2. What in the world?
◦ Theos = God, Logos = study
◦ Theology of the Body = ?
◦ 129 Wednesday audiences by Pope John Paul II, 1979-1984
◦ Two fundamental questions!
◦ For what areas of life could this have implications?
3. Love? Or lust?
◦What movies, famous news stories, or books have
examples of love? Be specific.
◦What movies, etc. claim to be telling a love story but
are only showing lust?
◦What is love? Write a definition.
◦What is lust? Write a definition.
4. Love? Or lust?
◦ "Our sexuality is a gift through which we can choose to be generous
or selfish."
◦ Love is being generous – love is an action – seeking the good of the
other and giving that to them
◦ Lust is selfish – the lusting person is seeking his own satisfaction
only. Lust is separate from the love of God… How?
◦ A disordered desire for or inordinate enjoyment of sexual pleasure.
◦ Our sexuality is a good thing. Our desire to be united with another
person intimately is a good thing! But because of sin, this desire or
how we live it out gets twisted into something it wasn't meant to be
and isn’t good for us.
5. For God so loved the world…
◦2 Creation stories…
◦Genesis 1:25 – characteristics of the creation of
man
6. In the image and likeness of God
◦CCC 221
◦The family – the Union of a man and woman in love
and the ability to create new life – is a concrete
participation in the love of God.
◦It is living in the image and likeness of God.
◦God is Trinity – God is communion
7. From TOB
◦"The body, in fact, and it alone is capable of making
visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine. It
was created to transfer into the visible reality of the
world the mystery [of God]… and thus to be a sign of
it."
8. The sacramentality of the body
◦What is a sacrament?
◦What does the phrase "sacramentality of the
body" mean?
9. The sacramentality of the body
◦The call to love – to life-giving union and communion
with another – is stamped on our bodies.
◦In our bodies we have a way of giving to another and
of receiving life-giving love… We are made in the
image and likeness of God!
10. The sacramentality of the body
◦Our bodies are signs of God's existence, His love for us, and
our call to love others.
◦ "Now I see dimly, as in a mirror, but then face to face."
◦Our experiences of love here on earth point to the even greater
love that God has for us and that we will one day experience in
its fullness in heaven.
◦Our experiences of Union and communion here on earth
foreshadow the amazing Union and communion that we will
have with God in heaven.
12. The Second Creation Account
◦Genesis 2
◦Characteristics of man and woman’s relationship?
13. The Original Experiences
◦Original Solitude
◦Original Nakedness
◦Vs. shamelessness
◦Original Unity
◦Nuptial Meaning of the Body
◦Original Happiness
Define each term.
Do we experience
any of these today?
Or an echo of them?
If so, how. If not, why
not?
14. From Pope John Paul II
◦“Only true love… is capable of absorbing shame….
True love is a love in which sexual values are
subordinate to the value of the person.”
◦Explain the meaning of this quote.
15. ◦In the Garden, in the beginning, Adam and Eve’s love
mirrored God’s love. In other words, it was:
FREE
TOTAL
FAITHFUL
FRUITFUL
16. Genesis 3 – The Fall
◦The beginning of “historical man”
◦Who is historical man?
17. God (the Father) is dead – says Original
Sin
◦ “Original sin is not only the violation of a positive
command … but … attempts … to abolish fatherhood,
destroying its rays which permeate the created world,
placing in doubt the truth about God who is Love and
leaving man with only a sense of the master-slave
relationship.” - Pope John Paul II
18. Got shame?
◦“Pope John Paul II tells us that only true love is
capable of absorbing shame. This means that shame
is ‘swallowed up by love, dissolved in it, so that the
man and woman are no longer ashamed’ of sharing
themselves and their sexuality with each other.”
19. St. Augustine’s Confessions
◦Written approx. 397 AD
◦The first Western autobiography
◦Chronicles the conversion story of
this saint from Manichaeism to
Christianity and from a life of worldly
passions to virtue
23. ◦St. Irenaeus – “man is rational and therefore
like God; he is created with free will and is
master over his acts.”
24. Lessons of Redemption
◦Jesus did not die on the cross so you could just
cope.
◦He died to give you real freedom, and the
power of His cross can break every bond.
◦What does this mean practically?
