I would like to write for you an introduction to the “Theology of the Body” by St. John Paul II. You may have heard this phrase before, “Theology of the Body”, but do you know where it comes from and what it means? This phrase actually comes from a very large text written by Pope St. John Paul II and delivered by him from 1979-1984 every Wednesday in Rome. In these Wednesday addresses, St. John Paul II gave us the phrase “Theology of the Body”. In this text there are many important truths to study and learn about that will have an impact on our lives, whether we are single, dating, married, a priest, religious, etc. Whatever your vocation is, the Theology of the Body is for you!
In these first three articles, I would like to focus on the first three chapters of Theology of the Body, which is really an “anthropology”. Anthropology means a “study of the human person” – what does it mean to be human? If we can understand our identity, who we are, created in the image and likeness of God, then we can better know our vocation, how we are to live. The Theology of the Body is full of Scripture. It really is a huge Bible study about the question, “what does it mean to be human? And what is marriage?” St. John Paul II looks into the Bible, the Word of God, “Revelation,” in order to discover the answers to the question: “ Who am I?”. What does the Bible have to say about the meaning of being human, the meaning of being a body? It has much to say, and John Paul II helps us to see that clearly.
The first chapter of Theology of the Body is called “Christ Appeals to the Beginning”. This Chapter starts by focusing on Jesus’ words in dialogue with the Pharisees, when Christ refers to the “Beginning” twice. (Matthew 19:3-8). The Beginning is what the first book of the Bible – Genesis, speaks about. The same root word in Genesis is found in other English words like “Generation”, “Generate”, and “Genealogy”. Genesis tells us the story of God’s creation of the world and the creation of the human person, “male and female in the image and likeness of God.” Genesis has two creation accounts, two stories that express the creation of the world in different ways. The first account tells the story more “objectively”. It tells how God “spoke” and the world was created in seven days. The second creation account starts in Genesis Ch. 2, and tells the story of creation in a more “subjective” way. This means that it tells the story from the perspective of Adam and Eve, and relates to us their experiences in the Garden. John Paul II likes to explain the Bible stories referring to the “experience” of Adam and Eve. In this way, we can relate to them and reflect about our own human experience. Somehow, we can know deep in our hearts that these things are true.
St. John Paul II speaks about three fundamental experiences of Adam and Eve in the Garden: “Original Solitude,” “Original Unity,” and “Original Nakedness”. In Genesis 2:18-20, God placed Adam in the Garden and gave him the task of naming the animals. To name something has a strong connection with identity. Something is named based on its identity, and a name reveals the identity of a person. As Adam named the animals, he came to discover that they were all different than he was. He realized his own uniqueness as a human person. He did not discover in any of the animals a suitable partner for himself, another being that was a “person”, that he could enter into a personal relationship with. And so Adam discovers that he is “alone”. This solitude is first of all based on his own “Humanity”. As a human, Adam differs from all of the animals and all of creation. The Human person is the only creature made “in the image and likeness of God”. Unlike the animals, Adam has reason and free will. He is placed in a relationship with the Creator Himself. The solitude of Adam can also be expressed in another way, in terms of his relationship to another person, to Eve. Adam was still awaiting the moment to encounter Eve and build a mutual reciprocal and personal relationship on a human level.
So “original solitude” leads us to “original unity”. The Bible tells the story of how God put Adam into a deep sleep and formed from his “rib” – Eve. The fact that God forms the woman from the rib of Adam shows that she is made with equal human dignity. Masculinity and femininity are complementary – they are two ways of being human that mutually enrich and complete each other. What a man is good and strong at can help serve a woman, and what a woman is good and strong at can help serve a man. Men and women are equal in human dignity but different in complementarity. This complementarity and difference is on all levels: physically, emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually. Our contemporary culture has started to cast doubt on masculinity and femininity, but Scripture and the theology of the body point out how God is the author of our sexual difference, and he calls the “two to become one flesh” (Gen 2:24). So Adam and Eve are made in the unity of the same humanity. They are both fully human and are able to enter into a personal, reciprocal relationship with each other that Adam was not able to have with the animals. Animals are amazing creatures of God and can do amazing things, but there is no substitute for personal relationships.
