Week 6 - The Language of the Body

Theology of the Body Week 6
The Language of the Body

“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for a friend.” John 15:13

“If we live according to the truth of our sexuality, we fulfill the very meaning and being of our existence.” Pope John Paul II

“Love to be real, must cost – it must hurt – it must empty us of self.”
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

In the beginning…
1. God created men and women in His image and likeness. God is Love, and we are made to reflect and point to His Love.
2. Once again, through the union of a man and woman in marriage, God makes visible His love for mankind and His plan to be eternally united with us in Heaven.
3. Until sin entered the world, man and woman knew how to love one another perfectly – without causing hurt or shame
4. They fulfilled “the very meaning and being of (their) existence” because, in their perfect love, they pointed to God and made an image of Him on earth. They also showed one another that their ultimate goal was to get each other to Heaven
5. As of the past 2 weeks, we know that men and women are equal but different. They are both called to LOVE but in different ways
6. Women are to be a reflection of Heaven in how they dress and act because a woman’s beauty shows a man what Heaven is like
7. Women are also supposed to guard and protect their bodies from objectification and shame because a woman has the supreme gift of bringing life into the world (whether spiritual or physical)
8. Men are to sacrifice for women and “lay down their life” for them, just as Christ did on the cross – to be a warrior
9. Men are also supposed to initiate love with women by pursuing them, and to protect women from their own lust – by treating them respectfully and allowing God to perfect their sexual desires

The Sacramentality of the Body
1. What is a sacrament? It is a physical sign that points to a spiritual reality. It can also convey God’s grace
2. There are 2 parts: the GOD to US and the US to GOD
3. There is always a physical and a spiritual element. Why? Because we are slow sometimes and can’t understand things if they aren’t tangible!
4. When it comes to religion, many people are used to an emphasis on just the spiritual, and sometimes we are uncomfortable with an emphasis on the physical
5. We can’t see God. As pure Spirit, he’s invisible. But how does God make Himself present to us? Through the physical!!
6. It is in and through the senses that we encounter God. EX: water, bread, wine, oil
7. Take Baptism for example. The physical element is the water and the words. Through the water and words, God forgives us of our Original Sin, which is the grace part that we can’t see
8. God created the body as a “sign” of his own divine mystery. God created the body as a sacrament to point to Him
9. Look at the Incarnation: The Word became FLESH
10. How do we know who God is? Through Jesus Christ, who became FLESH
11. The body is a physical sign that communicates a spiritual mystery à God’s Love
12. Sexual union, the two becoming “one flesh” makes visible the invisible mystery of God’s Love…this is huge!
13. God created sex to point to who He is: a communion of persons. God created sex to image His love with us (showing us that His plan is to be united to us forever…) and to give us grace

Jesus Christ is the Greatest Sacrament!

What is God’s Love?
1. Free: “…I lay down my life in order to take it up again.” John 10:17
2. Total: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you.” John 15:9
3. Faithful: “But God proves His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
4. Fruitful: “In this way the love of God was revealed to us; God sent His only Son into the world so that we might have life through him.” 1John 4:9
5. Jesus didn’t just say these things to us – He SHOWED us how much he loved us. This is why words without actions are a waste. He gave His body for us and asks us to do the same for one another
6. Sex is a major way of communicating, with actions, how much we love someone – because love is not a feeling, it is not just words – love is an action
7. So, why can’t we have sex all the time and with whoever we want, if it shows who God is?
8. Because, by definition, God’s Love is FREE, TOTAL, FAITHFUL and FRUITFUL and if our love is not professed as the same, we are lying with our bodies
9. Where do we see FTFF? In the wedding vows!!!

10. Many people have told me, “I want to wait until I’m married to have sex, but I don’t know why.”
11. Here is the WHY: Sex is saying your wedding vows with your body!
12. Words without actions are a waste, and God created something so beautiful, so amazing to do with our bodies that would demonstrate our vows to one another – freely, totally, faithfully, fruitfully
13. Every time a married couple has sex, they are renewing their wedding vows!

