Naked Without Shame: God, Sex, and the Meaning of Life
By Christopher West
God is teaching us through our sexuality … and sex won’t make sense unless
we listen.
Catholic Channel - Christianity.com -
The best way for us to find true meaning for ourselves is to learn from
our origins. That means learning from
God-and learning from sexuality, because God and sexuality are closely
connected in our origins.
Christopher West explains how we need to understand this connection in
order to understand our sexuality,
our whole being, and our relationship with God.
2.
Naked Without Shame: The Scandal of the Body
By Christopher West
Catholicism is founded on the Incarnation—which means that through our
bodies we encounter
God.
Catholic Channel - Christianity.com -
The Scriptures, and the teaching of Pope John Paul II, are full of evidence
that our bodies are not evil—rather
they are the very means by which we encounter the living God. Catholicism
is founded on the Incarnation of
the Son of God—he became flesh, taking on a body like ours, that we might
“become partakers of his divine
nature.” Christopher West explores this truth that is perhaps so contrary
to our customary view of the body,
with a focus on the interpersonal communion that our bodies—and God himself—call
us to.
Naked Without Shame is a regularly featured column exploring the meaning
of sexuality, life, and the Christian mystery through John
Paul’s Theology of the Body. The Scandal of the Body is the second in a
series of articles devoted to this topic.
The Scandal of the Body
In the last column we spoke of the Holy Father’s statement that the human
body and it alone is capable of making God’s mystery
visible. This is difficult for many people to swallow. How could
something so “earthy” be meant to reveal something so heavenly?
Let’s not forget that central to our faith is the stunning belief in the
embodiment of God: the Word made flesh (see Jn 1:14).
According to Christ, this is something we must swallow—quite literally—if
we are ever to have life in us (see Jn 6:53).
Thus, it shouldn’t strike us as odd that John Paul II speaks of a theology
of the body. As he puts it: “Through the fact that the Word
of God became flesh, the body entered theology ... through the main door”
(General Audience April 2, 1980).
God is invisible, intangible. Yet St. John can proclaim that it’s that
“which we have heard,” that “which we have seen with our eyes,”
that “which we have touched with our hands” that we proclaim to you concerning
the word of life. And that life was made visible
(see 1 Jn 1-3). How? Through Christ’s human body.
Living a spiritual life does not mean we eschew the body. We must resist
this ever-present temptation with utter determination. For
the spirit that denies “Christ come in the flesh” is that of the anti-Christ
(see 1 Jn 4:2-3).
A Sensual Religion
Far from eschewing the body, Catholicism is a very physical, sensual—dare
I say sexual—religion—much more so than some
kinds of piety might wish it to be. Indeed, when the real richness of Catholic
ceremonies, symbols, and sacraments is unveiled, it
often scandalizes people.
For instance, have you ever noticed the symbolism of the blessing of the
baptismal waters at the Easter Vigil? As one priest I’ve
read about describes it, “Oh, that erotic rite!” Here, at the highlight
of the most solemn liturgy of the year, the Easter candle is
plunged in and out of the baptismal font as a symbol of Christ impregnating
the womb of the Church from which many children will
be “born again.” I’m not making this up!
In fact, Catholicism sees the whole relationship between God and Man in
quasi-sexual terms. John Paul II describes the
Eucharist as “the sacrament of the Bridegroom and the Bride” (Mulieris
Dignitatem, n. 26). This “one flesh” communion of a
husband and wife (Christ and the Church) lies at the heart of our belief
and worship. It’s the source and summit of our faith.
Furthermore, our creed is full of references to begetting, conception,
and birth. The Scriptures, the liturgy, and the Hail Mary honor
and praise “the womb that bore you and the breasts that you sucked” (Lk
11:27).
And ponder the fact that it’s through sensual, bodily realties (the sacraments)
that we receive divine life: bathing the body with
water; anointing the body with oil; laying on of hands; confessing with
our lips; eating and drinking the body and blood of Christ;
and, yes, the “one flesh” union of husband and wife.
The point here is that it’s not through some super-spiritual reality that
we encounter God, but through the material world.
