THEOLOGY OF THE BODY--FR. THOMAS LOYA--"LOVE AND RESPONSIBILITY" STUDY GROUP NOTES, APRIL 9, 2011

THEOLOGY OF THE BODY – FR. THOMAS LOYA – APRIL 9, 2011 “LOVE & RESPONSIBILITY” [Sr. Helena’s invaluable comments in brackets]

GOOD NEWS, CHICAGO! FR. LOYA WILL NOW BE ON “RADIO MARIA”

(an international Catholic radio network) on 1450AM Tuesdays from 4-6pm. It will be a TOB show, and eventually become a TOB call-in show!

(Love and relationship advice from a Catholic perspective!)

SENSES—COGNITION—IMPRESSION—EMOTION—VALUE

SENSUALITY—SENTIMENTALITY—INTEGRATED LOVE

Men are attracted to the “value” of femininity in a woman first of all, and vice-versa. Femininity and masculinity come “through” us, and if there is goodness there, it’s very attractive. But then a choice is involved: to love this person AS a person (whether the attraction grows or disappoints).

In a marriage in crisis, ask first of all: Who are you as persons? You are brother and sister in Christ. (There’s a need to put all the emotional hurt aside and recall this.) It doesn’t matter what this person did to me. They are still persons. How does a Christian-person respond to another Christian-person? Then as Catholic persons? If we relate on this level, then anything can be resolved/redeemed.

The only honest reaction to any person is love. If you don’t keep it at this level, it will just be a mess. We can’t stay at the sensuality (often guys start here more than girls) or sentimentality (often girls start here more than guys) level. We have to get to the integrated level [which means coming out of myself and not always seeking self]. Father knows an older couple (one is a deacon) who started out in their relationship very strongly all about the physical, but it grew and grew to an integrated love. [Today, people are terrified of the sacrifice involved in the “coming out of myself.” Terrified that “the other” won’t reciprocate or will eventually abandon us. That’s why we need to be rooted and grounded in Christ’s sacrificial love, so that it’s not ONLY human love that we are clinging to, that’s holding us up.]

p. 115: BJP2G sez “love is a drama” which involves our inner life very deeply. Man is free, otherwise we’d be determined by every movement, emotion, instinct.

Q: What caused the sexual revolution?

A: So many factors! The Pill, the World Wars (which dehumanized) and also separated men and women, and sent women into the work place, [junk sexual science (Masters & Johnson, Kinsey), and some Freudian understandings]. BJP2G: We need truth AND freedom! Sexual revolution=freedom without truth. “Repressed Catholics”=truth without freedom. When love ceases to be interior, it ceases to be love. For humans, it can’t JUST be physical.

p. 117—“That which is not free, that which is a compulsion is not love.”

p. 120--The world today only listens to its own experience, what is “real to me.” [The world no longer believes in what it cannot see, what authority tells it, what it has not experienced.] This is why BJP2G decided to use the phenomenological approach to philosophy: going through experience to the truth. Going through what can be One should not look to psychology for direction in love, but in ethics! The duty/morality here is the PERSONALISTIC NORM. We treat things according to what they ARE.

Without virtue, there is no love. BJP2G: VIRTUE first, then full flowering of LOVE. WORLD: LOVE-EXPERIENCE first, and we’ll figure out our own VIRTUE. [But it’s not working! AOL article on widespread depression after sex: Sad in the Sack: Do You Have Post-Sex Depression? - Sexual Health - Everyday Health ]

We shouldn’t say: “I love you because….” It’s simply, “I love you because you’re a person.” That’s why we don’t accept: “I’m gay.” No, you’re a person.

DATING TODAY: I like, I see, I appropriate, I take. Then I dump when I don’t like any more. It’s like “mock marriage”—rush into intimacy immediately. A lot of young women are hurting today, because women get more serious right away, but they shouldn’t! [STDs also damage women MORE than men!] They treat their boyfriend like a husband. Especially the girls will say: “he cheated on me,” “my ex.” Girls set themselves up for this hurt! And then they want to commit suicide. He never belonged to you in the first place! Were you engaged? [Dating can also be mutual “fun,” but how can you “play” with something so serious?]

Sr. Anne: my 20 yr old niece sez when they date, it’s exclusive right away. One young woman didn’t want any girls talking to her boyfriend: “Don’t they know he’s not single?” Wait! He is!