The Language of the Body
1. Who has ever heard of the term: body language? What does this indicate?
2. Did you know that just as our bodies speak a physical language, they can speak a spiritual language too?
3. Just as our bodies can speak the truth of God’s magnificent plan, they can also lie.
4. This is why sex out of marriage is a lie! It’s not because someone said no, but because you are proclaiming something with your body that can’t be true!
5. A married couple is renewing their vows every time they have sex. A non-married couple has nothing to renew! They are saying with their bodies that they will be FTFF without actually committing it first!

The Consequences of a Lie
1. Lies have personal consequences:
a. They separate us internally from the ones we actually love
b. They can eat away at us
c. They build up and snowball
d. They have real, physical consequences (in this case, STD’s,
2. Lies have relational consequences:
a. They separate us externally from the ones we love
b. Lying is destructive of society; it undermines trust among men and tears apart the fabric of social relationships CCC 2486
c. It leads other people astray – our actions don’t just affect ourselves
d. None of us lives to himself. If one member suffers, all suffer together… 1Cor 12:26
e. Lies in sex lead men and women to use one another, and we end up empty, alone, confused, and searching even more
3. Lies have eternal consequences
a. They separate us from God
b. God knows us better than ourselves Psalm 139 – we can’t escape from His Truth!
c. Death is the consequence to sin

What happens when the vows are flipped?
1. What happens when you take the wedding vows, applied to sex, and flip them upside down?
2. Instead of sex being free, it is pressured at the end of a date, forced in sexual abuse, and paid for in prostitution and pornography
3. Instead of sex being a total gift of self, we have one-night stands, supposedly “safe” sex, and husbands and wives withholding their fertility from one another
4. Instead of promoting faithfulness and fidelity, we have shows like Sex and the City and Desperate Housewives dominating our view of relationships
5. Instead of being fruitful, the act of sex is sterilized with contraception and abortion
6. What happens if I have flipped the vows upside down and made mistakes? --> we will talk more about this soon, but for now, know that God’s mercy is so incredible that we can be made new again!

Is the Church down on sex?
1. Some people think that the Catholic Church is “out of touch” when it comes to sex and sexuality
2. This couldn’t be further from the truth! The reason the Church has so many “rules” when it comes to sex is because she knows the truth and beauty it actually contains!
3. There are rules when we drive to make sure we aren’t crashing into and killing each other on the road
4. The same goes when it comes to sex…
5. The Catholic Church wants us to live an awesome life and experience true freedom and true love
6. EXAMPLE: did you know that the canopy (baldacchino) built over most altars in Catholic Church actually represents the canopy over a marriage bed? The symbolism reminds us that on the altar during the Mass, the Bridegroom (Christ) gives His Body (the Eucharist) to His Bride (the Church) that we might have eternal life!
7. The Church calls the marriage bed “the altar of the home”!!!

The Truth will set you free…
1. Freedom is not being able to do what you want, whenever you want. This is called “license.” The world’s view of freedom actually causes us to be a slave to our emotions and desires
2. Freedom is actually the ability to desire and choose the good
3. JP II says “Freedom without responsibilities is the opposite of love.”
4. Freedom is not about escaping rules. Authentic freedom is about accepting and living out the truth of who we are created to be (children of God) and for what we are created (love and communion)
5. Being free to love as God loves doesn’t come easy – it only comes through God’s grace
6. Once we allow God to change our hearts, the moral life becomes a life not about rules but about love. We obey God’s commands not because we have to but because we want to
7. Selfishness really does lead to misery. God created us to be a gift to others and in living the opposite of this we become unfulfilled
8. It’s sometimes fun to do things our way – but only for a while. Soon the excitement of one-night stands and living with our boyfriend or girlfriend wears off and we are left empty
9. Living in the Truth of Christ and His Church sets us free and opens our hearts to be the men and women we are created to be

“If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.” John 8:31-32