate understanding of human sexuality. We've tried a lot of things, and nothing has worked. The Holy Father wished to give us more. Now it is for us to bring it to the world and shine its light in the dark places of the mind.

As with the Beatitudes series, I have named these and will number them accordingly to make it easier to follow. "Adequate Anthropology" is a term the Pope uses consistently in his work, and it is what I want to use as a guiding post for the reflections I share (not to mention that I love alliteration and assonance).

So now that you've had the "veggies and buttered bread" details (sorry that it is impossible for me to write without them... this is why J.R.R. Tolkien and I would have been great friends), let's move on to the meat.

"A wife's grace delights her husband, and her knowledge strengthens his bones" (Sir. 26:18).
Let's step back and read that line from Genesis that hopefully came to your mind just now.
Adam: "This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; This one shall be called 'woman,' for out of 'her man' this one has been taken" (Gen. 2:23).

The term "knowledge" in Scripture, especially in the Old Testament, often referred to a much deeper "knowing" than a simple awareness of the existence of the object in question. Moreover, when speaking about a person, it was assumed that "to know" someone implied an intimate, and typically physically intimate, knowledge. This is important here.

When we reread Sirach in light of this word's meaning, it would seem to imply that what Adam said from the beginning of time still holds true for men and women years later, even after the first fall and original sin. However, original sin created a space, a separation, a division, between man and God, man and the natural world, and even man with himself. Therefore, it also created a division between man and woman. So how can we understand Sirach then? If a 'knowledge' of his wife is a fulfillment of his person, a meeting or encounter that enables him to rejoice and to more fully know himself as well... wouldn't it seem contradictory to that divided state sin ushered in?

First, let's discuss this "delight" that is expressed in both verses. In Genesis, Adam's cry is one of rejoicing. Finally, after all the other possible 'helpmates' that God has presented, he has discovered one who is truly for and of himself. John Paul II would also say that in this discovery man comes to discover something of himself as well. This makes sense when you consider that, until the point of this encounter, man had known himself to be alone. He was in solitude with God, and this relationship, unique to what we can imagine now, was good-but-different. When man was face to face with woman, what he found was one he could be in-relation-with, as he was with God, but yet in a different way. There was a level of analogy between the giving-of-self that was naturally in place between God and man and the giving-of-self that was possible between man and woman. Now, clearly, the disanalogy is greater, for God is transcendent love, surpassing all made things, perfection of perfections, etc... you understand I am trying to protect the importance of God's so-much-more-than-us-ness. However, the actual seeing, the physical revelation of the woman to the man, was an experience not of lust or of need, but one of freedom. Man was able to give himself to this creature in a way he could not do so with any other. This creature, this woman, could receive his gift of self. She could understand him. She could see him in return. She could value him for the person he was. She could give back, her whole self, just as freely. They were able to know more about themselves in this relationship, for each came to know how they could give, who they could give.

It would be too much for me to wholly explain the "adequate anthropology" of how they were free to give themselves fully to each other in a perfectly pure and holy way, but I will at least try to sketch the bare bones (catch that? you're quick).

Remember, this is "original nakedness" we're speaking of. They were "naked without shame" because there was no sin yet. Without sin, there was no concupiscence, no lust, no greed. They were able to see one another in the physical flesh, naked before each other, and yet simultaneously see and love the whole person, the full self that was before them, the entire "other" being that was Eve or Adam. Surely they felt desire for the other, but this desire was holy because it was in no way divided or reduced or objectified. They did not yearn for each other as if the other were a satisfaction for a need, but they yearned for each other as their one-who-receives-me-wholly-as-I-am-and-returns-himself/herself-to-me-in-equal-freedom-and-love. They were simply, "one flesh."

So hopefully you get the gist of it, just try to imagine what loving another would be like if we never had to doubt them, never had to wonder if their love was real. These two had no fear. They were forever. They were total. It was that easy.