Fr. Loya: We should wipe out dating, only do courting OR go back to the old way of wholesome dating which was really opportunities to meet people. [We need mentoring in dating from older generations before the “tradition” is completely lost!] [Some women heading to divorce will say: he’s the only man I ever dated…. ]

Comment from class: Women feel possessed by a man, he can come on very strong. [Which women both hate and love!]

Men can’t be ordained unless his sexual organs are functioning. [This would explain why “gay” men shouldn’t be ordained. We are ONE person, body and soul and the body is a theology, and the priest is a father and must be such in potentiality, body and soul.]

Q: What about older couples getting married?

A: They must be able to have sexual intercourse. Because marriage is sex and sex is marriage. The marriage is not consummated without sexual intercourse, at least once.

ONLINE COMMENT: A couple even after the wife’s hysterectomy continue to practice the NFP lifestyle in order for the husband to “show that he loves his wife”!!! (So they abstain 7-10 days a month)!

p. 129—RECIPROCITY: “I get what I need only by giving to you.” Love is, of its nature, reciprocal. Only those who know how to give love know how to receive love and vice versa. [Even though it may seem that some people know how to GIVE love but not receive, it’s not true. The giving might be a compulsion, or even a form of self-hatred, low self-esteem, etc.]

Love has to maintain the inner structure of friendship. We find ourselves by giving ourselves away, but it’s not a reckless giving away. We can’t make a gift of self unless we have a self to possess, which means we mean we KNOW who we are as persons, as men or women, in Christ. Love is a skill and art that we can develop no matter what our background has been (abuse, lovelessness, no good models of love).

Comment: Loving is not an inbred quality that only certain people have!

p. 131—The greater the feeling of responsibility for the person, the greater love there is. It’s a weighty matter when choosing what person to bestow the gift of self on! It’s like choosing another “I”! We have to make sure that objectively you should be together (at least no glaring objective impediments).

NEXT MONTH: CHAPTER 3. Starts p. 143.

THEOLOGY OF THE BODY AND “PATRIARCHY"

Fr. Thomas Loya, June 12, 2010

[Sr. Helena's overabundant, opinionated, intrusive comments in brackets.]

In Theology of the Body, you can't talk about men without talking about you can't talk about women without talking about men.

In the latest issue of "Atlantic Monthly," the cover story is "The End of Men?" According to the article, women are basically taking over everything. Many traditionally male jobs such as manual labor are no longer the way that industry and business are going. Men feel inadequate and so they act immaturely and women just move on without them.

There's an inset to the article that questions: "Are Fathers Necessary?" The conclusion is: there is nothing essential about men (except sperm, which can just be gotten from a donor bank), but we'll let Dad stay because we've gotten used to him. [Insert any sitcom premise here. Since men are socialized by externals as Fr. Loya always says, what message are young men getting about the father of the family through popular media? E.g., "Family Guy," "Two and a Half Men"?] [Define "essential." Just what is Dad's "essence"? Is it only about reproduction? How about raising kids? How about being a husband?]

The article claims that there are no studies that show children are better off in a home with a parent of each gender or in a two-parent home for that matter. [Cow patties! Define "better off." Often, "better off" is measured in functional, rudimentary or market terms: Did the child graduate from school and get a good job? Stay out of jail?] Fr. Loya also says that a comparison can't be made here between "heterosexual marriage" and "gay marriage" because there's no such thing as "gay marriage." [Sr. Helena challenges these so-called "studies." Dale O'Leary does a lot of work/research in the field of gender, and reads all the footnotes and fine-print. She says that these so-called studies are often nothing of the kind, and even the findings they point to—which no one reads—are actually saying something opposite! You can Google her books.][Sr. Helena thinks this article may really coming from a gay activist source, because there are individuals and organizations who do nothing but push acceptance of "alternative lifestyles" from all different innocent-seeming angles. There are groups in Hollywood that make sure there is a sympathetic gay character on every show. Sr. Helena thinks that the recent spate of strange, totally out-of-the-blue, highly-publicized same-sex celebrity kisses are also carefully engineered.]

We hear the statement: "The Church is patriarchal." We don't stop and capture each word (like we should in TOB!) and so we put our head down and start apologizing: "Oh, I know. I'm so sorry. Maybe someday when we have a different pope things will be better," etc., etc. But instead of "running through" words and sentences like our opponents want us to do, we need to not go "across" the words, but "down." Plumb the depths of the words. What do they really mean? Make the person saying them stop and think about them. Question them about what each words means.