Paraphrasing John Paul II: Through the Incarnation, matter becomes fully
capable of putting us in touch with the Father.
Christianity does not reject matter. In Christ, the body is considered
in all its value. The body, through the mystery of the cross, is in
the process of transfiguration, spiritualization (see Light of the East,
n. 11).
Nuptial Reality
This means that the body is being divinized (being made divine). As the
priest prays in the Liturgy of the Eucharist: “By the mystery
of this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ,
who humbled Himself to share in our humanity.”
Oh glorious exchange! Oh wondrous nuptials! Through the Incarnation, Christ
has wed Himself to our humanity so that we might
be wed to His divinity. And we consummate this marriage, where else? In
the Eucharist.
According to John Paul II, Christ has given us the gift of His body in
the Eucharist so that we might understand the relationship
between man and woman—our complementary differences and our call to communion.
This relationship “is willed by God in both
the mystery of creation and in the mystery of Redemption” (Mulieris Dignitatem,
n. 26).
This means that all reality has a “nuptial character.” This means that
in this visible world ultimate reality is revealed through the
meaning of masculinity and femininity and our call to become “one flesh.”
This means we can’t understand Christianity without
understanding the meaning of our bodies, the meaning of our sexuality.
The theology of the body is not a matter of sexualizing Christianity. Nor
is it a matter of Christianizing sexuality. It’s simply a matter
of reflecting on our bodies as God created them to be—as signs that reveal
his presence—and learning to read that “language of
the body” in truth.
Adam and Eve knew and lived the truth of their bodies “in the beginning.”
Thus, they beheld one another naked without shame
(see Gen 2:25). This is what we, too, are called to in Christ. Yes, there’s
real power in Christ to behold, understand, and
experience the body as God created it to be.
Yet why do we find it so terribly difficult and uncomfortable to venture
behind the fig leaves?
To be continued …
3.
Naked Without Shame: The Great Divorce
By Christopher West
As human beings we are neither angels nor merely animals—we’re “body-persons.”
Catholic Channel - Christianity.com -
Have you ever heard of an “angimal”? How about an “angelist—or an “animalist”?
Find out who these
strange creatures are as Christopher West continues his exploration of
Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the
Body. We have all experienced, in more ways than we can count, the effects
of the “great divorce” between
spirit and matter—called dualism—that is traceable to man’s fall in Eden.
The Pope seeks to heal this rift
through his unique approach to the human body; an important first step
in this healing is a clear view of the
problem.
Naked Without Shame is a regularly featured column exploring the meaning
of sexuality, life, and the Christian mystery through John
Paul’s Theology of the Body. The Great Divorce is the third in a series
of articles devoted to this topic.
We continue laying a foundation before we explore John Paul II’s theology
of the body directly in future columns.
“In the beginning” Adam and Eve experienced their bodies as the revelation
of God’s mystery, His mystery of love. They knew they
were called to share in this love by becoming “one flesh.” At the
sight of each other’s nakedness, this was all they desired, to love
as God loves. This is why they had no need of fig leaves, initially.
Subsequent columns will penetrate the reality of original sin in some depth.
Indeed, John Paul offers many original insights on
the matter. Still, before this column continues, it’s important for
us to understand why it’s so difficult for us to accurately read the
language of the body.
Estranged Spouses
We’ve all experienced a “great divorce” within us due to original sin.
It’s a rift so common to human experience, that we tend to
take it entirely for granted. Tragically, under the influence of
a black deception, some people even try to shore up this divorce in the
name of following Christ, when in reality Christ came into the world to
heal this rift.
We’re talking about the divorce between soul and body, spirit and matter.
This “dualism” is caused by the divorce between God
and Man, heaven and earth, and it manifests itself most fundamentally in
the rift between man and woman.
God’s plan is union, communion, marriage. This brings life.
Satan’s goal is separation, fracture, divorce. This brings death.
A
fallen world is a world of estranged spouses: estrangement between divinity
and humanity; masculinity and femininity; spirituality
and sexuality. When such estrangement becomes embedded in the fabric
of society, that society can be nothing but a “culture of
death.”
Split Personality
Human beings are unique in all of creation. We’re the only persons
manifested through the material world, through a body. We’re
similar to both angels and animals, but remarkably different as well.
