The Theology of the Body

In my last post I talked about what I understood as the legacy, or triptych, of Pope John Paul II.  I am now going to use the next three posts to discuss each panel of the triptych in a little more detail; beginning with today's topic the Theology of the Body.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Theology of the Body I am sure you are asking "what is this Theology of the Body?" and the best definition I can have is from Christopher West who says that 

"Theology of the Body is the working title that John Paul II gave to the first major teaching project of his pntificate.  Delivered over the course of 129 Wednesday Audiences between September 5, 1979 and Nov 28, 1984, these catechetical addresses present as in-depth biblical reflection on the meaning of human embodiment, particularly as it concerns our creation as male and female and the call of the two to become 'one flesh.'" - Christopher West

 This is a technical definition of what it is but it is too academic and does not get to what I feel is the heart of the Theology of the Body.  I think it is important to know the technical definition because it gives a clear facts about what the Theology of the Body is.  However, for the rest of this post I will be sharing my personal understanding of the Theology of the Body.

I came across the Theology of the Body in high school when I was searching for my purpose in life.  I was at the point where I needed to decide a direction for my life to take; whether I wanted to go to college, university, or work at home on the family farm.  The Theology of the Body provided the answers to a lot of my questions.  It taught me what it means to be a human; how we are different from the animals and the pinnacle of all creation.  It taught me that to find fulfillment in life I needed to live in service to others.  It taught me about the gift of my masculinity; the creative strength of men which is meant to be used to help women and children.  It taught me that I can only find myself by giving myself away.

Before you can decide what you want to do in life you need to know who you are.  Theology of the Body helped me discover who I am and from that knowledge flowed my purpose.  Please don't misunderstand me, I don't have everything figured out.  I still have problems, I still make mistakes, I just have a clearer picture of what I am meant to do in life; the trouble is I don't always choose to live according to my purpose.

I cannot possible outline the whole teaching of Theology of the Body in one post but I hope this gives you some understanding of what it is about.  If you have questions about what it means to be a man or a woman.  Or why you exist. Or why you have those deep desires of your heart.  Or what the desires of your heart are pointing you towards then I encourage you to learn more about the Theology of the Body.  Do not start with John Paul II's writings unless you are an academic because they are dense.  The best place to start, I think, is Christopher West's book entitled "Theology of the Body for Beginners."  So if you are at all interested in Theology of the Body please get your hands on a copy of this book.  Christopher West is a much better writer than I am and he can provide you with a better understanding of what Theology of the Body is all about.  For those of you who are not readers check out these YouTube videos that explain some aspects of the Theology of the Body.

The Legacy of John Paul II

Triptych - a set of three associated artistic, literary, or musical works intended to be appreciated together.

What is the Culture of Death?

Today I wanted to talk a little bit about this term "culture of death" which I included in the title of the blog.  The term was coined by John Paul II and has been used in numerous encyclicals and other documents and speaks that he gave throughout his pontificate.  For JP II the term referred primarily to the anti-life perspective of our culture.  What he was trying to communicate with the term is that a culture which promotes abortion, euthanasia, contraception, divorce, same-sex marriage, radical feminism, etc. is a culture which promotes death as all these things, in one way or another, lead to the death; the death of individuals, families, society. Ultimately they lead to the death of souls; separation from God a.k.a. Hell.

The use of this term and John Paul II's treatment of all these controversial issues was never meant to be a condemnation of anyone.  He used the term to bring attention to legitimate problems in our world and to call people to a new and joy-filled life.  He asks everyone to look into themselves and ask whether they are happy when they embrace these pillars of the culture of death.  And if you are not happy then he calls you to change.

Through his use of the term "culture of death" John Paul II was giving a realistic description of the world we live in.  As Christians we believe in the resurrection and John Paul II reminded us that from a Christian perspective death leads to new life.  He said that from the ashes of the culture of death will rise the culture of life.

For me the culture of death brings great sadness.  I want everyone to live happy and joy-filled lives and I know, from personal experience, that buying into the lies of a secular world will not bring us true happiness.  If we embrace death we may experience pleasure for a time but ultimately it is an empty pleasure and it leads to sorrow and misery.  We slowly start to die to ourselves and become slaves to our passions. I do not wish this for anyone.  I want to help people to live according to their life's purpose.  To be fully alive.  I want them to leave behind the culture of death and work together to build a culture of life where the truth, goodness and beauty fill our hearts and souls with hope and lead us to the fulfillment of all our desires.

Through this blog I want to share with you my life and how I find happiness and hope while living in the culture of death.  Christ descended into Hell before he ascended into Heaven and I believe that our culture will do the same.  As Christians we must follow Christ through the death to the resurrection.  We must be faithful to Christ, even though it is challenging and we will be persecuted.  The darkest hour comes just before the dawn and I believe that the dawn for our culture is not far off.