PATRIARCHY—comes from "patris" meaning "father." Are fathers bad? If some are, does that mean we say that all fathers are? Are fathers supposed to be bad? What are fathers really supposed to be? [If you hear some music that you don't like, does that mean all music is bad? If you like jazz and you hear some bad jazz bands, does that mean all jazz is bad? Like, why would you identify the ABUSE of something as the THING itself? Unfortunately, some people's experience of father has just been so distorted and sad. It is all they've ever known. BUT, how did they know it was a BAD experience? That the father was BAD? They must have SOME CONCEPT OF WHAT A GOOD FATHER SHOULD BE.] "Father" SHOULD be the warm part of the word.

What should a father be?
guide, provider, protector, model for son, shows daughter whom to marry, shows family what God the Father is like, order, authority [and upholder of his wife's authority, "The Lord…confirms a mother's authority over her sons." Sirach 3:2 ] From physiology, men/fathers are sacrificial, spending themselves for their families, planting the seed.

"-archy" means "overseer," like "overarching." It also means ruler, author, initiator. Are these bad things? This is the colder part of the word.

Fr. Loya has a book written by a dude who was part of a group of Evangelicals who converted to Orthodoxy: "Missing from Action—Vanishing Manhood in America." Excerpt: "When men don't THINK and DO THEOLOGY (and not just do commerce and work), they leave theology up to feminine piety." [Or, rather, simply, women. Sr. Helena could not agree more. She always found Evangelical men more attractive than Catholic men because they actually knew something about their faith and could articulate it. Catholic men seemed always to "celebrate their ignorance" of the Faith, even if they were very faithful to Catholic practices. However, Sr. Helena thinks that TOB is giving Catholic men a voice to their faith; TOB is making theology concrete, interesting, fascinating and do-able to the common layman.]

The book goes on to say that theology is a (manly) man's task (that men need to take up!) [Not that women can't "do" theology, but there is that divine order in creation where the man "initiates," even spiritually. Even her most radical feminist days, Sr. Helena always thought it was stupid that women objected to men (exclusively) preaching to women in church, because Sr. Helena a) basically liked what men had to say and how they said it b) women are perfectly capable of finding their own voice—preaching in church is just ONE locus and form of discourse c) men have no control over how we HEAR what they say and what we do with it, and we can't help but hear/receive/process as the women that we are (even though she had very little clue what it really meant to be a woman at that point). The great Sr. Thea Bowman, FSPA, when asked about "women's ordination" said: "I can preach anywhere I want. On the street, in the home, in the school, in the workplace, on the bus. And who are you going to listen to first, anyway? A man in a white dress in a pulpit or yo Momma?"]

The "Atlantic Monthly" article went on to say that since women are outnumbering men in college now (studying), there are campaigns to recruit men for college. (Used to be the opposite.) Many boys/men don't like school because it may not be the way men learn (it may be feminized in its approach, also with more and more female teachers). [Sr. Helena also thinks it has to do with guy's socialization: Do other men value an intellectual man—beyond technological geeks?] Same-sex schools are helpful so that guys can concentrate on academics.

Men were created first [in first account of Creation in the Bible. JP2G says we have to read BOTH accounts of Creation together because they explain each other and are not contradictory]. Why? He was given authority so that the order of love and life could thrive. Even in the Trinity, there is a hierarchy of sorts, a divine order. The Father is the Source! Jesus' whole life was about revealing the Father and doing the will of the Father.

The way men pick up babies is very different from the way women do it! They hold the baby out so the baby feels that he/she is not just cuddled/nurtured by the mother, but also is on his/her own, independent. Then, of course, the Dad THROWS THE BABY UP IN THE AIR. Very instinctively! Whoa! thinks the baby. Life is ALSO scary and exciting, but I can trust that my Dad will catch me. The father tries to prepare the child for life, toughen them up a bit, let the child discover their own strength. Let the child know they can make it on their own. [Sr. Helena commented to the online group attending Fr. Loya's class that she marvels that men never drop their babies! A Dad said: "We actually do worry about that." Ha ha.]

The Church is not patriarchal, it has a patriarchal DIMENSION. If we look at power only, then that's all we care about, that's the only thing we value. But the HEAD is only one part of the body! Where would a head be without a BODY, a HEART? D-E-A-D.

When we only measure the externals-only aspect of a child's development, we are buying into an all-male paradigm! (And yet the article said we don't need men!) When women value only power, they obliterate their own femininity. [And deny that they have a different kind of power! Any which way you slice it, this article is nuts and self-negating, and guess what—womanhood ALWAYS loses when we try to get rid of men, because WE NEED EACH OTHER. Manhood also loses when they try to get rid of women. Or rather, when we either settle for or desire caricatures—of whatever kind--of each other.]