◦It is possible to overcome sexual addiction, and not
to “just deal with it” your whole life.
◦It is possible to live a chaste life and not have sex
until marriage.
26. You’ve been redeemed. Act like it!
◦The practicals: how to live a chaste life?
◦1) don’t cohabitate (before marriage)
◦Why? The stats say so.
◦Cohabitation has been seen as a “test drive” before
marriage, but it has not been effective.
◦The number of couples who cohabitate has risen 1000%
since 1980, but the marriage rate has dropped 40&
since 1960.
27. Cohabitation, cont’d
◦Divorce rates are 80% higher among cohabitating couples.
◦Couples who cohabitate before marriage generally cite a
lower quality of marriage and increased risk of divorce than
couples who do not cohabitate before marriage.
◦Less than half of cohabitations last over 5 years. The typical
cohabitating relationship lasts 18 months.
◦The mindset – I can leave when it gets bad – carries into
marriage.
28. The practicals, cont’d
◦2) Avoid situations of temptation.
◦3) Watch your eyes – the eyes are the window to the
soul
◦4) Confession
29. Redemption now and forever
◦Define resurrection of the body-
◦glorified bodies -
◦eschatological man -
30. Marriage
◦The Gospel of the family spans the history of
the world, from the creation of man and woman
in the image and likeness of God (cf. Gen 1:26-
27), to the fulfilment of the mystery of the
covenant in Christ at the end of time with the
marriage of the Lamb (cf. Rev 19:9)”.
31. Marriage “bookends” of the Bible
◦Genesis 2: 22-25
◦Revelation 19: 6-9
◦Sunday’s reading – Rev 21:1-5
32. Marriage within the Bible
◦Explain the metaphor of marriage or marital love in the
Scripture passage.
◦Isaiah 43: 1-4
◦Isaiah 49: 15-20
◦Matthew 22: 1-14
◦John 14: 1-3
33. “Beloved” by 10th Avenue North
◦ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOaWb7AIVVc
34. God’s Plan
◦God desires to “marry us” – to bring us into an
intimate life-giving relationship with Him which
culminates in Heaven.
◦This time on earth is the engagement, or
marriage preparation.
◦Are we forming hearts that will be happy to be
united with Him forever?
35. Nuptial Meaning of the Body
◦In this light, the nuptial meaning of the body
takes on new meaning.
◦A reminder of the heavenly marriage we are
called to…
◦A reminder that sex is not the ultimate fulfillment.
It is a sign pointing to a greater reality.
36. Homework: Some Review with Pope
Francis
◦ Read Pope Francis’ latest apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia,
paragraph numbers 8-22.
◦ How does he explain sacramentality of the body?
◦ The purpose of the family?
◦ Jesus’ understanding of the struggles of the family?
◦ Answer in 2-3 sentences per question in your notebook. Due Tuesday,
4/26
37. Homework
◦ P. 60 #4-6, p. 61 #1-2
◦ What is the communion of saints?
◦ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb1M37mQuIs
◦
38. Heavenly Roadtrip
◦Sex and marriage are signs pointing us to and
reminding us of the total life-giving union we will have
with Christ in heaven.
◦Sex, in the sense of gender, does remain in heaven.
39. Prayer with Pope Francis
◦We must " make present the fragrance of Christ's
closeness and his personal gaze. The Church will
have to initiate everyone — priests, religious and laity
— into this 'art of accompaniment,' which teaches us
to remove our sandals before the sacred ground of
the other" (Joy of the Gospel 169).
40. Dancing in the Minefields
◦ Themes of TOB?
◦ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-iMAaG20uE
41. MYSTERY OF THE BODY'S
REDEMPTION
General Audience, July 21, 1982
◦ Read #5-8
◦ How does JPII address the “real struggles” of marriage?
◦ How does he present celibate life (voluntary continence)?
◦ http://www.piercedhearts.org/jpii/theology_body_audiences/ju
ly_21_1982.htm
42. Celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom
SIGNS
◦Marriage foreshadows the union with God in heaven
◦Celibacy reminds us, by abstaining from marriage,
that union with God in heaven is the ultimate reality.
Marriage is not the “final destination”.
◦Celibates begin to live, in a very real way, a more
intimate spousal union with God here on earth.
