about contraception (the church's position on it),
male/female roles, and "gay marriage".
Many of the posts are written by
self-described Catholics.
Church loving, Jesus loving, Catholics.
But it seems to me that
there is a lot of confusion out there about two things.
1. Exactly WHAT the Church
really teaches about these matters.
2. How and Why the Church
reaches Her conclusions on these matters.
I believe The Theology of the Body
and subsequent internalizing of this type of thinking
would spark a radical transformation within every individual.
This would in turn spark
a profound revolution in how we see ourselves,
see those of the opposite sex,
and how we are called to relate to one another
as man and woman. This thinking, this vision
has the power to change the world!
Yes, I said change the world.
I'd like to start regularly posting
my thoughts on these topics.
I hope that I won't as my dad may say
(and has said already) seem "too radical".
But I believe we NEED to radically change
how we think about these things.
(Marriage, contraception, sex, homosexuality, male/female roles)
Our eternal lives depend upon it!
5 comments:
I once attended a speech by Christopher West on the subject of the Theology of the Body. (I see him on your list of books). I found it motivating, inspiring, and profound. His insights, however, did nothing to break me of my addiction to sexual sins.
A few years later, I encountered the Philokalia, a compilation of texts about prayer from the Eastern Church. The first volume of the four volume set contains writings from the first eight hundred years of Christianity. Consequently, they are the common patrimony of both the Catholic and the Orthodox Churches. I digress...
The teaching of the Early Fathers of the Church on prayer of the heart and overcoming the passions -such as my passions for sexual sin - have changed my life and freed me in a way I never thought I could be free. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
I am sure there is more to the Theology of the Body than I received in one talk, but this I know - that whatever truth it contains is nothing new. And any new it contains is nothing true.
The old men who sat in their desert cells nearly two thousand years ago and there battled powers and principalities have all the answers we need. Who'd have thought?
john,
And any new it contains is nothing true.
What point of reference and time line are you using to describe new? I'm not sure if I understand what point you are trying to make?
John -
I too have felt a little is lacking in Christopher West's approach to the matter of human sexuality. But he is a great first source to go to just for the simple fact that it is "easy reading".
I love how Deitrich Von Hildebrand speaks/writes on these matters and maybe you should check him out.
Also, it's not so much that the info. contained within JPII theology of the Body is anything new. It is not new. Of course it is not new. It is timeless. It is Truth and there is no beginning for that...
Anyhow, what IS new is our NEED to hear these truths. We need to refresh our memories you might say on what the truth of our bodies, our sexuality is today. Maybe hundreds of years ago the truth about these matters wasn't as clouded by decietful sexual imagery as it is today.
We "moderns" are all warped and twisted by the culture that surrounds us. Whether we like it or not, at times whether we fight it or not, the crap just seeps in.
This is why the Theology of the Body seems new. It is the articulation of truths that forever, since the beginning of time were built into us. For some it comes more naturally. For some they "connect" their bodies, their sexuality very easily, to their souls, their spirituality. For others it's like trying to mix oil and water! But that is not how it should be! We are made to integrate the two not to supress one for the benefit of the other!
This is a "new" concept for a world that feels that it's an either/or choice. Either I embrace my sexuality and my urges and my passions and reject my soul, my faith, my God. Or I Embrace God and leave my sexuality behind like some dirty secret hidden in the corners of my identity.
God wants us to have passion! Purified passion. If you've ever read St. Teresa of Avila speak about God and her love of Jesus - there is PASSSION! The greatest saints all speak of their love affairs with Jesus. Does that make them impure? Of course not!
We must learn how to embrace our sexuality and give it to God completely. He will purify it. This concept beyond all others is what I gained from studying the Theology of the Body.
My love for Jesus only grew deeper and more passionate (there's that word again) from understanding and ACCEPTING that my sex, my sexuality, and ultimately my vocation (wife and mother)was all deeply integrated and united to and through my love for Him and His love for me. This was earth shattering for me!
No longer was shame associated with sex. That was a BIG stumbling block for me. I believe it is for many women. Men too. But we mustn't think that this shame requires us to banish our urges but rather it calls us to raise up our urges and hand them over to God to purify them. When they are handed back to us free from all the lies and misconceptions that years of disfigurement from our own sins and those of the culture around us, they are something beautiful and powerful to experience. It is radical! It is liberating.
Satan continues to try to pervert my relationship with God, with Tim, and with myself. I battle, yes. But now I know what I can be and what sexuality can be. I have had a glimpse and Satan can't take that away. I just continually pray that God would help me to be the woman He wants me to be. All of me for Him. Nothing in reserve!
I am so glad to be talking about this. Thanks for the comments...
Blog at ya later...
-Kris
Shelray,
My point of reference is the eternal. As Kris wrote, Truth is timeless. It is also changeless. If something was true two-thousand years ago, it is still true today.
Consequently, if a teaching is "new" and goes against an eternal truth, it is a false teaching.
Because my knowledge of the Theology of the Body is limited, I remain suspicious of it until its continuity with Tradition is demonstrated to me.
Pure sexual desire is not a corrupting passion.
Perverse sexual desire is. A passion like this we should indeed feel shame for, for it is shameful. We should indeed extinguish it (I do not say "suppress" or "hide." On the contrary, sin dies in the light), lest it destroy us, by the power of Jesus' Holy Name.
If God wants us to have corrupted passions, it is as He wants us to be tempted: He permits it, but does not actively desire it. But you speak of "purified passion," which is a different concept.
The following definition, since our dispute is probably semantic, is helpful. It comes from the glossary of the aforementioned Philokalia:
"Passion (pathos): in Greek, the word signifies literally that which happens to a person or thing, an experience undergone passively; hence an appetite or impulse such as anger, desire or jealousy, that violently dominates the soul. Many Greek Fathers regard the passions as something intrinsically evil, a 'disease' of the soul: thus St. John Klimakos affirms that God is not the creator of the passions and that they are 'unnatural', alien to man's true self (The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 26...). Other Greek Fathers, however, look on the passions as impulses originally placed in man by God, and so fundamentally good, although at present distorted by sin (cf. St. Isaiah the Solitary...). On this second view, then, the passions are to be educated, not eradicated; to be transfigured, not suppressed; to be used positively, not negatively."
Your view, I believe, is harmonious with the second view. Honestly, so is mine.
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