Fr. Loya says: When someone starts with "The Church is patriarchal," a soundbite can be: "Thank God, the Church has a patriarchal dimension to serve womanhood!" Patriarchy manifests the spousal meaning of the body.

Mother and Father bring different essential principles to the child. [Bishop Cordileone—lion-hearted defender of marriage—said that a way to win over the younger crowd who think "gay marriage" is OK, is simply to say: "Children need both a father and a mother." This makes sense to them, especially since many of them have personally experienced the absence of a parent through divorce or something else.]

A way to capture words/phrases: Answer like the Irish do, with a question: "Oh really now?" "Is that so?" so you can slow it down.

[We need to distinguish between what the Church really teaches and the bad practices/behaviors that have cropped up, no matter how ingrained.]

How did Jesus exercise power? [On the Cross, in His vulnerability, doing the will of the Father.] What is the real power of the Church? Monasticism because it is the pulse of the health of the Church. It is all about prayer and being in the closest contact with God. JP2G says this in his encyclical "Light of the East." Monastics also invented hospitals (St. Basil the Great—Eastern Church)

Women in public positions in society humanize and personalize things. One area where men still dominate: custodian [the Garden!] and engineers. [During the Stanley Cup, one woman sportscaster interviewed TROY BROUWER of the Blackhawks. "Now, your Dad was very sick, wasn't he? We tend to think of you guys as machines out there on the ice, but you're human, too." Troy was pleasantly surprised and said in all seriousness: "Yeah, we have feelings, too." And then started to talk about his Dad.]

Feminism had three great movements in history:
1. Property
2. Voting (full participation in civic life)
3. Gender Feminism—anti-male, anti-life, but denying femininity at the same time and trying to become men, and eventually denying the sexual difference all together [Androgyny Feminism]

["The early stages of 20^th century feminism drew unfortunate parallels between masculinity and patriarchy, but it is important to keep in mind that they are not the same thing. The masculine, like the feminine, is an inner energy, a form of consciousness. It is what Jung called Logos, and it incorporates judgment, discrimination, reason and a will to action. Since the dawn of patriarchy, we have not culturally or individually experienced a healthy, authentic masculinity. It has been relegated to the same dark underworld as the feminine by the insistence on POWER as the overriding force in patriarchal cultures." –Kathleen A. Brehony "Awakening at Mid-life" I don't totally agree with her assessment here, but this is a completely secular psychology self-help book. It goes on to say that we desperately NEED the presence of fathers in the family!]

Ralph J. Burns, Sr. (12/25/1901--2/6/2003) R. I. P.

Sr. Helena's Pops (who was VERY essential).

[One last thought: fathers/husbands MUST be essential, if God gave St. Joseph to Mary & Jesus. Amen.]

THEOLOGY OF THE BODY

THEOLOGY OF THE BODY STUDY GROUP NOTES
FR. THOMAS LOYA
November 12, 2008

"Man and Woman He Created Them" by JP2G
newly re-translated and expanded text

[superfluous and useless comments in brackets by Sr. Helena]

Starting p. 264

More important than the presidential election was the passing of California's Proposition 8 (same-sex "marriage"). Mormons [ironically, historically in favor of polygamy!] are being persecuted now because of it (they poured $ into defeating the bill). If CA had passed it, the whole country probably would have. The Mormons and Evangelicals were fasting for this. The Evangelicals were speaking of a "sacramental view of marriage." [According to Rick Santorum, quoting an article in Atlantic Monthly, there is a billionaire gay activist, Tim Gill, who is pouring his millions into various state battles over same-sex marriage, managing to oust politicians and replace them with pro-same-sex politicians, etc. He has been "70% successful."]

Try asking a political candidate: "What is your view of the human person?" This is the most important question we can ever ask.

"Ethos"—the difference between "commandment" and "ethos" is very great. "Ethos" is your internal, moral position. We're supposed to live the laws out of our ethos. The goal is not to need laws at all.

JP2G knows we need the big vision behind Humanae Vitae or we wouldn't accept it. There are only two reasons why people don't accept Church teaching: hardness of heart or not understanding the big vision. Once we accept the big vision, we automatically accept the specifics. It took JP2G to fill in the total vision that Paul VI gave us. Once you have the "why," you have the "how to."

The world has a different view of the human person that will never converge with the Church's view—it's like two parallel railroad tracks. The world can't understand why the Church can't change. That's why they beat on the Church constantly.