Adam and Eve formed this unity in another way, by the “two becoming one flesh.” God is the author of our sexuality and of marriage. In the beginning, God said, “be fruitful and multiply” (Gen. 1:28).The world and contemporary culture does not value marriage, family, the body, and our sexuality enough, but the Church has always proclaimed the dignity of the human body and of the human person! When Adam and Eve form this unity, they form what is called the “communion of persons.” St. John Paul II shares an important insight here. He tells us that precisely by forming this communion of persons Adam and Eve are in the image of God. He says that because God is a Trinity, an eternal exchange of love in the communion of persons between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, man and woman form the image of God when they live as a communion of persons, like God, who is a communion of persons. “Not so much in the moment of solitude, but in the moment of communion does man and woman form the image of God” (TOB 9.3).
The third fundamental experience of Adam and Eve in the garden is called “original nakedness”. In Genesis 2:25, Adam and Eve were “naked without shame.” This verse points to the experience of Adam and Eve, that they were naked and did not feel shame towards each other or towards the body. Why was this so? John Paul II says it is not because they were like children but, in fact, they were mature and were fully aware of the sexual values of the body. They did not have shame because they lived in the “fullness of love.” The creation story of Genesis tells us of a time before “the Fall”, before the “Original Sin”, defined by the Church as a time called “Original Innocence” or “Original Justice.” Adam and Eve experienced life together without sin, in a perfect communion of persons, a communion of love. They had no need to hide their bodies through clothing. This need would come later after they sin (Gen 3:7). St. John Paul II describes their experience as a relationship of reciprocal gift, a relationship of trust. He says when they looked at each other, including each other’s bodies in their masculinity and femininity, they, in fact, “saw each other with all the peace of the interior gaze.” This gaze meant that when they looked at one another, they had no desire to lust or use the other, but they saw the full personal value and dignity of the other. They wanted to love and to serve the other. This was the experience of nakedness in the state of original innocence.
In Chapter 1 of Theology of the Body there is another very important teaching that St. John Paul II gives us, a point that will come up later in all six chapters. It is a concept called “The Spousal Meaning of the Body.” I will try to explain it in this way – First, God made all of creation for the human person as a gift. All the stars, planets, mountains, oceans, rivers, fields, animals, plants – these are made for you! God loves each person for their own sake, not for the sake of someone or something else. All of creation is a gift for the human person because the human person is created in such a way that he/she can receive that gift from God personally. God made the world out of love, as a gift. He had no need to make the world. From all eternity, God was happy, He lacked nothing. He lived in an eternal exchange of love: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He created the world out of love, as a gift for the human person.
Our bodies also reveal this gift. If you look at the masculine and feminine body you will see that the male body does not make sense by itself and, also, the female body does not make sense by itself. Only in light of each other do the male and female bodies make sense and complete each other. Masculinity and femininity were created to be a gift for one another. This meaning of the body is called “The spousal meaning of the body.” The body has a “marital meaning.” From looking at our very bodies, we can discover that we are called to make a gift of ourselves, to make a gift of our lives, to enter into relationships with others and to form the communion of persons. Our bodies call us to form the image of God with others by living in a communion of love. There are many ways to live the spousal meaning of the body; it can be done by forming a good human community in society, on sports teams, at school, in a family. But one primary way to live out the spousal meaning of the body is through your vocation. Most people in the world live their vocation to love in marriage. But also, people can choose “celibacy for the kingdom”. Celibacy has several forms including single life, consecrated life, religious life, and priesthood. Both marriage and celibacy are two ways to live out the same spousal meaning of the body, which I will talk more about in a later article.
In conclusion, I would like to say that there is a lot of truth about the human person and the human body that John Paul II speaks about in Ch. 1 of the Theology of the Body. We learn about the three fundamental experiences of Adam and Eve in their “original solitude”, “original unity”, and “original nakedness.” We also learn about the spousal meaning of the body, which I will speak about more in later articles. While the world may not understand this, it is important to remember that God made all of creation good, including our sexuality – masculinity and femininity, and including marriage.” God saw all that He had made and indeed it was very good”(Gen. 1:31). Love produces the good. Since all of creation is good, it reveals the author of this creation to be God, who is Love.