Theology of the Body: In the Beginning...

By Michele Grantham 

When I was a little girl, my dad used to tell me stories about Italy and Sicily. My dad was an Italian American, and he loved the culture and history of his ancestors. He would say, “You are a descendant of the great Roman Empire.” He told us that Romans were great engineers and builders, who connected the world by building roads. Of Sicily, he would say that it had a strong history with the Greeks which was another great ancient civilization. Sicily had more Greek ruins than Greece! In this way, he taught his children about family, cultural pride, and how to think about ourselves. I knew I was a descendant of two of the three great ancient civilizations. The wonderful foods, Renaissance art, the fact that the Pope lived in Italy, and other Italian customs were part of our identity, but my dad was reaching back to the beginning of Italian culture when he talked of the ancient civilizations of Rome and Greece.  

In the Theology of the Body (TOB), Pope St. John Paul II reaches back to human origins. He tells us how Jesus calls us to “go back to the beginning” so we can remember who we are in the eyes of our Creator. We are male and female created in the image and likeness of God. (Genesis 1:27) Pope St. John Paul II begins TOB with Matthew 19:2-9: 

• And the Pharisees came up to Him and tested Him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause? He answered, “Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? So, they are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses’ command one to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?” He says, “For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.” 

Our modern minds focus on what Jesus is going to say about divorce. We want to know, “What is the rule?” But Jesus makes an important point twice to “go back to the beginning.” By asking us to remember who we are from the beginning, Jesus calls us to ponder our relationship with God, our inner selves, each other, and the natural world. Who is God? What is the purpose of our lives? How are we to love? How were we to act? Jesus reminds us that God the Father has a divine plan for each of us. When we understand God’s plan for the human being, our personal life decisions are going to be different than if we have no understanding, a misunderstanding, or live in denial of our origin or our past. Jesus calls us to listen from our hearts and reflect “back to the beginning” in the garden of Eden.  

In Mathew’s Gospel passage, Jesus tells us that something has changed. Because of the fall of man, we make exceptions and think that man cannot be perfect just as our heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48). “By coming to restore the original order of creation disturbed by sin, Christ himself gives the strength and grace to live marriage in the new dimension of the Reign of God.” (CCC 1615) This is a great hope for all of us. This means that Jesus came to reconcile the relationships of God & man and man & woman. We lost sanctifying grace when we were cast out of the garden of Eden. Baptism in Christ restores this grace. As Christians then, we are given the grace to image the likeness of God "as in the beginning", in our relationships, and in the world. When we live our God-given true nature and heritage as sons and daughters of God, we become fully human as intended in the beginning. St. Irenaeus says it well, “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.” 
 
The first section of TOB is a study and reflection of the human experience on Genesis. It is helpful to read Genesis 1-3 for a scriptural foundation to this teaching. We will begin this in the next article of the series.   

More of Theology of the body Series by Michele Grantham:
What is Theology of the Body?