Angels are persons, but they’re not bodies. Animals are bodies, but
they’re not persons. Human beings, however, are a strange
combination of the two. We’re body-persons. You might call
us “angimals.” (This is not a term of the pope, mind you, just
something I use to help us understand this important point).
But ever since original sin, we’ve suffered with a severe case of split
personality. Without reintegration in Christ, people inevitably
lean towards one side of the divide or the other, towards what I call “angelism”
or “animalism.”
The angelist is the person who—for lack of integration between the two—lives
a “spiritual” life divorced from the body. The
animalist is the person who—for lack of integration between the two—lives
a “bodily” life divorced from the spirit.
The angelist, because he eschews the body, tends towards a puritanical
and prudish approach to sexual matters. He represses
sexual feelings and desire. He lives as though sex is inherently
“bad” or “dirty.” Far too many Christians throughout history have
fallen prey to this distortion. Even today, many people make the
calamitous mistake of calling this “holiness.”
The animalist, on other hand, is a materialist. His understanding
of the body and sexual matters is not informed by the spiritual
dignity of Man. He indulges his fallen sexual impulse without restraint.
He is indecent, shameless. All we need do is turn on the
TV or walk through the check-out line at a grocery store to see how prevalent
this distortion has become.
Finding Balance
Human history has tended to oscillate between these two extremes.
The twentieth century, for example, began with a Victorian
prudishness in which the sight of a woman’s ankle caused scandal.
Yet, it ended with a degenerate indulgence that has
“normalized” even the most base sexual perversions.
The goal now is not to return to the Victorian approach. That is
not healthy. In some ways the sexual revolution is understandable
as a knee-jerk reaction to such prudishness. But it obviously erred
as well by swinging the pendulum to the other extreme.
The goal is to bring the pendulum to the center. The goal is to find
balance. The goal is to rediscover God’s original plan for our
sexuality through the reintegration of body and soul, sexuality and spirituality.
This is the great gift of John Paul II’s theology of the body. With
unprecedented clarity and insight, the Holy Father takes us behind
the fig leaves to rediscover God’s original plan for our sexuality, and
he paves the way for us to realize it in Jesus Christ. Let’s pray:
Come Holy Spirit of truth. Give us the eyes to see the mystery of
God revealed through our bodies. Give us the
grace to confront the lies we have believed, the lies that have lodged
in our hearts that make it so difficult for us to
love, accept, and understand our bodies as you created them to be.
Dislodge these lies from our hearts that we might
behold the body of Christ naked and without shame. For therein— in
Christ’s naked body given up for us— the truth is
told and Satan’s lies defeated. Therein we discover the redemption
of our own bodies. Let it be, Lord, according to
your Word. Amen.
To be continued …
4.
Naked Without Shame is a regularly featured column exploring the meaning
of sexuality, life, and the Christian mystery through John
Paul’s Theology of the Body. Epiphany of the Body is the fourth in a series
of articles devoted to this topic.
Because of the “great divorce” of soul and body, spirituality and sexuality
of which we spoke last week, we all have blurred vision
when it comes to reading the language of the body.
We know the body says something, something we all have a deep hunger to
know, understand, and experience. But we’re in need
of an epiphany.
I recently had an experience that brought this home. There’s a beautiful
old chapel in Denver that I frequent. There’s just
something about it. That “something” came alive for me recently when I
overheard a tour guide explaining the rich symbolism of
the architecture.
Not a single detail is arbitrary. It all has a meaning. The architect had
designed this chapel in the very lines and curves of its bricks
and mortar to proclaim the mystery of Christ.
I knew there was something I had been drawn to all along. I just didn’t
know what it was. I needed to have someone who
understood the chapel’s meaning explain it to me. When he did, it was like
putting on a new pair of glasses. When he did …
epiphany!
Similarly, we’re all drawn to the naked body. We’re deeply stirred by the
mystery of its masculine and feminine beauty. This is
something even “angelists” (see last week’s column) must admit.
