Women for the Third Millennium

Let’s start with a prayer.

Introduction: Story of the Smile. My friend, Alyssan, just had a baby a couple of weeks ago. When I saw her holding her baby and smiling, I was reminded of the profound statement made by a theologian named VonBalthasar. He says that the first spiritual act ever for a human being is the smile. You mothers have a profound opportunity to be an integral part of that first spiritual act. You are the one who first gives the gift of yourself to your child by smiling. And what are you saying?? "It is good that you are here! And I love you." That act of smiling draws forth from your child a response—his/her acceptance of your love and his outward return of love to you—he/she smiles back, "I love you too, Mommy." Of course, the baby does not know that he/she just participated in a spiritual act, but nonetheless, he/she did.

Why is that a spiritual act? It is because, just as God initiates in the relationship He establishes with us, so, too, does the mother establish an intimate relationship with her child. And just as we are invited to accept God’s love in response—to smile, as it were, so, too, does the child smile in return, accepting and returning love. That is a spiritual act—the first one ever. How amazing it is that many of you take part in representing God’s love to your child!

I tell you this story, for it relates perfectly to the Theology of the Body, the topic on which I am to speak this morning. For those of you who like to take notes, know that my entire talk will be on line at www.tobet.org. Before I get into details, let me let you know some overall things about the TOB. For instance, Pope John Paul II says about his own work, the Theology of the Body is the "basis of the most suitable education about man" (215). In other words, we can know the most about what it means to be a human person by understanding the Pope’s Theology of the Body. Wow!! Seems quite arrogant on his part—his is the most suitable, not Aquinas anymore!! Is it arrogance or is it humility when we see things rightly, our gifts and weaknesses. The Pope also says that if we live according to the "nuptial meaning of the body," a term he coined, we fulfill the very meaning of our being and existence" (63). George Weigel, author of the biography on the Pope, says in his book Witness to Hope that Pope John Paul’s Theology of the Body is a "time bomb set to go off sometime in the 3rd Millennium!" A time bomb!! It is so dynamic and powerful, it can shatter the world! And how fitting it is that we are beginning to detonate it here—Women for the 3rd Millennium since it is set to go off this millennium. We got by the security guards, didn’t we—so let’s watch it explode before our very eyes…or rather, in our hearts!!

So, what is the Theology of the Body. The Pope did not write a book. This big book entitled the Theology of the Body is a compilation of the Pope’s Wednesday audiences which began 25 years and 13 days ago, on September 5, 1979. Do you remember what year he became Pope? Yes, 1978. I remember thinking as a 7th grader, "Wow, Popes don’t last long—John Paul I died 33 days after he took office. Why was my mom crying again?" Just think, if you were Pope and you wanted to get out the most important thing for the world, wouldn’t you do it right away. And he did. He spoke for 4 years on the TOB. Remember, I am only speaking for an hour with Q&A at the end, so this won’t be exhaustive, but it can be life-changing. When my grassroots group, TOBET—The Theology of the Body Evangelization Team—heard the Gospel given through the lens of the TOB, we were in shock! It transformed the way we thought and lived. I hope the same will be for you.

Let’s talk about what I want to cover today—one thing is something I know more about than you—sex—and I am single!! Don’t tell my mom…whoops, she’s here! J Indeed, the sacredness of the marital act will be a big part of talk, so for us singles and those who have gone through the pain of divorce, we will see how knowing about such beauty can let us know about the state of life God has us in now. You are not excluded.

What I hope to cover today are 4 main things:

1. The term The Theology of the Body
2. The meaning of life and its opposite
3. Practical applications - interspersed throughout the talk too
4. THe most important words of the universe

1. The Term TOB. There are 2 main facets of this term that the Pope coined:
   1. The human body reveals each person.
   2. The human body reveals God.

1st—the Body reveals the human person. How do you know that I am here? How do I know you are here? My body, your bodies. You hear my voice because of my body—my tongue—and your body, your ears hear me. What do you know about me so far? That I love talking about the TOB—how do you know? Because the expression on my face and the way I am speaking with my body says that if I don’t get this out to you, I will die!!