Jesus takes us back further than the Old Testament. The people of his time kept quoting the Scriptures to him, but He said that wasn't God's original plan. We can't totally regain our lost innocence, but we can get back. But Jesus didn't stop there—he wanted to bring us into the future and show us the ultimate of God's plan for us.

Jesus said: "If a man looks lustfully at a woman, he commits adultery." And then JP2G said even if a HUSBAND looks at his WIFE lustfully, he commits adultery. Father thought all the feminists would rejoice at this, but they didn't understand because we are all so confused about what lust is. People thought—oh, great, now we can't even desire our spouses!
[Lust is always wrong, it's looking at/treating a person as thing for our own self-gratification. Desire is to want someone in their totality as a person. Desire can be disordered. We can desire someone we can't "have, but at least we are desiring them in their totality as persons. Desire within marriage is "go for it"! (Because we're relating to the other as a person, not as a thing, and all the mutuality that goes with that.) Lust within marriage is never permissible, which is what JP2G is saying.]

p. 267-269: The term "adultery" is used (even thought it applies to single men and single women) because of the spousal meaning of the body!!!!!! Every BODY has a spousal meaning. In a sense, any sexual sin IS adultery. ["The body is for the Lord."]

"The spousal mystery is the fundamental element of human existence." –JP2G

Abraham and Sarah didn't really understand God's intention and so they gave "an interpretation that had superimposed" (p. 268) itself on the original vision of good and evil (Sarah gave Abraham her slave girl in order to raise up an heir).

Just because something's in the Bible doesn't mean God approves of it! Some of it is just a narrative of what happened!

There were all kinds of interpretations and twisting of the Law—so people could justify themselves and say "I haven't done anything wrong according to the Law," and yet our consciences (p. 270) know better, actually DO know what the Law really means.

Contrary to popular belief, studies are showing that men are genetically hardwired for monogamy. [So are women.]

Q: So why is it so hard for us to do the right thing?
A: The Fall. The "man of concupiscence." We want absolute autonomy without answering to an authority. We want to be our own god, decide what is right and wrong.

p. 272: Altho' some OT laws about sexuality seems severe, it's in order to protect the order of the social life—marriage and family.

Aside from the Law, what IS this relationship of man and woman? (p. 276)

We treat people as we believe God is. Our TWO basic images of God: TRINITY (communion of Persons), INCARNATION (God becomes one of us, one of our stuff). BOTH images are God going out of Himself to unite Himself with the other.

In Eastern Church, Christmas is called: "The Incarnation" or "The Divine Condescension."

THE ONLY STORY THERE IS: An invisible God has become visible through the physical. ALL CHRISTIAN HERESIES GO ASTRAY FROM THIS IN SOME WAY. Jesus was completely God and completely human.

JPII was not original—that's a compliment. He took the riches of the Catholic Church and organized it in a new way. [Properly.]

The language of the liturgy is conjugal. To be Catholic is to be fully human. It's the fullest truth about the human person. The human being is the apex of Creation. When spouses come together conjugally, they become "virginal," meaning they are singular, one. [John Lennon intuited this: he felt "virginal" with Yoko, thus his album "Two Virgins."]

Q: So in heaven, we're all celibate because there's no marriage?
A: Marriage in heaven is not like it is on earth. Marriage is union. Heaven is union. Heaven is the one marriage of the Lamb and we are the Bride. In Latin-rite Church we say: "till death do us part." In Eastern Church: "till death bring you together forever." It means the same thing.

Comment by participant: So, when a husband looks lustfully at his wife, he violates her virginity, or rather HIS virginity WITH her. [Wow.]

The "H" Zone:

If we're HONEST, we'll be HOLY, it'll lead to HAPPINESS and HEAVEN.
If we DISS HONESTY or are DISHONEST, we'll HURT (and God and the Church don't want you to hurt), and wind up in H-E-double hockeysticks. (So Father tells the teens who ask "how far" they can go in dating—if it's totally honest, go ahead and do it.)

If you give yourself wholly to one person, you're done! You only have ONE body to give to one person! That's why polygamy, promiscuity, etc., is such a lie. Look at the tension between Sarah and Hagaar!

December 13—Fr. Loya doing day of recollection for men on lust, desire, how to see/look at women, etc. "Anatomy of a Woman." http://www.taborlife.org/

p. 280—The Bible seems to pick on men particularly when it comes to warning about lust. Woman instead, is frequently pictured as the seductress, but not only—the virtuous woman is also praised. [Different warnings because we're different!]

Q: How can we look at persons in a way that doesn't just look at externals?