The analogy I’m making with the chapel is more profound than you first
might think. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (see
1 Cor 6:19). And the divine Architect designed our bodies in the very lines
and curves of our flesh and bones to proclaim the
mystery of Christ.
Sin has blurred our vision. We need glasses to see this. The Pope’s theology
of the body provides the frames. Christ Himself the
lenses. When we put these glasses on … epiphany!
Healing the Rift
Much emphasis is placed on the first sentence of the first encyclical of
a new pope. In some sense, it’s seen as his first “official”
proclamation to the Church and the world and tends to set the course of
his pontificate.
John Paul II’s first sentence of his first encyclical is revealing: “The
Redeemer of Man, Jesus Christ, is the center of the universe
and of history” (Redemptor Hominis, n. 1).
We simply cannot understand the meaning of the universe, the meaning of
history, the meaning of our humanity without the Word
made flesh. It’s Christ who fully reveals man to Himself and makes His
supreme calling clear (see Gaudium et Spes, n. 22). This
statement of the Second Vatican Council is John Paul’s anthem.
Through the very dynamism of the Incarnation, Christ heals the rift in
us caused by original sin. The Word made flesh is the
reconciliation of the “great divorce” between God and Man, heaven and earth,
soul and body, spirituality and sexuality, man and
woman.
If we seek an epiphany with regard to our bodies, it’s impossible without
the Epiphany of Christ as “the center of the universe and
of history.” It’s precisely this radical “Christo-centrism” that enables
John Paul to shed new light on the Church’s understanding of
sexuality.
The Historical Context
The Holy Spirit tends to grant the Church what she needs when she needs
it. Never before has there been such a great need to
defend the dignity of the body and the meaning of sexuality. It’s no exaggeration
to say that the task of the twentieth century was to
rid itself of the Christian sexual ethic.
Inadequate, legalistic formulations of moral theology, coupled with the
disparaging treatment of sexual matters by various historic
Christian authors made it all too easy for an “enlightened” world to reject
the Church’s teaching. Disparate world-views met in a
cataclysmic collision when Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae (which
reaffirmed the Church’s constant teaching on the
immorality of contraception) fell like a bomb on the Church in 1968.
John Paul II saw the need for a new discussion. He understood that the
Church’s teaching in Humanae Vitae is no “side issue.”
Just two and a half months before taking the chair of Peter, on the tenth
anniversary of Pope Paul’s encyclical, he had proclaimed
that the issue of contraception is a “struggle for the value and meaning
of humanity itself” (Lateranum 44, 1978).
Sound exaggerated? Stay tuned to this column. When we put on the Christocentric
glasses of John Paul’s catechesis on the body
… epiphany!
To be continued …
5.
Naked Without Shame: Karol Wojtyla's Cure for Cancer
By Christopher West
What if we could find a cure for a sickness that affects the whole world?
Catholic Channel - Christianity.com -
From everyday unkindness to shocking atrocities, human beings often seem
to be diseased in the way they
treat each other. At the same time, it appears almost impossible for us
to solve these problems, or even find
the roots of all the problems. John Paul II tells us that not only is this
possible, but there is really one root,
and one surprising cure: learning and living the truth of our sexuality.
Naked Without Shame is a regularly featured column exploring the meaning
of sexuality, life, and the Christian mystery through John
Paul’s Theology of the Body. Karol Wojtyla’s Cure for Cancer is the fifth
in a series of articles devoted to this topic.
It’s often the case that men and women who have seen a loved one die of
cancer, or who have suffered with it themselves, become
the most outspoken advocates of research for a cure. They might even devote
their own lives to the medical sciences with the explicit
goal of sparing others from what they experienced themselves.
Karol Wojtyla is just such a man. He experienced first-hand the deepest
horrors of a century riddled with a most vile “cancer.” His
beloved Poland was invaded by the Nazis when he was nineteen. Death was
all around him. The stench of the burning bodies of his
friends and countrymen hovered in the air from nearby Auschwitz. He would
have been sent there, too, or shot on the spot, had his
clandestine seminary studies been discovered.
Six years later, when the Red Army left Poland, in marched another totalitarian
power. As a young man Wojtyla mounted a cultural
resistance to Communism that would continue throughout his life as priest,
bishop, cardinal, and pontiff.
