BONUS: God Wants to Marry Us (Theology of the Body)

"What are you looking for?" | "Come, and you will see."

We're so excited to be introducing a series of BONUS EPISODES on The Theology of the Body!

The Theology of the Body is the first major teaching of Pope St. John Paul II’s papacy given over a series of 129 Wednesday audiences at the Vatican. Contrary to what you may or may not have heard, it is not reducible to “Catholic Sex Ed,” it is this (in a sense) but it is also SO MUCH MORE! This teaching from John Paul the Great is an in-depth biblical reflection on (1) what it means to be human and (2) the call of man and woman to become “one flesh.”

Bible Passages Quoted:
- John 1:35-41 
- Hebrews 12:2
- 1 Corinthians 2:9 
- Ephesians 5:31-32

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Hi friends. Welcome to this bonus episode of Catholicism 101 Forever Learning and Living the Faith. The first of many bonus episodes on this topic that I am especially passionate about and just really, really, really love. And that is the theology of the body. So, what is the theology of the body? You may have heard of it before. Um you may, you may have never heard of it before. You may have an um you may have an idea of what it is. But I would really encourage you as you listen to this episode and the ones that follow, these bonus episodes on the theology of the body, that you kind of maybe start fresh. Start fresh with what um you may or may not have been taught um with the theology of the body. You know, how go in with an open mind is all I ask. Um so what is the theology of the body, and maybe why am I so passionate about it and why is it like my the love language of the Catholic Church to me? So the theology of the body is the first major teaching of Pope St. John Paul II's papacy, and he gave it over a series of 129 Wednesday audiences at the Vatican for the first like five years of his pontificate. And so, contrary to what you may or may not have heard, it is not reducible to just Catholic sex education. It is this in a sense, but it is also so, so, so much more. This teaching from John Paul the Great, it's it's an in-depth biblical reflection on what it means to be human and the call of man and woman to become one flesh. And before I start getting into um what some of this catechesis is and start diving into it with you, I want to kind of give you like a rest assured of like, I'm not just I'm not just pulling this out of my um behind. Um, I've been trained in this and I'm still being trained in it. So I am currently um a student on the path for certification with the Theology of the Body Institute in uh Coryville, Pennsylvania. And I'm currently halfway through my course load um in pursuit of certification. So I'm halfway through the course load, and after I finish all the courses, I'll do a practicum project and over the course of a year um and then receive my certification. So rest assured, um, this isn't really stuff I've made up. Um, you know, it the parts that are like my own interpretation or my own prayerful reflections on it, I think you'll be able to tell. But um, and I it you'll be, I think you'll be able to tell. And I'll probably preface it too of like, this is just me. So rest assured, um, this is not something I've made up. This is something the Catholic Church truly teaches, and it came from the magisterium under um John Paul II. I'm also um one of many, many people who believe that in the realm of Catholic theology, that um what St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae, what that has meant for the church for the past like few hundred years since he wrote it and lived, and how that has permeated Catholic theology. And you can't take a theology class nowadays without studying St. Thomas Aquinas in depth um and what he wrote in his Summa Theologiae. I think, and many others do truly believe that give us like give us a few years and let time run its course, and that will be um the legacy of Saint John Paul II is the theology of the body, and it will have the just gargantuan effect on Catholic theology that St. Thomas Aquinas has. So um, JP2 is my papa. I love the man dearly. And if if you've spoken to me about the faith, you probably know that I love John Paul II. Anyway, let's go ahead and let's just get into it. So I actually want to start with a passage from the Gospel of John, and it comes from John chapter 1, verses 35 to 41. The next day, John was there again with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said, Behold the Lamb of God. The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them, What are you looking for? They said to him, Rabbi, which translated means teacher, where are you staying? He said to them, Come, and you will see. So they went and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about four in the afternoon. Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who heard John and followed Jesus. He first found his own brother Simon and told him, We have found the Messiah. So what's really impactful about this gospel passage is it's the first words out of Jesus' mouth in the Gospel of John. He says, What are you looking for? That is the first thing he says to the disciples. And that is what he says to us. What are you looking for? And that can be something small. Um, like what leaves you aching in its absence? What uh what are the things that kind of prick at your heart? And again, like I said, it can be something small. Uh, it can be like a tiny little prick. Um for me, some things that I just I long and I ache for in like a minor way would be my grandmother's dressing at Thanksgiving. Um, we have a tradition where we like we make it the night before and then we fry it like cornbread on the skillet just to make sure it tastes okay and all the seasonings are right because my grandma, her her recipe is wild. But um I I long and I like yearn for that. And as it gets closer, I get really excited. And then whenever I have it, I'm like, oh, this is awesome. And then I never want to stop eating it. Um, the other thing is um I'm from Paducah and we have a place called Tokyo Hibachi, which is like the best um hibachi restaurant ever. I don't make the rules, I only enforce them. But to Tokyo hibachi fried rice, I love that stuff. I don't know why, but that has a very special place in my heart. And I think it's because we celebrated a lot of birthdays there. But the things you can so like however silly they may be, those are some things that like can prick at your heart and everyone's different. Not everyone is gonna agree with me about Tokyo hibachi, but you know what? Teach their own. Um, but these things we yearn for, we ache for, and we long for, uh, they can be big things, obviously. So sometimes that may be like a promotion or a raise. Um oftentimes for young women, especially, um, speaking as a young woman, I can attest to this, that um the longing for a spouse, the longing for a spouse, uh, and then the longing for children, the longing for children, these these things um are obviously major aches, major pricks in our heart that we just like yearn for. So um, what are you looking for? Jesus asks us, what are you looking for? And when we get to it, we're really looking for um the fulfillment of our heart. And we how we experience a semblance of that either in grandma's dressing or fried rice, or um, when you get married, or you get that promotion or raise, or you have a child, like there there is something in you where your heart is just like exploding, you know, to the degree of um how deep the ache is. Now, something um I've noticed personally is that as we age, we typically will numb ourselves to that ache and that longing. Um but the greatest mystics of our Catholic tradition, so people like St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross, um, who both actually heavily influence John Paul II, they teach us that to endure the suffering and endure that ache of longing enables us to find such sweet sweetness and such lightness um that comes with and enduring it for glory that follows. So in the book of Hebrews, Saint Paul uh in chapter twelve, he's talking about um running the race and persevering, and in verse two, he says, While keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith, for the sake of the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising its shame, and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God. Saint John of the Cross and Saint Teresa of Avala really teach us how to enter into that and how to um see, like see the cross for what it is and despise its shame, but not let our sights be fixed on the suffering, to fix our sights on the glory, to endure the cross, keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus and the glory that follows. And a saint that was uh just impeccable at this, I mean, she really allowed the Lord to just stretch her heart um in a way that really hurt. She, yeah, it hurts, but it it is you have to stretch your heart in order for love to fill it. The farther your heart is stretched, the wider your heart is stretched, the more that it can be filled. Let me let me just tell you what Saint Therese of Lesou said. She said that she would undergo all of the tortures inflicted upon the martyrs for just one more degree of glory in heaven, which means that she would be in greater intimacy with Jesus Christ in heaven. She would undergo all the tortures of the martyrs just for just for just to be a little bit closer to Jesus. And it's like, what kind of ecstasy, bliss, joy, and peace did this woman experience that would lead her to say something so insane, so insane. And again, Saint Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 9, he says, What eye has not seen, an ear has not heard, what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him. What did this woman see that filled her heart so much that she desired for it to be stretched even more by all of the pains and tortures of the martyrs so that she could be just a little bit closer to Jesus? Like it is absolutely mind-boggling. That woman is mad, but I love her, and I'm like, oh my gosh, okay. What I has not seen. She didn't even see the full thing, and she wants to undergo all the tortures of the martyr. I think she's insane, but insanely awesome. Um But that's what Jesus' response is. When he sees these disciples trying to follow him, he's like, What are