How many times have I been sitting in church, listening to
the homily, and felt like there was a burning spotlight right above me? If I
had a nickel for every time, I could buy St. Mary's Chapel new carpet…I'll say
that much. It's as if our soul and body
were fighting a war, our soul all along knowing that we would only be hurt in
the end, writhing in our own guilt and self-degradation. However, our body won,
and the Devil proved that the apple is still being eaten, that the fall of man
happens every day.
There's the trick. We have been convinced that the flesh is
evil, that our bodies don't want God. Our souls are separate entities that
thirst for the fresh springs of God, while our bodies thirst for the polluted
waters of the world.
The truth is that our bodies want God, too. We’re reminded in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 when
Paul says, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit
within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought
with a price. So glorify God in your body."
The
Price and Our Priceless Gift
Okay, I get really super duper excited talking about the
Theology of the Body! Usually, what
makes sense in my head comes out of my mouth sounding like utter nonsense. I
hardly know where to start, but I'm giving it a shot. Here goes...
One of the turning points in my understanding of Theology of
the Body was when I was on the TOBET (Theology of the Body Evangelization Team)
retreat. We were having a discussion
about Christ's marriage with His church. While hanging upon the cross, naked and His
arms outstretched, He proclaimed, "It is finished." What was finished?
The
consummation of His marriage with His bride, the Church. In that
moment, when Christ was in the vulnerable state of nakedness without shame, He gave His body for us, just as a husband and wife give their bodies to each other
in marriage. This was the first in a string of theological parallels between
Church doctrine and sexuality. Woah! Mind BLOWN, right?!
Just to name a few of my favorites...at Easter, the priest
dips the Easter candle into the baptismal fount. You know the part I’m talking
about. The one where you thought you got
a great seat until the priest moved to the back of the church, and you can
barely see over the heads of people around you? Yeah, that’s the one. In this
celebration of His marriage vows with His Church, Christ is the priest holding
the candle that plunges into the fount, which symbolizes the Church, and those
that are baptized are reborn into the faith.
Another moment I love is more of an everyday experience. Prior to celebrating the Eucharist, the priest prepares
the Body and Blood of Christ. The chalice has always been a symbol of female
sexuality throughout all of literature, and it's in this chalice, a symbol of
Christ's female counterpart, the Church, that the priest pours the wine that
will later turn into Christ's blood, mixing with it water that symbolizes us,
the people of his Church, and finally a piece of the bread that is now Christ's
body. When we take the Body and Blood of Christ, it is the ultimate one
flesh union. Does this mean that every time we partake in the Eucharist,
Christ is renewing His marriage vows with us, just as a husband and wife renew
their marriage vows in their sexual union? Absolutely.
Am I crazy for thinking that is utterly profound and
beautiful? There's nothing sick or disturbing about it. In fact, it is only
because of the lies the world has told us about sex (that it's dirty and
sinful) that we think those theological sexual references seem out of place,
while in reality, there's nowhere else they could belong!
Paul tells the Corinthians their bodies are temples; every
church is a temple, too. Through our sexuality, our bodies, our temples, we have the ability to
bring new life into the world. Likewise, the Church, the temple where we all
come together as brothers and sisters, gives birth to new believers constantly.
If more of us could have such a view that sex is not sinful
at all, but profound and sacred, there would be the utmost
respect for the sanctity of sex in our culture. Say goodbye to promiscuity,
pornography, sex jokes, overly sexualized entertainment, etc. We would hold
ourselves, as well as everyone else, in highest esteem, truly seeing our sexuality
for the gift it is.
Unwrapping
the Gift
Society says chastity stifles us, and we “free” ourselves
when we embrace our sexuality. But
society’s version of "embracing our sexuality" really means
experiment and sleep around as long as it's "safe." What that world
is failing to see is that we, as Christians, do free ourselves in embracing our sexuality, through finding joy
in ourselves and others, celebrating our bodies for the temples they are, and "doing everything for the glory of God"
(1 Corinthians 10:33). Think of how much guilt and self-reproach we could avoid
if we did everything for the glory of God!
JPII calls us all to be modern day saints "who are in the world and know how to taste the pure and nice things of the world, but who aren't of the world.
Escaping the world is not the solution.
We must realize that it is our duty to teach the world purity. This all begins by realizing that our bodies are not prisons, but temples, and purity is the greatest glorification of, not only God, but ourselves. Theology of the Body is not suppressing the flesh, but setting it free through purity from the world's desires. And I believe it is the true understanding to the ultimate liberation of our bodies.
Mia Sampietro
I love every kind of cat, and I have about a million hobbies (singing, painting, piano, etc.), but I love sharing the Love of God. I'm a dreamer that could talk forever, and there are two things in the world I'm absolutely positive about: 1) God is amazing and 2) Laughter is THE best medicine. I am double majoring in Art History and Spanish, but my life is totally in God's hands.
If you would like to contact Mia, you can email her at: sampietrme@titan.sfasu.edu
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