A: Practice looking at nature and other things in their entirety, in their integrity, etc. When you look at women, even in billboards, "personalize it." Make up a story about this woman, make her a real person. SEE, PRAY & PASS ON. Praise God for such beauty and move on. Spirituality of wonderment. "Unless you become like little children." Beauty should make you pray rather than lust. That will become your ETHOS.

In Europe, they're better at portraying the human body in all its beauty without making it provocative. Why Europe? Catholic country, Catholic ethos.

The way they teach people in D.C. to recognize counterfeit money: they NEVER show them the fake stuff, so that as soon as they see it/feel it, they know it!

For past 500 yrs: [Cartesian] Mind/Body split: body is not of value any more, so we just use it, pollute it, destroy it, etc. It became all about the rational. JP2G put Mind/Body back together and said: here's the proper worldview.

THEOLOGY OF THE BODY--FR. LOYA

NOTES FROM FR. THOMAS LOYA'S THEOLOGY OF THE BODY STUDY GROUP

APRIL 2008

SPONSORED BY DAUGHTERS OF ST. PAUL
(meets at Pauline Books & Media, Chicago, SECOND Wednesday of the month, 6:30—8:30)
OR Join us LIVE on www.ustream.tv!

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To join Fr. Loya's TOB presentations on the 2nd Wednesday night of the month LIVE ONLINE: (6:30 CST small groups, 7:00 CST Father's presentation): http://www.ustream.tv/channel/theology-of-the-body

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NEXT CLASS: May 14

 

We are using the JP2G's revised text: "Male and Female He Created Them—a Theology of the Body"
www.pauline.org

 

 

Notes will always be posted on www.hellburns.blogspot.com. Just look for post "Theology of the Body" each month.

(We're skipping the lengthy Introduction and going directly to the text. These notes cover the first 15 pages of the text.)

NB: "Man"=male and female

[Sr. Helena's superfluous comments are in brackets]

[online comments are bold]

NOW, HERE'S FATHER LOYA:

The fundamental essence of human existence is the male/female difference—JP2G.

p. 105 of the Introduction at the top is a summary of the purpose of TOB.

The Eastern Church is the feminine complement to the Western, more "masculine "Church. JP2G says we need to "breathe with both lungs," that is, we need to enrich each other: the Eastern and Western Church. [Recommended reading: "The Light of the East (Orientale Lumen)"—encyclical of JP2G]

The text of TOB is dense, spiral, phenomenological. It's not linear. It's like watching a leaf float around and then land. It lands then on the irrefutable truth after having examined everything else.

We need our "sacramental glasses" to see the world. We need to see the way Adam and Eve originally saw. Science is great, but a scientific worldview began to debase the physical and enshrine the spiritual/mental. Science was able to dominate the physical and manipulate it, so we began looking  differently at the physical, including ourselves, each other.

Christ takes us back to the very beginning. Not a bunch of rules, but a vision of the human person. He took us to who we are as human beings, who we are as man and woman. [Before there were houses, cars, hospitals, X-box, etc., there was just Adam and Eve, naked.]

The first account (Elohist) of Creation is very direct: what does it mean to be human. That's what we're missing today. Paul VI knew we were missing this. In "Humanae Vitae" he said we need a total vision of man.  A mystical vision. "Mystical" means the MOST real vision/truth. [Therefore, mystics are hard-core realists!] The only honest thing we can say about being human is that we are made in the image of God. Everything else is an intrusion. A lie. We always say when we mess up: "I'm only human." But the exact opposite is true! We were created to NOT sin! The second account (Yahwist) of Creation is what JP2G uses more.  He uses the subjective approach because people today don't accept objective accounts of the truth.

#4, p. 135—"impossibility of reducing man to the 'world.'" Man is more than material. He is also identified with something invisible.  "The truth about man refers to the male as much as to the female." Man is defined primarily as metaphysical.

Scientific mindset emphasizes the rational=what is measurable, seen.

[At the end of the movie "Expelled"—I have some philosophical problems with the movie, but it's a must-see—Ben Stein makes a very good point. The atheistic scientists keep saying "we can't see God," and Ben says, "maybe He is right in front of us, in the things science investigates (the material world) and we're missing it." This is exactly what TOB is saying—with the help of Revelation, of course.]

