In a beautiful way, the Holy Father ties together the marital act of a husband and wife to the mystery of Christ’s relationship to the Church. By discovering the connection between marriage and Christ’s betrothal to his Church, the meaning of our entire life is illuminated and enriched. The “gift” of husband to wife is physically embodied within the sex act. In giving oneself completely to the other, each finds fulfillment. The union is so perfect that it is life giving. Man and women become co-creators with the Almighty in the creation of new life. The union of bodies within the marital act is meant to parallel Christ’s eternal union to the Church. The life giving union of marriage is also a reflection of the most perfect union found within the Blessed Trinity, the Holy Spirit proceeding from the reciprocal love between the Father and the Son. The beauty of the theology of the body is in its “incarnational” character. The Divine life of God is brought down to earth in Jesus Christ. In the Person of Christ, God and humanity are intimately and eternally united. Thus the most intimate and beautiful of human acts, the gift of self between husband and wife, can be directly linked to the mystery of God.
Time will tell what impact the theology of the body will have on our culture. More likely than not, after the so-called sexual revolution of the 1960s, men and women will be hungry for an understanding of sexuality worthy of their dignity as created in the image of God. As the Church has predicted, sex outside the framework of marital love or perverted via contraceptives will only lead to self-alienation and conflict between the sexes. The alternative, sex understood as a self-giving and unrestricted free act leads to self-fulfillment and a deepening of love between husband and wife.
The Creation
Hear! Hear!
ReplyDeleteLet us remember that Catholics are not Puritans and that our Church teaches sex is not good . . . its a sacrament!
But how can we help to spread the teachings? It is not every day that this topic comes up over a cup of coffee.
For a long time, many people within the Church considered sex as something taboo and were reticent on the subject. Over the years, perhaps this had a negative side-effect in terms of how religious viewed sex and subsequently taught it to the faithful. Professor Luckey has some interesting theories about the unintended consequences of treating sex as a sort of 'necessary evil'. He believes that since the time of Saint Augustine, there has been a strain of thought in certain circles of Catholicism that held sex in a negative light. Augustine was, after all, a former Manichean. The fact that we're afflicted with concupiscence as a result of Original Sin has led some to treat sexuality with fear and suspicion. As Jason said, we're not Puritans. The human body is beautiful and sex is a gift from God. It is because sex has such a high dignity, that the only worthy context for it is marriage.
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