The Root of it All
John Paul II is such a champion of human life, dignity, and freedom precisely
because of the crucible of death, degradation, and
tyranny in which he was formed. The horror of his world forced him to wrestle
with God in search of answers to the hardest of life’s
questions. How? Why? What could lead Man who is bestowed with God-like
dignity to drink from the dregs of raw evil?
He was not interested in surface solutions. He wanted to go to the root
of it all. He wanted to find the first event in the chain reaction
that led humanity here. He wanted to find the cure for this heinous cancer.
But the cancer he knew so well wasn’t in the lungs or the
bones. It was in the human heart. So he devoted himself not to the medical
sciences, but the philosophical and theological.
So where, have you guessed, has his “research” led him? What, in his mind,
is the first event in the chain reaction that begets all evil
and death? It’s our rejection of God’s plan for life and love stamped in
our sexuality.
Our sexuality reveals that we’re called to image God in a life-giving communion
of love. And this “is the deepest substratum of human
ethics and culture” (General Audience, October 22, 1980). This is the root
of it all. John Paul concludes that human life, its dignity and
its balance, depends at every moment of history and at every point on the
globe on the proper ordering of love between the sexes
(see October 10, 1980).
Far from Manichaeanism
Could it really be, as John Paul notes, that all moral disorder ultimately
comes from the impurity of a lustful heart (see December 17,
1980; footnote)? This may sound far-fetched to some. But John Paul is convinced,
as he states in his 1960 book Love and
Responsibility, that confusion about sexual morality “involves a danger
perhaps greater than is generally realized: the danger of
confusing the basic and fundamental human tendencies, the main paths of
human existence. Such confusion,” he insists, “must
clearly affect the whole spiritual position of man” (p. 66).
John Paul is in no way saying that sex itself is tainted, much less that
it’s evil. This is the thinking of an ancient heresy known as
Manichaeanism. He’s saying that because human sexuality is so good and
so fundamental in God’s design, that the disorder of the
sexual relationship—which is the “first fruit” of original sin (see Gen
3:7)—leads to the disorder of all relationships.
We do not do a disservice to the Church to admit that some of her historical
thinkers have been tainted by a Manichaean
depreciation of sex. But it would be a terrible disservice to accuse John
Paul of the same. His theology of the body intentionally
combats such errors. According to papal biographer George Weigel, the theology
of the body “may prove to be the decisive moment
in exorcizing the Manichaean demon ... from Catholic moral theology” (Witness
to Hope, p. 342).
John Paul’s whole point is to show us that the disorder men and women experience
in their relationship is not the final word on our
sexuality. Behind the fig leaves lies the beauty and splendor of God’s
original plan. And, as John Paul emphatically stresses, there is
real power in Christ for us, despite our weaknesses, to live it. This is
precisely what a Manichaean approach fails to recognize.
The Fountainhead of Culture
John Paul goes so far as to say that by living according to God’s original
plan for our sexuality we fulfill the very meaning of our
being and existence (see January 16, 1980). But this means the opposite
is also true. By failing to live according to the truth of our
sexuality, we destroy ourselves.
Here’s another way to understand it. If the family is the fundamental cell
of society, then sexual union is the fountainhead of culture.
Ordered towards love and life, it builds a culture of love and life. Ordered
against love and life, sexual union builds a culture of utility
and death.
Welcome to the world in which we live. We’re riddled with cancer. John
Paul II’s theology of the body is not simply a palliative
treatment. If the world would take it to heart, our cancer would be cured.
Let it be, Lord, according to your word. Amen.
To be continued …
6.
Naked Without Shame is a regularly featured column exploring the meaning
of sexuality, life, and the Christian mystery through John
Paul’s Theology of the Body. God, Sex and the Meaning of Life is the sixth
in a series of articles devoted to this topic.
According to John Paul II, the call to nuptial love stamped in our sexuality
“is the fundamental element of human existence in the
world” (General Audience, January 16, 1980). It doesn’t get any more important
than that.