We're great at thinking and talking about body and soul separately. E.g., we say: "I want to save my soul." But it's the whole person, body and soul that will be saved! What has become foreign to us is body and soul TOGETHER. This is what "THEOLOGY OF THE BODY means." We are embodied spirits, not a body and a spirit. They are distinct, but inseparable. The separation of the two is DEATH, a "cosmic obscenity"—Peter Kreeft. We are a composite. Anything that separates body and soul has to do with sin. Death is a perversion, it was never meant to be. It's just the worst thing—words can't even express the horror.

[A very intelligent friend of mine, a devout Catholic who was at a think-tank at Stanford, doesn't like the term "Theology of the Body" because she says it literally means: "The Study of God of the Body." I like it precisely because that's what it means. God is certainly of the body! The WORD became FLESH. Forever! All praise to Jesus Christ!]

We think of heaven as our soul floating around. No! Body and soul together in heaven or hell, transfigured (not exactly the same as we are now). The Resurrected Jesus walked through doors, but also could let Thomas put his hand in His side. That's how our bodies will be.

Transfiguration: Jesus showed Peter, James and John  what it really meant to be human. He showed them their destiny—to shine brilliantly! And the Apostles loved it. ("Can we stay here?") Our Lady, because she has no sin, went to heaven body and soul intact (as Adam and Eve would have and we would have if we had not sinned). The Eastern Church calls the end of Mary's earthly life "The Dormition," sleep, but not exactly. Like when Eve was created out of Adam—Adam was in an ecstatic state/trance.

The fact that Catholics don't understand the destiny of the body is why JP2G wrote TOB! Who the heck are we? We aren't totally Catholic in our ethos if we don't capiche who we are, body and soul! The indissoluble bond of marriage is not a rule, it's fundamental to the identity of being human. We were created as beings who unite with another being. How do we know? Because our bodies say it! The first words of Adam were this Shakespearean ode at the very sight of woman: "This at last is bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh!" Adam learned the meaning of being human by looking at the woman. They were naked and they could see that they were designed for each other.  And so we do what God did to us: we enter into what the Trinity is doing—a loving union/community of persons.

"The beginning," gives us a solid basis for metaphysics, anthropology and ethics (which cover everything).   [It's all there in Genesis. It has been said that if we lost the Bible and only retained Genesis 3:15, the "Proto-evangelium" or "First Gospel," we would have the essentials! The promise of a Redeemer! See footnote #7, p. 143-144]

[Recommended reading "The Beginning of Wisdom—Reading Genesis" by Jewish "saint," M.D., and bio-ethicist, U. of Chicago's Leon Kass. Check him out on Wikipedia.]

The subjective brings us to the objective. It's a different way to get to the same truth.

God goes out of Himself while staying within Himself. He is always in intimacy. We are called to intimacy, also. How do we know that? Our bodies say it: "I want intimacy! I want intimacy!" We do what God does: He unites Himself intimately with His Bride and that brings life.

We don't have to be told anything, just experience, but REALLY experience TOTALLY life in our bodies!

Let's level the playing field: we all have bodies that all speak the same language! Intimacy, union, communion! Then: life! TOB is simple! God is simple! Complexity is of the devil! [Laborious and perplexed is the face of schemer." Perplex rhymes with complex.] After the Fall, life got really, really complicated.  Life had been so simple and happy: walking around "life-ing" out! They were naked. Now we have to shop, get into fashion, etc. [We love the complexity now! Eek!]

It's actually SEXUALITY THAT MAKES US MOST LIKE GOD!! Why? Because it's the fundamental way we give and receive love. Adam and Eve looked at each others' body as revealing God, as holy, as good. That's why they had no shame. [The sexual difference is only mentioned in the creation of man, not of animals, even though both are told to be fruitful and multiply.]

We call all the lies about ourselves "normal." But to be "without sin" is to be a "NORMAL human being." The Virgin Mary was normal. We're not. Why do we love JP2G so much? Because he was an ordinary human being. That's who the saints are: normal or approaching normalcy: "ordinary" human beings.

Original innocence is gone forever, but we have to reach back and regain some of the vision. Jesus has us look back and then takes us FORWARD to our destiny, a greater destiny than if we hadn't fallen.

The redemption of the person will come through the redemption of the body! Jesus took on our body and took it with Him to heaven. Through our bodies we fell, through our bodies we will be redeemed and enthroned in heaven. The body IS the person in that the BODY REVEALS THE PERSON.  Even our will chooses through our bodies. TOB could really be called the "theology of the human person." Our mind/will only exists because our body exists!! We can't SEE anything but our bodies!

