The Theology of the Body

An
An Introduction to
THE THEOLOGY
of the BODY

of POPE ST. JOHN PAUL II

The Anastasis

RESOURCES::

Online Summary / Introd. by Fr. Hogan (.DOC): https://www.nfpoutreach.org/47/

Man and Woman He Created Them, Pope St John Paul II, tr. M. Waldstein (Pauline Books, 2007) 0-8198-7421-3

The Theology of the Body, Pope St John Paul II, (Pauline Books, 1997) 0-8198-7394-2

1. WHAT ARE WE FOR?
“Ordinatio”
Direction; Purpose

POPE Saint John Paul believed that in order to understand the significance of the body and of human sexuality we must look to God’s intended purpose for us, which the Catechism calls our ordinatio, our “goal” or “direction”.

PAPAL CATECHESES / Male and Female He Created Them

1.2. Analysis of the Biblical Account of Creation (Sept. 12, '79) Man NOT reducible to world

1.3. The Second Account of Creation: The Subjective Definition of Man (Sept. 19, 1979) Original Integrity

CATECHISM of the CATHOLIC CHURCH

§ 376 PRIMORDIAL ORIGINAL JUSTICE;

§ 377 PRIMORDIAL “ORDINATIO” - GOAL, DIRECTION

2. SOLITUDE
and COMMUNITY
Original Nakedness
Stewardship of Creation

POPE Saint John Paul described an “original solitude” and “original nakedness” that leads to self-knowledge and awareness that we are stewards of creation, that is of our bodies and of the world around us.

PAPAL CATECHESES / Male and Female He Created Them

1.5. The Meaning of Man’s Original Solitude (October 10, 1979)

1.7. The Alternative between Death and Immortality [...] (October 31, 1979)

CATECHISM of the CATHOLIC CHURCH

§ 358 PRIESTLY OFFERING of CREATION BACK to GOD

§ 378 PERFECTING CREATION

3. THE GIFT of SELF
Communion of Persons
Becoming The Image of God

Durer, The Blessed Trinity. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

HUMAN beings have the capacity to imitate God by making of themselves a gift to each other and to God. Thus they become more clearly the Image of God and consecrate creation.

PAPAL CATECHESES / Male and Female He Created Them

1.15. The Human Person Becomes a Gift in the Freedom of Love (January 16, 1980)

1.9. By the Communion of Persons Man Becomes the Image of God (November 14, 1979)

CATECHISM of the CATHOLIC CHURCH

§ 355 FRIENDSHIP and the IMAGE of GOD

§ 356 THE GIFT of SELF and COMMUNION with PERSONS

§ 357 PRIESTLY OFFERING of CREATION BACK to GOD

§ 372 MAN and WOMAN as A COMMUNION of PERSONS (Bl.Trinity)

4. THE LANGUAGE
of
THE BODY

POPE Saint John Paul emphasized that our bodies speak in a clear language, often conveying truths different from what we say in words. In intimate relationships, whatever we may say in words, the language of the body is “heard” by the other.

PAPAL CATECHESES / Male and Female He Created Them

2.19.5. [105]. The Body Speaks the Language of Gift (October 10, 1979)

2.19.7. We are not the Author of the Language the Body speaks [...] (October 31, 1979)

5. OUR ETERNAL
DESTINY
Theosis;
Divinization

Apse, St. Kathharine's Monastery, Sinai

BOTH the Theology of the Body and the Catechism urge Catholics to recover the ancient language of theosis / “deification” / “divinization” to describe our destiny of eternal life with God and the saints in heaven.

PAPAL CATECHESES / Male and Female He Created Them

1.67.3. Participation in the Divine Nature (Dec. 9, 1981)

1.67.4. The Vision of God Face-to-Face (Dec. 9, 1981)

1.67.5. Eschatological Nuptial Meaning of the Body (Dec. 9, 1981)

1.68.3. Divinizing Reciprocal Gift of Self to God Fulfills Eschatological Nuptial Meaning of Body (Dec. 16, 1981)

1.71.5. Perpetual Eschatological Virginity and Intersubjectivity (Feb. 5, 1982)

CATECHISM of the CATHOLIC CHURCH

§ 460 (Incarnation) ; 1998; 1999 (Grace and Justification); 398 (Original Sin)

from the_
CATECHISM of the CATHOLIC CHURCH

I,3,I,1. on The Creed: Was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and was born of the Virgin Mary. Question: “why did the Word become flesh?” [457: to save us; 458: so that we might know God’s love; 459: to be our model of holiness]

460 The Word became flesh to make us “partakers of the divine nature”: (2 Pet 1:4) “For this is why the Word became man, ^{[1265, 1391]}and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God.” (St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 3, 19, 1: PG 7/1.939) “For the Son of God became man so that we might BECOME GOD.”(St. Athanasius, De inc., 54, 3: PG 25, 192B) ^[1988] “The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might MAKE HUMAN [beings] GODS.” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Opusc. 57: 1-4).