This is why the pope believes that confusion about sexual morality involves
“the danger of confusing the basic and fundamental
human tendencies, the main paths of human existence” (Love and Responsibility,
p. 66). Yes, sex is an ontological question. It
concerns the meaning of our existence. Think about it. We simply wouldn’t
be here if it weren’t for the sexual union of our parents.
Two Inseparable Mysteries
We know intuitively that by getting in touch with our origins we discover
meaning. Our ultimate origin is God, of course. But
intimately intertwined with God’s creative action in bringing us into existence
is the procreative action of sexual union.
In some sense, sexual union actually unites heaven and earth. It opens
earth’s door to God’s penetration allowing him to bring about
the most stunning event in the universe: the creation of a new human being.
Sexual union is not only the embrace of man and woman, but the embrace
of God and Man. Or, at least it’s meant to be. The problem
is we’ve kicked God out of the picture. How often have you heard the complaint
levied against the Church to “stay out of my
bedroom”? Thanks to the rift in us between spirituality and sexuality,
many people even have difficulty saying “God” and “sex” in
the same sentence.
But God and sex are two inseparable mysteries. If we want to understand
the meaning of life, we must place them not only in the same
sentence, but in the center of, well, everything. Admittedly, this crucial
God-sex-meaning of life interconnection can be difficult to see
in light of the world’s grave distortions of sex. But we mustn’t let the
lies blind us to the truth.
Look at the Ten Commandments, for example. Their first themes are respect
for God, respect for parents, respect for life, and respect
for sex. God-parents-life-sex: Understanding these in their close interrelation
is the key to the meaning of life and the proper ordering
of the universe.
And what’s the first commandment God gave the human race? Having just created
man and woman in His own image, God commands
them to “be fruitful and multiply” (Gn 1:28). Yes, the very first commandment
God gave the human race was to have sex. I’m not
making this up!
But how were they to “have sex”? According to the image in which they were
made. Sexual union is meant to mirror God’s free, total,
faithful, and fruitful love. If it does, man and woman build a culture
of life. If it doesn’t, they build a culture of death. It all begins right
here.
As John Paul II says: “It is an illusion to think we can build a true culture
of human life if we do not ... experience sexuality and love
and the whole of life according to their true meaning and their close inter-connection”
(Evangelium Vitae, n. 97).
The Bible: A Story About Marriage
John Paul’s theology of the body is a clarion call for Christians today
not to become more “spiritual,” but to become more
incarnational. This is a point that needs to be repeated: We simply cannot
understand the Christian mystery unless we understand
the mystery of our bodies, the mystery of sexuality, the mystery of marriage.
Why not? Because the Christian mystery itself is a mystery about marriage.
Yes, from beginning to end, the Bible is a story about
marriage. It begins in the book of Genesis with the marriage of Adam and
Eve, and it ends in the book of Revelation with the
“wedding of the Lamb”—the marriage of Christ and the Church.
Throughout the Old Testament, God’s love for His people is described as
the love of a husband for his bride. In the New Testament,
Christ embodies this love. He comes as the Heavenly Bridegroom to unite
Himself forever to his Bride—us.
Yes, God’s plan from all eternity is to “marry” us, to draw us into closest
communion with Himself. God wanted to reveal this eternal
plan to us in a way we couldn’t miss, so He stamped it right in our very
being as male and female.
This means everything God wants to tell us on earth about who He is, who
we are, the meaning of life, the reason He created us, how
we are to live, as well as our ultimate destiny, is contained somehow in
the truth and meaning of the body, sexuality, and marriage.
This means we have a lot to unpack as this column on John Paul II’s theology
of the body continues.
Naked Without Shame: Epiphany of the Body
By Christopher West
The human body has a beauty that is never only skin deep.
Catholic Channel - Christianity.com -
The body is attractive and beautiful to us, but perhaps we don’t think
much about why that is. Christopher
West uses an analogy with a beautiful church to explain that the attractiveness
of the body can be
understood more clearly by seeing the symbolism of the body. If we look
at the body in a Christ-centered way,
as John Paul II does, we can also see that the symbolism of the body goes
far deeper than the level of
physical beauty. In fact, understanding why we are all attracted to the
human body will help us to understand
the most profound meaning of the whole human person!
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