3 theology of the body

7/28/2019 3 Theology of the Body

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Theology of the Body


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Chris West


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Mary Shivanandan


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Series of Talks 1979-84


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Purpose

Defend Humanae Vitae

Explaining the importance of the bodyto understanding the human person

Understanding the body as a sign oftranscendent realities

Helping us understand our vocation in

the world as being made in the imageand likeness of God, as male andfemale


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Return to Scripture

Likewise let the other theological disciplinesbe renewed through a more living contactwith the mystery of Christ and the history of

salvation. Special care must be given to theperfecting of moral theology. Its scientificexposition, nourished more on the teachingof the Bible, should shed light on theloftiness of the calling of the faithful in Christand the obligation that is theirs of bearingfruit in charity for the life of the world.(Optatam Totius, 16, 1965)


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Christ Reveals Man to

HimselfIn reality it is only in the mystery of theWord made flesh that the mystery ofhumanity truly becomes clear. For

Adam, the first man, was a type of himwho was to come, Christ the Lord.Christ, the new Adam, in the very

revelation of the mystery of the Fatherand of his love, fully reveals humanityto itself and brings to light its very highcalling. (Gaud ium et Spes, 22)


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Self-Giving

If human beings are the only

creatures on earth that God has

wanted for their own sake, theycan fully discover their true selves

only in self-giving (Gaud ium et

Spes, 24) Man must lose himself, to find

himself. (Luke17:33)


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Matt: 19: 4-8

He said in reply, "Have you not read thatfrom the beginning the Creator 'made them male

and female' and said, 'For this reason a man

shall leave his father and mother and be joined

to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'?

So they are no longer two, but one flesh.

Therefore, what God has joined together, no

human being must separate." They said to him,

"Then why did Moses command that the man

give the woman a bill of divorce and dismiss(her)?" He said to them, "Because of the

hardness of your hearts Moses allowed you to

divorce your wives, but from the beginning it

was not so.


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Man Made in the

Likeness and Image of

God Rational: thinks, is creative, is

intuitive

Free: makes free choices, creates

himself and impacts the world

around him

Relational: is designed to love and

be loved


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Powerful Metaphysical

ContextMan cannot be reduced to

the world.

Procreation places him in theworld of time and becoming.

The goodness of creation

introduces the notion of

value.


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Blessing of Fertility

In the mystery of creation on thebasis of the original and constituentsolitude of his being man was

endowed with a deep unity betweenwhat is, humanly and through the body,male in him and what is, equallyhumanly and through the body, female

in him. On all this, right from thebeginning, the blessing of fertilitydescended, linked with humanprocreation(cf. Gn1:28).(TOB, 47)


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Genesis 2: 7, 18-19Yahweh God fashioned man of dust from

the soil. Then he breathed into his nostrils a

breath of life and thus man became a living

being.Yahweh God said, It is not goodthat the man should be alone. I will make

him a helpmate. So from the soil Yahweh

God fashioned all the wild beasts and all

the birds of heaven. These he brought tothe man to see what he would call them;

each one was to bear the name the man

would give it.


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Original Solitude

of Adam


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Original Solitude

Names the animals

dominion

different

Self-aware Alone


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Genesis 2:20-22

But no helpmate suitable for man was

found for him. So Yahweh God made

the man fall into a deep sleep. Andwhile he slept, he took one of his ribs

and enclosed it in flesh. Yahweh God

built the rib he had taken from the man

into a woman, and brought her to theman.


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Original Innocence

The man and his wife

were both naked, yet they

felt no shame.

They had no disordered

passions.


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Original Unity

Intersubjectivity: They were one in

their thoughts.

They could participate in the freedom

of the gift.

They were transparent to each other.

They were a Communion of Persons.

They did not use each other.

They simply delighted in each other.


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Results of

Original Sin

Disunity/Fragmentation

Of Man from God

Of male and female from eachother

Of the passions within each

person

Shame


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Language

of the Body


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Need for

Self-Mastery


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St Paul


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Universal Call

to Holiness

What God wants is for you all to be

holy. He wants you to keep away from

fornication, and each one of you to

know how to use the body that belongsto him in a way that is holy and

honourable, not giving way to selfish

lust like the pagans who do not knowGod. He wants nobody at all ever to sin

by taking advantage of a brother in

these matters. (Thessalonians4: 3-5)


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Christ asBridegroom


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Celibacy

There are eunuchs who wereborn thus from their motherswomb and there are eunuchswho have made themselves

eunuchs for the kingdom ofheavens sake. He who is able toaccept it, let him accept it. (Matt19:12)

For when they rise from thedead, men and women do notmarry; no, they are like theangels in heaven. (Mark 12:25)


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St. Paul on Celibacy

I would like to see you free from all worry. Anunmarried man can devote himself to the Lordsaffairs, all he need worry about is pleasing the

Lord; but a married man has to bother about theworlds affairs and devote himself to pleasinghis wife: he is torn two ways. I say this only tohelp you, not to put a halter round your necks,

but simply to make sure that everything is as itshould be, and that you give your undividedattention to the Lord. (1 Cor. 7: 32-35)


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C


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Celibacy:

Eschatological Sign

Earthly continence for the kingdom of

heaven is undoubtedly a sign that

indicates this truth and this reality. It is

sign that the body, whose end is notthe grave, is directed to glorification.

Already by this very fact, continence

for the kingdom of heaven is a witnessamong men that anticipates the future

resurrection. (TOB, 267)


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Mystic MarriageOf St. Catherine


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Celibacy: a Spousal

Relationship

Continence for the sake of the kingdom ofheaven, the choice of virginity or celibacy forones whole life, has become in the

experience of Christs disciples andfollowers the act of a particular response oflove for the divine Spouse. Therefore it hasacquired the significance of an act of nuptial

love, that is, a nuptial giving of oneself forthe purpose of reciprocating in a particularway the nuptial love of the Redeemer. (TOB,282)


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Wives be subject to your

husbands, as to the Lord(Eph. 5:2)

the author does not intend to say that thehusband is the lord of the wife and that the

interpersonal pact proper to marriage is apact of domination of the husband over thewife. Instead, he express a different concept

that the wife can and should find in herrelationship with Christ, who is the one Lord

of both the spouses, the motivation of thatrelationship with her husband which flowsfrom the very essence of marriage and of thefamily.(TOB, 310)


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Mutual Submission

The husband and wife are in fact subject toone another, and are mutually subordinatedto one another. The source of this mutualsubjection is to be found in Christian pietas,

and its expression is love.Love excludesevery kind of subjection whereby the wifemight become a servant or slave of thehusband, an object of unilateraldomination.The community or unity whichthey should establish through marriage isconstituted by a reciprocal donation of self,which is also a mutual subjection. (TOB, 310)


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Cont.

If this truth be lacking, one cannotspeak either of the truth of self-mastery, or of the truth of the

reciprocal gift and of the reciprocalacceptance of self on the part of theperson. Such a violation of the interiororder of conjugal union, which isrooted in the very order of the person,constitutes the essential evil of thecontraceptive act. (TOB, 398)


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