The 2nd facet of the term TOB is that the human body reveals God. How interesting! Our body can help us to know —God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—amazing! In fact, the Pope says, "The body, and it alone, makes visible the invisible realities—the spiritual and the divine" (???). IT ALONE shows us who God is in His very essence. How is that possible? Where does the Pope come up with this? From Jesus, of course. Recall the discussion that Jesus was having with the Pharisees over divorce in Matthew 19 (check the verse). Remember, they were trying to trip Jesus up, but Jesus said that divorce was allowed by Moses because of their hardness of hearts. Then he says, "In the beginning, it was not so." IN THE BEGINNING. Those words, of course, echo the very beginning of the Bible—Genesis. So based on our Lord’s words in Holy Scripture, the Pope sets out to examine what was the beginning like. He discovers it is so important that he says that if we know Genesis 1-3, we can know the meaning of life!!

The meaning of life—that is my second element I want to cover today, but remember our task here: we are trying to figure out how the body reveals God. We know the body reveals us each individually. So these 2, how the body reveals God and what the meaning of life is come together.

What is it about Genesis which lets us know the meaning of life: the Pope says that Genesis 2:25, if understood and lived properly, gives us that meaning. What does the passage say? Adam and Eve were naked and unashamed!! Naked and unashamed—the meaning of life! My students ask, "Was the Pope on drugs when he thought of that!" On the contrary! Remember what proceeds that: in Gen. 2:18 God says, "It is not good for man to be alone. Let us make him a suitable partner." So, God made Eve, and what did Adam say, "WOE MAN!!!" (Scott Hahn’s joke!) Get it? Woe-man, woman. What he said was "spirit of spirit and soul of my soul." NO. "Bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh." He highlights the physical aspect of Eve—her body. The Pope calls that the "nuptial song." The sacred writer goes on: "That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife and the 2 of them become one BODY." Then, here’s that next line. Naked and unashamed, the key to knowing how life should be lived. (No, don’t join a nudist colony! J )

When Adam first saw Eve, he knew, "My delight! I can give myself to you!" And Eve thought, "My delight, I can give myself to you first in receiving you, my love." How did they know? Did your mom not give you "The Talk?" Do I need to digress into sex education here!!?? Their bodies. They knew they could give themselves to each other because their bodies are complementary. Their bodies fit! The male and female bodies go together. Precisely in their nakedness, they knew that they were to be gifts to one another. And that…is the meaning of life. In fact, our church reminds us of this in Gaudium et Spes #24, a document of Vatican II. It says, "Man can only find himself in a sincere gift of self." We can only find who we are, what we are made for, not by what society says—me, me first, but by being gifts to others, of which marriage is the best natural sign. So, the "nuptial meaning of the body" to which I referred earlier regarding the meaning of life has to do with this natural sign of marriage—nuptial—which means that all of us, married or unmarried are meant to give ourselves away. Another way of saying that—the gift of self—is that we are to love.

Let’s back up and review again. First, the term TOB means first that the body reveals us individually. Then, we were trying to get to how the body reveals God, but we got to the meaning of life—the gift of self. So how does the body reveal God. Remember in Scripture—1 John 4—"God is love and he who abides in love abides in God." It is in the complementarity of the male and female bodies that we know who God is in His very essence. He is a communion of persons. A common union of persons. Just as the husband and wife are gifts for one another so much so that a baby may be co-created, so too are the Father and Son gifts for one another and the Holy Spirit, the 3 rd Person of the Trinity, is the very love between the Father and the Son. All analogies fall short, and so remember, the baby was created, but the Holy Spirit Who is God is uncreated. He always existed. Think about this—what does the word Father necessarily entail? Offspring. A Father cannot exist without a child. That’s why the Pope calls the Blessed Trinity the "First Family." The Father from all eternity pours out his life and love and the Son receives and returns love, and the Holy Spirit is the Fruit. They form a communion of persons.

Remember how I started this talk: the first spiritual act is the smile. What you do daily with your child—even in the struggles you have to keep the house clean, etc.—what you do for your child is a way for her to experience what it is like for God to love us. Just as the Father initiates love, asking for His Son’s response, you are teaching your child to make a response to love’s invitation. That is hands on catechesis. You are teaching him by your love to be a spiritual being who responds to God. Do not think that your task is unimportant, as society sometimes says. On the contrary! How profound.

