TOB Tuesday: The question of marriage

Today the US Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments in the first of two "same-sex marriage" cases. Not only is this, as Justice  Kennedy remarked, "uncharted waters," it is an area in which many people are pulled in two different directions: one by the head, and one by the heart. The nature of marriage seems an irrelevant and abstract question.

My Catholic education gave me a sense of direction, but when I was in school (back in ancient history), issues related to marriage and sexuality seemed pretty straightforward. Speaking for myself, I have to say that I did not get a very strong background in where the Church's teachings were coming from; I could only tell you (in a very rudimentary way) what those teachings were.

Then Pope John Paul II was elected.

He dedicated almost five years of his papacy to correcting that lack, giving Catholics the "big picture." He started "in the beginning" with Adam and Eve. He spoke almost every Wednesday morning about "original nakedness"; "being naked without shame" and other things that Popes had never thought to express in public. He spoke of the true meaning of eroticism (as an energy meant to draw us to beauty--and to God); why there is no marriage in heaven; what is the real problem with birth control; what Jesus meant in calling some to celibacy for the Kingdom. He remarked that being "created in the image of God, male and female" tells us something about the Trinity. He delved into five books of the Bible in particular: Genesis, Song of Songs, Tobit, Matthew, Ephesians, making this a rich, biblical understanding of human relationships.

Pope John Paul called this a "theology of the body."

If you have ever had to explain the Church's stance on same-sex unions, the contraception mandate, divorce and other painful realities; if you have been mystified or even scandalized by those teachings, and hesitated to share them with your children or defend them in public, Pope John Paul's Theology of the Body will surprise you with the real beauty, the divine beauty, that is the foundation of every one of those controversial teachings that the media so often refer to as "rules."

I am coordinating an online overview of that Theology of the Body on May 4, 11 and 18. I invite you to visit the bookstore website (www.visit.pauline.org/chicago) to learn more about the program, and to register for it. Even if you cannot join us in real time on those three Saturdays, your registration gives you access to the online video at your convenience. Because the program will be archived as Internet video, this is ideal for groups to use, no matter when they meet: a projector and speakers will allow a roomful of people to share one registration. (The content will keep you talking for days.)

Please ask your local parish to put information in the bulletin as well (at the bottom of this post I have a sample bulletin announcement). On the bookstore site, you will also find a trailer to share on social media. We have a Facebook page and a Google+ community (Theology of the Body), which I invite you to like or join.

Trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtaDjkZMstA
Website: www.visit.pauline.org/chicago
Register: www.ustream.tv/channel/TOB-TV

BULLETIN NOTICE REQUEST

Please post the following announcement in your email, newsletters, web site and social media, beginning in April (continuing through May 18).
Thank you!

DAUGHTERS OF ST. PAUL

Online Catholic Updating Series on the Theology of the Body, Pope John Paul's meditations on the Bible and the mystery of marriage.
Internet webcast May 4, 11, 18; archived video accessible with registration (www.ustream.tv/channel/TOB-TV)
Information: www.visit.pauline.org/chicago or call 312.854.9656

Answering "the" question of our times

So many of our friends, neighbors and relatives, especially the young adults, are unsettled by what the Church teaches in the ares and marriage and the human body; this confusion leads them away from the life of the sacraments and into a life and mindset that is more and more "conformed to this world." 

What if there were a way to change the direction of this movement away from Jesus and his Church, and help young adults to learn and appreciate the amazing and life-giving teachings that they can only find in the Catholic Church?

One of the great gifts Blessed John Paul II left the Church was his "theology of the body," a biblical view of human nature and relationships that is more needed than ever in our own very confused age. 

Now I am excited to share with you a project that I have been working on. Hopefully you will be able to join us, too--or at least let others know about it, starting with this trailer (prepared for us by a college student volunteer: Thanks, Istle!) Please share it far and wide!



For registration links (and lots more details) see our bookstore blog.

TOB Tuesday and the most despised verse in the whole Bible

It's in today's first reading. You know the one. "Wives, be submissive to your husbands."

If that's all you know from the letter to the Ephesians, you will be likely to (a) skip right over the entire paragraph, (b) dismiss the letter to the Ephesians as an ancient text that is impossible to take seriously in the modern world, or even (c) shrug off the entire Bible.

Pope John Paul did his best to see that you don't fall into that temptation. He spent months' worth of his Wednesday "Theology of the Body" talks going over that famous Chapter 5, word by word.

Why? Just so we would be more respectful of the Bible, even if we found its message hard to stomach? No! Because if we would only read it, really read it, we would discover that in some ways, that part of the late Pauline letters is the crown jewel of the entire gift of Divine Revelation. Paul tells us in the very beginning of the letter that this is what is going on: "God made known to us the mystery of his will...to bring all things into one in Christ--things in heaven and things on earth." By the time you get to Chapter 5, you are prepared for the specifics. And so Paul descends from the heavenly heights and goes right to the heart of the home, and even into the most intimate recesses of the home, and begins to talk to husbands and wives about their relationship.


He didn't start there; Chapter 4 leads in (as we heard yesterday at Mass) by reminding us of the love Christ had for us: he loved us and sacrificed himself for us, the Church. So when Paul gets to the nitty-gritty stuff of family life, he has already set the stage. The model relationship is no less than the love of Christ for his Church, and the Church's response to that love.

Paul isn't telling women just to be "submissive" to any and every sort of behavior or abuse: He starts out by telling all the Christians to "be submissive to each other out of reverence for Christ." "Mutual submission" is to be a characteristic of any Christian community. And if you keep reading, you see that he says wives ought to "be submissive ... as the Church submits to Christ." The Church does not submit to abuse from Christ! The Church accepts the sacrificial love of Christ, and tries to respond to that love.  So Paul tells husbands that their love should be "as Christ loved the Church and sacrificed himself." The "masculine" expression of submission is not "Yes, Dear," but "This is my body, given up for you; take and eat." In the same way, the wife's love should be welcoming and receptive of that sacrifice "as the Church submits to Christ." This is Holy Communion in the heart of the home! Just as Christ and the Church are one Body, husband and wife are one flesh. And then Paul marvels, "This is a great mystery [Latin: sacramentum], and I mean this in regard to Christ and the Church."

In other words, marriage is not about the couple as much as it is a reflection of the real marriage, the real "two become one" of Christ and his people--all of us. God has fulfilled the "mystery of his will, to bring all things into one in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth." Marriage is really a heavenly reality, expressed in human terms and participated in through such human means that we think it is really utterly earthly. And so we can miss the divine invitation that the human sacrament offers.

In this week's Mass prayers, the Prayer after Communion reflects this perfectly:

May your Sacraments, O Lord, we pray,perfect in us what lies within them,that what we now celebrate in signswe may one day possess in truth.