Introduction tothe “Theology of the Body”

Bl. Pope John Paul II’sCatechesis on Human Love

Kino Institute CC109Diocese of Phoenix10 October 2012 – WEEK TWO

OUTLINE

6:30 Prayer

6:40 Quiz

6:50 Original Experience

7:30 BREAK

7:40 Original Experience

8:30 BREAK

8:45 Original Experience

9:15 Questions?

“Do whatever He tells you.”

Week ONE: History & Foundations

WHY DID HE WRITE THIS?

Week TWO: Encountering Love

HOW IS LOVE REVEALED TO US?

Matthew 19

Genesis 1-2

Fr. Robert Barron re: Genesis & “adoration”

“In the beginning…”GOD’s DESIGN of CREATION

&LEARNING the LANGUAGE of LOVE

GOD’s PLAN of SALVATION

The Four Horizons

ORIGINAL FALLEN REDEEMED GLORIFIED

(history in which we live)

*Creation*Fall*Incarnation*Second Coming

ORIGINAL EXPERIENCE

“Life in the S.U.N.”

Original Solitude

Original Unity

Original Nakedness

Original SolitudeFILIALITY

Called to Love

1. What is an “original experience”?

2. Where do we experience “original solitude” in our lives?

3. What is the difference between saying “I have a body” and “I am a body”?

4. What does the body teach us about freedom?

5. How can we talk about “experience” without falling into subjectivism or relativism?

6. How do our bodies “open us to the world”?

Original UnityNUPTIALITY

NUPTIALITY (~nuptial)SPONSALITY (~spousal)

BXVI on SEXUAL DIFFERENCE

[T]oday’s anthropological program hinges more radically than ever before on “emancipation”, it seeks a freedom whose goal is to “be like God” (Gn 3:5) … (implying) a detachment of man from his biological conditionality, from the “male and female he created them”.

This sexual difference is something that man, as a biological being, can never get rid of, something that marks man in the deepest center of his being. Yet it is regarded as a totally irrelevant triviality…consigned to the “purely biological realm” which has nothing to do with man as such. […]

This treatment of “biology” as a mere thing is accordingly regarded as liberation…to be simply a ‘human being’ who is neither male nor female. But in reality man thereby strikes a blow against his deepest being. He holds himself in contempt, because the truth is that he is human only insofar as he is bodily, only insofar as he is man or woman.

DON’T MISS…http://www.marriageuniqueforareason.org/tag/sexual-difference/

Called to Love

1. How does existing in the body make us open to reality?

2. In what way is the body a “bridge to union” with others?

3. How is “difference” a positive and necessary part of unity? Does it (not) always imply inequality?

4. What is the prevalent understanding of sex and gender today? How might these hide an inadequate concept of the person?

5. Discuss the three stages in the ascent of love (sensuality, feelings and emotions, affirmation of the person). Why is each part essential to love? What needs to be integrated in each part?

6. How are our bodies “a task”? What is that “task”?

Original Nakedness“PURITY”

“CHASTITY”

Filiality, Nuptiality, Fruitfulness, &the “Spousal Meaning of the Body”

Audience 8: Nov. 7, 1979

“the fact that man is a ‘body’ belongs more deeply to the structure of the personal subject

than the fact that in his somatic constitution he is also male and female. For this reason, the

meaning of original solitude…is substantially prior to the meaning of original unity” (157).

NB: Nuptial ~ Spousal

GS 22Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the

mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear.

GS 24This likeness reveals that man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, cannot fully find

himself except through a sincere gift of himself.

Gaudium et Spes (1965)How do bothstatements speak of the

filial, nuptial, and fruitful meanings of the body?

What do we learn from “Life in the S.U.N.”?

GIFT, giftedness, being as gift

ORIGINAL EXPERIENCE

“Original Innocence”

Imago Dei, Imago TrinitatisLove & the Inner Life of the Trinity

CCC 221But St. John goes even further when he affirms that “God is love”:

God's very being is love. By sending his only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time,

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 exchange.

QUESTIONS?CtL ReadingsCompendium

Audiences

Veritatis Splendor 48[…] The person, including the body, is completely entrusted to himself, and it is in the unity of body and soul that the person is the subject of his own moral acts. […] And since the human person cannot be reduced to a freedom which is self-designing, but entails a particular spiritual and bodily structure, the primordial moral requirement of loving and respecting the person as an end and never as a mere means …

Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.May it be done to me according to your word.”

Luke 1:38

The Annunciation, 1898Henry Ossawa Tanner

In his Angelus address on Oct. 3, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI said, “Mary is the model of the Christian life” (OR). Memorare

Remember, O most graciousVirgin Mary,

that never was it knownthat anyone who fled to thy

protection,implored thy help,

or sought thineintercessionwas left unaided.

Inspired by this confidence,I fly unto thee,

O Virgin of virgins, my mother;to thee do I come,before thee I stand,

sinful and sorrowful.O Mother of the Word Incarnate,

despise not my petitions,but in thy mercy

hear and answer me.Amen.