The body reveals God, therefore, in that the male and female bodies let us know that we are meant to be gifts so as to form a communion of persons, precisely what the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit form. And marriage, particularly in the marital embrace, that "one-flesh union" is the best natural sign of who God is. So those of us who are unmarried who are in friendship with others—esp. you consecrated who live in a specific community—we are imaging God in our communion of persons. Co-workers who are in friendship image God. We in the Church, we here right now are imaging God. The Theology of the Body is such a development in dogma that the Pope goes beyond St. Thomas Aquinas who emphasizes that we are made in God’s image and likeness because of our intellect and will. That is true, but the Pope says, "We are made in God’s image and likeness not so much in our individuality, but MOREOVER, in a communion of persons", a common union, that is—love.

So, we in our bodies reveal ourselves and can find meaning in life by giving the gift of self in love, but what is the opposite of this image of God, this love. The Pope tells us that the opposite of love is not hatred but USE. Using others for our own selfish gains is the opposite of love. The Pope concludes this based on Scripture. Remember "naked and unashamed"—only 7 verses later, in Genesis 3:7, what do we find? The fig leaves. Adam and Eve now cover themselves. This is after the Fall with original sin. Why do they now clothe themselves? The Pope says the bottom line is the "questioning of the gift." That is, they questioned whether God truly is loving and giving, and they questioned whether each other was loving and giving. Instead of, "My delight…" and "the nuptial song" Adam’s thought now was what we see lots of in today’s society, "Hey baby, what can I get from you?" And Eve: "How can I use you for my emotional needs?" Isn’t it usually this way? Men use women for their physical pleasure, and we use men for our emotional insecurities. And the Pope calls this use "LUST."

Don’t you think, ok, I am living chastely. I am off the hook. What the Pope does is he extends the word lust beyond the sexual realm. When I found this out, I had to reexamine my whole life to see in what areas in my I was using others. Consider the following for yourselves:

Far from using others being relegated to the sexual realm, it is extended by Pope John Paul to various asundry areas of our lives. I find it very beneficial to examine my conscience regarding using others during the day.

Let us recap once again before moving on. We have seen that the term TOB means that the body reveals the individual person and the body reveals God. The body reveals God because the complementarity of the sexes, male and female, are that outward sign of something invisible, namely the call to be gifts. Every person is called to be a gift—the nuptial meaning of the body. And by giving ourselves—by living out the nuptial meaning—we find ourselves and the meaning of life because we form a communion of persons which best images the communion of persons in the Blessed Trinity, the Central Mystery of our Faith. Finally, the opposite of love is lust or use which can be applied to many areas of our lives.

Now we can get to practical applications as to how one might live out the Theology of the Body. But we just found out that we use others and may feel a little overwhelmed with that fact. "Be not afraid," says the Pope who is quoting our Lord. In the Theology of the Body, the Pope reminds us that it is Jesus who can penetrate our hearts, so as to transform us. Pope John Paul points to Jesus’ words in Matthew 5, the Beatitudes, especially the Beatitude, "Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God." We can be holy and pure through grace.

And for us Catholics, what is the normal way we receive grace? Through the sacraments, especially Mass. The first practical application for us living out the nuptial meaning then is by participating in Confession and the Mass. Remember the power of the Mass, which Vatican II has reiterated as the "font and summit" of our lives. When we go to the Mass, we get a "flux-capacitor ride." (My students and some of you younger folk know the analogy of the movie, Back to the Future whereby the characters go backward to the future). Mass somehow propels us back in space and time to the foot of the Cross, the source of all graces!! Jesus’ pierced Sacred Heart is that which contains all graces, and we get to be right there, there where Jesus died some 2000 years ago. We listen to His Holy Word, His transforming Word, and then we receive Him into us, into our bodies. The 2 become 1-body that we spoke of about Adam and Eve is now realized in our one-flesh union with Christ. Allow me to give you parallels between receiving the Eucharist and the marital embrace, both highlighting giving us insight into concrete living.