We are one person. Whatever we do with our spirit we do with our bodies. Whatever we do with our bodies we do with our spirits. Our whole person acts. Now we can understand Catholic moral teaching.  "The one flesh union" (Christians shouldn't say "sex" because "sex" simply means "gender") says: "I give myself to you totally and I receive you totally." Follow the language of the body in honesty and you'll be happy. If we don't know who we are or what it means to be human, we'll really hurt ourselves and each other. If you don't know how to be human, listen to your body.

[If we just say the body speaks the language of "love," we don't know what "love" means any more, so we say "gift," etc., words which we still understand properly.]

"Everything depends on who he will be for her and who she will be for him." JP2G

[online comment: "We shouldn't say: 'you belong to me,' but rather 'I belong to you.'"]

[We can ask: who are we as humans? But immediately gender enters in because there are two ways to be a body, male and female, so we HAVE to say: what does it mean to be a woman or man, not just a generic "human"? We are trained to think that if something is DIFFERENT, than one is superior to the other. One has to be against the other. But this is the DYAMICS OF SIN. In TOB, ALL DIFFERENCES ARE A CALL TO COMMUNION. Can you see the implications this can have for relations among nations, racism, etc.??? Very important to understand about TOB: differences do not mean unequal, just different.]

[online comment: "If TOB was lived, there would be no conflict/competition becuz we don't compete with ourselves" (or shouldn't). Scripture tells men to "Love your wives as you love your own body"—and the same applies to wives loving their husbands. Scripture goes on to say: "No one hates their own body." ]

Gender is purposeful—right in the same breath with "image and likeness" of God. Gender is purposeful, not a preference.

A woman's body says what we must ALL do: "open yourself to God's love, receive God's love!"  [As Jesus received and gave back the love of the Father that IS the Holy Spirit.]
Woman is the archetype for the whole human race [because we are all "feminine" before God in the sense that we can only receive from God, we can't give Him anything.  So to answer an online comment that brought up the Aristotle/Aquinas gaffe: "Women are misbegotten males"—the truth is, science has shown us that the exact opposite is true: we're all female first and then males are differentiated. However, no antagonism of the sexes allowed in TOB!!! Women, who have historically been oppressed by men, are rightfully suspicious of anything that seems to be belittling them or stereotyping them. But trust me, that's not what TOB is doing. Just the opposite. And TOB is not about putting women on the proverbial pedestal, either. It's about reality. Being who we really are, and men being who they really are, and treating one another with the utmost respect and dignity that we all deserve. We just haven't heard anything like TOB before. In many respects it is NEW. We have only been given the extremes: woman as virgin or whore, china doll or seductress. Stick with TOB, girls, you'll see!!]

A man's body says: "be active in loving"—give love, externality, energy, man moves out to work on his environment. It reflects the initiating love of God the Father who makes the first move toward His beloved.

[This is not to say that woman is ONLY passive and man is ONLY active. Obviously this isn't so, but as we can plainly see from the design of our bodies, men and women love differently. Equally but differently.]

It is a reciprocal circuit of love.

Our bodies reveal God differently. A woman's body reveals something about God that a man's doesn't and vice versa.

[JPII cracked the code of Creation! It's all about mutuality. The pattern is everywhere in Creation. There can be no yin without the yang. The yin doesn't make sense without the yang. Each one is FOR the other, not against the other.]

The language of liturgy is conjugal. Conjugality in a sense is also liturgical. "Take, this is my body, given up for you." Isn't this the language of marriage?

[Highly recommended book from blogger, Dawn Eden: "The Thrill of the Chaste." She was living the NYC "Sex and the City" lifestyle to the hilt and describes exactly the lies that her mind and spirit were experiencing (definitely did not bring happiness). After converting to Christianity, she began listening to the real language of her body and her true desires. This is a very "subjective," "experiential" book. She mentions TOB, also!]

 

If you want to understand Creation, understand man who is the apex of Creation.

[Some online questions came up regarding whether or not the BODY is made in the image of God also. ANSWER: Affirmative!! See CCC #364 and #1004. We are ONE person, so ALL of us is made in the image of God, the Son now has a body forever, and we are temples of the Holy Spirit. Folks were also wondering what TOB means for celibates—that's coming! You could always jump ahead to the whole section on celibacy in TOB. The short answer is that we're all called to celibacy and we're all called to marriage. Hint: it's all about union. Also, someone asked if Father is married. No, but he comes from a line of married priests.]

NEXT MONTH: BACK TO 2^ND WEDNESDAY!  ASSIGNMENT: READ TO PAGE 178. We'll have prepared QUESTIONS to help with the first half hour of sharing.

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God bless!