freedom to love 2008 11 08

Freedom to Love The Theology of the

Body Applied t o Our Lives

Our Lady Of Peace

yOung aduLt grOuP

Hope That Does Not Disappoint

Freedom to Love 3OLOP|YAYOUNG ADULTS


Founding Father

"It may be the will of heaven that America shall suffer calamities still more wasting, and distresses yet more dreadful. If this is to be the case, it will have this good effect at least: it will inspire us with many virtues, which we have not, and correct many errors, follies and vices which threaten to disturb, dishonor and destroy us. The furnace of affliction produces refinement, in states as well as in individuals. And the new governments we are assuming in every part, will require a purification from our vices and an augmentation of our virtues or there will be no blessings. But I must submit all my hopes and fears to an overruling Providence; in which as unfashionable as faith may be, I firmly believe.”

• John Adams , July 3, 1776


Founding Father

“..since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.”

• Rom 5:1-5, RSV


No Excuse

The time for complacency and cowardice, has passed.

• "At various times in history, a people or nation is confronted with an issue that transcends others in importance and that demands a courageous response."

• Cardinal Justin Rigali

Even though some claim ignorance, we have no excuse.

• "When we are faced with every modern means of education and communication, in addition to the law placed in our hearts at creation, no one, and most especially, no Catholic, can ever say: ‘I did not know.’’

• Cardinal Justin Rigali


Battle Cry

With this election, Americans have perpetuated an intrinsic evil. Homicide has now become Genocide, as the law of the land.

• "Over 48 million of God's beloved children, have been slaughtered upon the altar of convenience. And, as a country, we say "Ok." Are we so morally numb, so blind, so deaf, that we can not see what it is that we are doing?

• Fr. John Corapi • "At this moment in our country’s history, defense of innocent human

life is a moral responsibility for all of us." • Cardinal Justin Rigali

The Battle Cry for this war on the culture of death, in this time of change that promises to perpetuate a grave evil for our nation, must simply be "Be Not Afraid".


I f Not Now, Then When?


I f Not This, Then What?


Hope

It is time to stand for Christ, firm in the Hope that does not disappoint, and defend our unborn brothers

and sisters.

Salt and Light


Salt and Light

"You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

-Mt. 5: 13-16, RSV


Salt and Light

3rd Saturday of every month at 3 p.m. By being faithful to God in the small things, we will be faithful to Him in the big things.

• The same is true when it comes to fortitude or courage. • This is the time to stand for Christ

• We have a responsibility to witness to the culture of death. • None of us can claim, as Cardinal Rigali has said, that we "did not

know":

:Review of Sex and the Meaning of Exist ence


Theology of the Body

“The body, and in fact, it alone, is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and divine. It was created to transfer into the visible reality of the world, the mystery hidden since time immemorial in God, and thus to be a sign of it”

(TB, 76).


Review

The body alone is capable of making visible what is invisibleWe must understand the true meaning of sexual love if we are to build a culture of lifeThere’s more to the Catholic view of sex than “Don’t do it”The body is a theology because God made man in the image of the TrinityOur culture lies to us about sex and fertility

The Pill Commercial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCg1q0h1PP0

:Review of Underst anding the Body as a

“Theology”

Show me love


The Sacramentality of the Body

People are used to religion emphasizing the spiritual realm.

• Many are unfamiliar and uncomfortable with a religious emphasis on the body.

• With an authentic, Christian, view of the world, this disconnect makes no sense.

How do we, humans, encounter God? How do we encounter spiritual reality?

• How would a creature who is a perfect combination of spiritual and physical encounter God

• In and through our bodies. • In and through that which we have that is both body and soul. • 2a. “As a being at once body and spirit, man expresses

and perceives spiritual realities through physical signs and symbols” (CCC, n. 1146)

Think of the most intimate encounters that we have with God.


The Sacraments

Bathing the body with water Anointing the Body with Oil Confessing your sins with your tongue to another physical person Consuming into your own body the flesh and blood of another. Joining in a covenant, in one flesh, with another human being. Look at the significance of the aspect of the "physical" when it comes to Confession.

• Some say: "God can forgive me in a spiritual sense. I don't need to go to confession."

• If that is true, then why did He take on a body? • That line of thinking, when drawn out to its logical conclusion,

renders the Incarnation and the Crucifixion to be absolutely meaningless.

Look at the harm that is done, when you separate the "body" and the "soul"

• The problem with pornography is not that it shows too much of the body.

• The problem with pornography is that it shows too little of the dignity of the human person.

The Sacramental life is where we encounter the Divine. • It is in and through the stuff of our bodies, and the material world.


Refocus

The human body is the original “sign” in the world of the ultimate spiritual mystery.

• Human beings, throughout history, have been on a quest to understand God.

• It is from this perspective that John Paul II wants to study the human body.

• Not as biological organism, but as a theology.

For, Christianity is not a human attempt to understand God. It is different from all other religions because of one thing.

• We believe that God has shown us who He is. • How?


Word. Flesh.

The Word was made: FLESH! Christianity is the religion of the Word made flesh. God, Himself, took on a human body in order to communicate Himself to us, and in order to reveal Himself to us.

• He showed us His body. • God’s mystery revealed in human flesh is the very “logic” of

Christianity. • Thus, we have the theology of the body.

God has revealed His mystery to the world, and He has revealed His mystery to us in and through the human body.

Male and female He has used the human body to reveal His mystery. For, the Son of God was born of a woman.

It is male and female together that reveals the mystery, that makes visible the invisible mystery of God. 2b. “Through the fact that the Word of God became flesh the body entered theology… through the main door” (TB, 89)


The Bouillon Cube

2c. “The body, and in fact, it alone, is capable of making visibile what is invisible: the spiritual and divine. It was created to transfer into the visible reality of the world, the mystery hidden since time immemorial in God, and thus to be a sign of it” (TB, 76).

• Because we are made in the image and likeness of God, our bodies also have the capacity of making visible something of the invisible mystery of God.

God is invisible, but Christianity is the religion of God making Himself visible.

• "The body, and in fact, it alone, is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine. It was created to transfer into visible reality of the world, the mystery hidden since time immemorial in God, and thus to be a sign of it."

• What in the world does this mean? • It's stunning.


The Mystery

It means that there is a mystery that has been hidden in God from eternity. And, our bodies are a sign that transfers, or makes visible, that invisible mystery.

• How so? • And, what is the mystery of God that our bodies make

visible?

3a. “God has revealed his innermost secret: God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that eternal exchange of Love” (CCC, n. 221).


, Servant of God Pope J ohn Paul the Greatpray for us

OLOP|YAYOUNG ADULTS

freedom to love 2008 11 08

Education