Receiving Holy Communion

• Every time we receive the Eucharist, it is a renewal of our baptismal vows.
• If we receive Jesus worthily, we become more whole, more holy.
• The words Jesus spoke at the Last Supper were ratified on the Cross through action which we participate in at Mass.
• In receiving Jesus in the Eucharist, we become more open to spiritual fruitfulness in our lives.
• Through the Eucharist, we share in a 1-flesh union.
• At Mass, we enter into the highest Liturgical form of worship—by being one-flesh with the Son, we can offer our lives to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Marital Embrace

• Every time the couple engages in the marital intercourse, they are renewing their wedding vows.
• If the couple receives each other worthily, they become more whole, more holy. In fact, the Pope does something amazing with the word virginity. He says the couple becomes more virginal, more integrated, body and soul, just as Adam and Eve were virginal, whole, integrated before the Fall.
• The words the couple spoke at their wedding are ratified in their sacred bed.
• In the marital embrace, the couple is open to physical and spiritual fruitfulness in their lives.
• In consummation, the couple shares in a 1-flesh union.
• Marital intercourse becomes a form of worship!! The Holy Father puts it this way: In marital union, "man and woman encounter the ‘great mystery’ (sacrament). . . .In this way conjugal life becomes in a certain sense liturgical" (380). The marital embrace is worship.

In fact, the Pope calls marriage the primordial sacrament. That is, it is the first visible sign of the invisible reality of God that actually brings God’s grace into the world. Adam and Eve’s one flesh union is the first time in history that God’s very divine life was signified and was made to bear on the world. My friend, Sister Mary Clare, learned at Steubenville from a priest who quoted the Holy Father that second only to the Mass for getting rid of Satan is the marital act!! Getting rid of Satan! Wow! Are we—the Catholic Church—prudish about sex, or is it we understand its beauty and power such that it must remain within its proper context.

And isn’t Christianity amazing!!?? We believe that we can actually participate in eternal life now: John 17:3, the very first line of the Catechism, quotes Jesus saying, "Father…this is eternal life, that they might know you, the one true God and Jesus Christ Whom You have sent." Knowing is that intimate knowledge. We can participate in God’s very life and love now. How? By being truly us. St. Me.

Let’s sum up and finish with more practical applications with what Adriene vonSpeyr, a mother and mystic and theologian, calls the most important words of the universe. No, not "I love you." The most important words of the universe: "This is my body…given."

Jesus said, " This is my body," when he was growing up as a child noticing his body, saying, "Mommy, this is my body…and I’m a boy!"

Jesus said, "This is my body," at the Last Supper which He continued to say as He hung on the Cross which is the same act at Mass when the priest in persona Christi says, "This is my body." The early Church Father, Cyril of Jerusalem wrote in addressing Jesus, "By your very nudity, you saved us."

Jesus say, "This is my body," to you and to me. We are His mystical body. Jesus is not only a model for us. We live in Him, "I live no longer I but Christ lives in me" such that we can with Our Blessed Mother who of all people could say most profoundly because of Her Son who had lived in her wound, say:

• This is my body, given when your parents are frail and you must care for them.
• This is my body, given when your son or daughter, grandson or granddaughter dies for our country.
• This is my body, given to your colleagues as you help them with the daily task at hand.
• This is my body, given to the poor and needy.
• This is my body, given as you receive your husbands, not only in conjugal love but in all aspects of marriage.
• This is my body, given as you listen untiringly to your son or daughter in the mistreatment he/she receives from classmates.
• This is my body, given as you cook and sweep and mop and discipline and nurture.
• This is my body, given to you, my children, when your children are nursing or sick or acting up or returning a smile to you in response to the love you gave.
• This is my body, given as you crawl into bed after having spent your whole day being spent, being poured out without a break, such that you think you may die of exhaustion,
• This is my body, given…at the time of our death…knowing we lived as a gift for others, finally giving our last breath to the Father to spend eternity with Him, His Son, and the Holy Spirit—along with all the saints and angels in the ultimate communion of persons…filled with joy and fulfillment because with our bodies we not only reflected God but we participated in the Life of Jesus by giving.

And that, my sisters, is the meaning of life.

Acknowledgement:

• This talk would not be possible without the Theology of the Body Evangelization Team’s love and support.
• I thank the following authors and/or theologians: Pope John Paul II, Father Hans Urs vonBalthasar, Adrienne vonSpeyr, Christopher West, Dr. Mary Shivanandan.
• And most of all, The Blessed Trinity. To you be honor and glory forever, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Monica Ashour can be contacted at info@tobet.org