460 Verbum caro factum est ut nos efficeret « divinae consortes naturae » (2 Pe 1,4): « Propter hoc Verbum Dei homo, et qui Filius Dei est Filius hominis factus est, ut homo, commixtus Verbo Dei et adoptionem percipiens, fiat filius Dei ».84 « Ipse siquidem homo factus est, ut nos dii efficeremur ».85 « Unigenitus [...] Dei Filius, Suae divinitatis volens nos esse participes, naturam nostram assumpsit, ut homines deos faceret factus homo »

III,2,1: Grace and Justification: [on justification]:

1988 Through the power of the Holy Spirit we take part in Christ's Passion by dying to sin, and in his Resurrection by being born to a new life; we are members of his Body which is the Church, ^[654]branches grafted onto the vine which is himself:(Cf. 1 Cor 12; Jn 15:1-4)

[God] gave himself to us through his Spirit. By the participation of the Spirit, we become communicants in the divine ^[460] nature [...] For this reason, THOSE IN WHOM THE SPIRIT DWELLS ARE DIVINIZED.(St. Athanasius, Ep. Serap. 1, 24: PG 26.585 & 588)

1988 Per Spiritus Sancti potentiam, passionem participamus Christi, peccato morientes, et Eius Resurrectionem, nascentes ad vitam novam; membra sumus Eius corporis quod est Ecclesia, palmites inserti Viti quae Ipse est:

« Per Spiritum Dei participes dicimur. [...] Spiritus communicatione divinae naturae consortes efficimur [...]. Nec enim alia de causa, hi in quibus Ille est, deificantur ».

1999 The grace of Christ is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it. It is the SANCTIFYING or DEIFYING grace received in Baptism. ^[1966] It is in us the source of the work of sanctification: (Cf. Jn 4:14; 7:38-39) Therefore if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself.(2 Cor 5:17-18).

1999 Christi gratia donum est gratuitum, quod Deus nobis praebet, vitae Eius per Spiritum Sanctum in animam nostram infusae ad eidem medendum a peccato eamque sanctificandam: illa est gratia sanctificans seu deificans, in Baptismo recepta. Ipsa est in nobis operis sanctificationis fons: « Si quis ergo in Christo nova creatura; vetera transierunt, ecce, facta sunt nova. Omnia autem ex Deo, qui reconciliavit nos Sibi per Christum » (2 Cor 5,17-18)

398 In that sin the human being preferred himself to God and by that very act scorned him. He chose himself over and against God, against the requirements of his creaturely status and therefore against his own good.	398 In hoc peccato, homo se ipsum praefert Deo, et eo ipso Deum contemnit: electionem sui ipsius contra Deum fecit, contra exigentias sui status creaturae et exinde contra suum proprium bonum.
Constituted in a state of holiness, the human being was destined to be fully “divinized” by God in glory.	Homo, constitutus in statu sanctitatis, destinabatur ut plene esset a Deo in gloria « deificatus ».
Seduced by the devil, he wanted to “be like God”, but “without God, before God, and not in accordance with God” (St. Maximus the Confessor, Ambigua: PG 91,1156C; cf. Gen 3:5).	Per Diaboli seductionem, voluit « sicut Deus esse »,sed « extra Deum, et prae Deo, et non secundum Deum ».

CONTEMPLATIVE EXEGESIS
of SACRED SCRIPTURE
and of THE SELF

St. Jerome, Teaching

THE art of contemplative exegesis, also called allegorical interpretation, seeks to uncover beneath the literal/historical sense of the sacred text deeper levels of meaning, including: a moral or ethical imperative; an allegorical or christological sense, and an anagogical or heavenly/eschatological level in which time and space are transcended in the presence of the God Who is the Eternal Now.

SKILL in this textual art enables the practitioner to look up from the Sacred Text and apply this technique to the perception of and interaction with other human beings. Both the innermost self and the neighbor can thus increasingly bee seen as bearing the Divine Image.

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