So Adam's rejoicing was certainly a holy and full delight! I mean, I know I'd be throwing a party. (I'd still like to throw a party if I ever get close to that, lol.) Sirach does seem to speak of just such a delight. He writes that a man's bones are strengthened by a holy wife. He cannot mean that separated from a two-become-one-flesh relationship, clearly. So what happened to man and woman after the fall? What happens to us? We, very sadly, often cannot stand naked-without-shame. We, rather unfortunately, are aware that our revelation of self is typically exploited. We are sensitive to the fact that man does lust, and struggles to love in truth and freedom. We are aware that our bodies will often be seen only as bodies. We can sense that the whole person (being ourselves) is not shining through or even being sought... if we're a naked body, we're a naked body. Why?

Well, as I have discussed, that would be sin's fault (thanks a lot satan, you really screwed that up). So concupiscence leaves man weak, open to temptation, without the "sight" that enables him to see the whole person, the true person, the one person. Man has lost the ability to not-reduce the other. We fail, so often, to not-compartmentalize. We typically cannot see another without objectifying them to some degree.

Cue grace! Now, remember that Sirach is writing pre-Incarnation, so we'll have to go back to that, but for those of us living in the post-Incarnation-and-Death-and-Resurrection-era (thank you Jesus), we have some help. It is true, we are going to fail. Sin happens. (I prefer that to the statement "life happens." Spread the words.) We will fall, and we will suffer from the consequences. That is the sad state of things. However, Christ gave us such wonderful gifts with his Church and the faith we profess! Through Scripture, prayer, a devotion to purity of heart and mind (especially through Our Lady), and of course through the Sacraments, we are able to bring our broken hearts to him that they would be made new. We can allow the Holy Spirit to live in us, and through this, to transform us in our daily work. This can enable us to build up virtuous habits in our lives, such as the gift of seeing others in purity and truth, rather than in reductive and usury ways.

As an aside, for married couples this challenge both still exists and the freedom is still possible. Simply because we are "married" doesn't give us the full freedom to be totally naked-without-shame, unfortunately. However, the sacrament does give a gift of grace, and through a life of consistent returning to our Lord, we are able to make marriages that are pure and holy. The fact of the matter is that until we are in our risen bodies with the Lord at the second coming, we probably won't fully understand what it was like to love one another so freely. However, we can come very close, and our relationships-in-love-and-truth should begin here and now with friends, coworkers, family, random people on the street. Asking the Lord for the eyes to see another as the whole person, mind, body, spirit, soul, heart, will, actions, thoughts, etc... is vital.

We must believe that a wholly-integrated-person is the only one we can love properly, and be loved in return by properly. You cannot give yourself, fully, to another, forever till death do us part, unless you are able to be seen as your full and whole self. Likewise, you cannot receive another, forever till death do us part, if you cannot see him or her as a whole and full self. We must never fear the body or think it bad - that is just as silly as thinking our minds or hearts are bad. We aren't here for reduction or disintegration! We're here for unification and wholeness! It is Manichaean to hold the physical in contempt or think it evil, and it is an incorrect idea. We simply must seek to know the flesh as the revelation of the entire person, and nothing less.

As far as Sirach is concerned, I think it is fair to say that this author, guided by the Holy Spirit, writes in anticipation of the time when Christ will give us a new covenant, a new law, a new spirit, to allow us to experience a holiness that is worthy of the dignity of mankind. This is why we are seeking to understand what an adequate anthropology is. We are beginning on the basis that man is good, so very good, as God created him, and that his dignity and goodness are reiterated throughout Scripture, most especially obvious in the Incarnation of Christ, God-made-man. If we exist in an image of this perfect One who is Love, than surely we should be only grateful that he would reveal to us this more-perfect existence that we can participate in, one which enables us to know what true love is.

Let us hope and pray to always know and love in truth and purity, to see each person as the whole self, and to hold them in our hearts with purity and gratitude. Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of your love! O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee! Amen.

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.