So in conclusion I'll leave you with one of the mottos of John Paul II; "Be Not Afraid!"

My Hero - Pope John Paul II

As I said in my first post the goal of this blog is to open my heart up to you and to share with you my perspective of the world.  With this in mind I decided that a good way for me to get started would be to tell you who my hero is and the profound impact he has had on my life.

My hero is Pope John Paul II.  For those of you who don't know who he is; you need to get out a little more! Please do a quick Google search.  John Paul II was one of the greatest men of the 20th century.  He lived through Nazi and Russian occupation, he was instrumental in the collapse of the Soviet Union, he had one of the longest pontificates in the history of the Catholic Church, he survived an assassination attempt, and he gave the world the Theology of the Body; a new teaching on human sexuality and human existence. 

JP II accomplished a lot of great things but for me the greatest was the Theology of the Body.  This teaching has changed my life.  When I was a teenager trying to figure out the meaning and purpose of my sexuality and my place in life I felt really lost.  The most important thing to me was my Catholic faith and it seemed like my faith was at odds with the desires of my heart.  Then I discovered JP II's Theology of the Body.  This teaching taught me that the deepest desires of my heart are meant to be fulfilled and that by following these desires I would be living my purpose in life.  John Paul II showed me what it means to be a man; to be truly alive.  He was one of the most amazing people I have ever seen.  My one regret is that I only became interested in his life after he died.  

I only had one experience of being in the same place as him.  It was at World Youth Day in Toronto.  I remember going to the Final Mass with my dad and brother and it was cold, wet and raining.  We were miserable.  I wanted to go back to the bus and go home.  Then, the TV screens showed Pope John Paul II getting into his helicopter and start making his way to Downsview Airport, where the Final Mass was to be held.  Immediately the sky began to clear and by the time the Pope's helicopter touched down the sun was shining and there was a nice breeze blowing.  It was amazing to experience this.  I also remember FEELING JP II's presence.  Many other people have said that when they walked into John Paul II's presence they would FEEL him.  I do not know how to describe it but when the Pope's helicopter came into view at World Youth Day I felt a presence that I had never felt before and have never experienced again.  It was amazing. 

I cannot express how much John Paul II means to me.  He is close to my heart. He is a friend, a companion, a fellow scholar.  He changed my life and it just feels right to start this blog by telling you about him. Blessed John Paul II, pray for us!

God Bless!

Outline of a Blog

As I said yesterday I want to use this blog to open my heart up to you.  This will make it easier for me to generate content so I am hoping to post to this blog once or twice a week.  I will post every Monday and some weeks I will post on Friday as well.  This is a way to put book ends to the week.  I can begin and end my week by sharing something with you.

For the first few weeks I may have more posts then just two a week.  The reason for this is that I want to add as much content as I can to get the blog off the ground.  My intent is not to overwhelm any readers, it's just to try and make a good start.

Stay tuned for coming posts.

God Bless!

A Fresh Start: A Blog Made New

I am relatively new to the blogging world.  I started my first blog last year and it died shortly after I started it.  It was called "Catholic Approaches to Current Issues" and the idea behind it was that I would comment of things happening in the world from a Catholic perspective.  What happened is that it very quickly became very academic and it took me massive amounts of time to write each post because I spent hours and hours researching each topic.  All-in-all the blog was not terrible.  The posts were all relevant, well-written and well-researched, but, due to the work involved, I quickly became too busy to keep writing those academic posts.  The time between each post stretched from one week to two and then to a month and then over six months.  That's when I decided to stop posting to that blog altogether and start fresh.

What you are reading now is my first post on my new blog.  My approach with this blog will be to write about things that are close to my heart; the things that matter most to me.  I want to share with you my perspective on living in the world of today.  Some of my posts may be academic, but I will do my best to keep it low-key.  I am not going to reference sources or add quotes like an academic paper unless I feel it is absolutely necessary.  For the most part I will be explaining what I mean and to who I am referring and it will be left up to you to find the sources and exact quotes if you want to.

For example, Pope John Paul II called the world we live in today a culture of death.  If you want to know more about this then I'm leaving it up to you to find where he says this and what he means by it. This term, culture of death, has left a huge impression on me and is a focus of this blog.  I will talk about some of the ways I see the world we live in as a real culture of death, but also some signs of hope that I see.

I saw the picture above on another blog and I decided to use it in my first post because it expresses what I want to accomplish with this blog.  I want to open up my heart to you a little bit.  I want to share my thoughts and dreams with you.  As you read this blog please keep in mind this quote;

"Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths,
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet;
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams." - W.B. Yeats

What I will be sharing here will be, in part, my hopes, dreams and the way I see the world, so please be respectful.

I am really excited to be starting a new blog and I hope you are interested to hear what I have to say.  Thank you in advance for following my thoughts and treading softly on my dreams. God Bless!