you looking for? And they're like, Teacher, where are you staying? Like, we want to be where you are. And he's like, Okay, they've got a little bit of an idea, but come and you will see. Come with me, and I will make you into one who sees. Come and become one who sees, one who sees what I has not seen and what God has prepared for you. You will experience and see and know in a glimmer, and a glimmer. However great the glimmer, it's still just a grim a glimmer of the glory, the peace, the ecstasy, the joy that will make you say something as seemingly insane as Therese of Lesoux, where you would want to not even like be like, okay, I guess I could do it, but it's like, no, I want, I want you to stretch my heart. I want to undergo all of the tortures of the martyrs just so I can have a little more. Just so I can have a little more of the glory. Uh, it's like, oh my gosh, it's like Nacho Libre. I want a little taste of the glory. Um oh gosh. But I mean, really, however silly or serious, whatever you ache for may be, whether it be hibachi fried rice or grandma's dressing, and um, sometimes for me it's sweet potato casserole, especially this time of year. However, silly or serious it may be, this is just a glimmer into an incredibly redeeming reality. So um, your longing for whatever it may be that pricks your heart, that like leaves you aching in its absence. It is a little glimpse, it is a drop in the ocean. It is a drop in the ocean into Christ's own longing for intimate communion with you and with me. I recently um had the great privilege and blessing of going over to Mejigory, and while I was there, I got to take a day trip to Dubrovnik in Croatia. And while I was there, this is this is gonna seem like a side tangent, but it's not. While I was there, um, I was walking the wall around the old town of Dubrovnik, and I get to this part um overlooking like the Adriatic Sea, like everything in front of me is the Adriatic Sea. And I was like, holy crap! Number one, it is so blue and it is so beautiful, and number two, this is a ton of water. This is a ton of water. And um I just I felt the Lord like speak in my heart like Emily, like the joy and the ecstasy and the bliss that you are experiencing right now, like I am romancing the heck out of you on this day trip to Dubrovnik and on this trip to Mejigory. Emily, what you have experienced is only a drop in the ocean of what I am preparing for you. And you're not even looking at the ocean right now and you're overwhelmed. You're looking at the Adriatic Sea, which in comparison to the ocean is tiny and minuscule, and you're overwhelmed by the sea. Emily, you have no idea what I have planned for you. And I share that um because that is what the Lord is saying to each and every one of us. He he longs for us, he longs for us, and the experiences of this life, um, whether it be getting married or the birth of a child, um, or even finally having sweet potato casserole after like a year uh with like extra butter, it is a little, little, little, little glimpse, a drop in the ocean of his own longing for intimate communion with us. So suddenly, these things, no matter how silly they may seem, like sweet potato calves roll, um, suddenly these things because become sacramental. They become like a visible, tangible sign, a real thing that we experience that points us to an even greater reality, an invisible grace. Um, a sacrament is a visible sign of an invisible grace. And you know, the seven sacraments are instituted by Christ to give us grace and all of that. So these are small S sacramentals. Um so like I I always joke with my um RCIA, OCIA people, and like sweet potato sac, sweet potato casserole is sacramental to me, and sometimes they look at me like I have like seven heads, but you know what? It's okay, it's okay. And then there's there's a flip side to this because in all of this is virtue, and virtue is a balance between two extremes. Um yes, sweet potato is sacramental, yes, um fried rice is sacramental, but we cannot idolize the icon. These things that um awaken a yearning in us or awaken an ache in us, no matter how small. Um, like I said, they point us to a heavenly reality. So they're icons, they're icons of heaven, but we cannot idolize them. Um, and we we have to find that balance and enjoying them rightly. And that's kind of where um the the spiritual life comes in with learning how um learning how to grow in virtue. So like temperance and prudence and all of these things, that is that is a lifelong journey, and it is a tough one, but you know what, it is well worth it. It is well worth it. If what I experienced in Magigory and Dubrovnik is a drop in the ocean and I was overwhelmed looking at the sea, then by golly, um, yeah, it's a lifelong journey. So now you may be like, Emily, we're like 18 minutes into this, and what does any of this have to do with the theology of the body? So here's the thing. We all ache. We all ache. It is just human nature. We all ache, especially most deeply to be seen, to be known, and to be loved for who we are. We all long for intimacy with other people, um, for relationship, for shared joys, shared sorrows. And honestly, the the most evident sign of this deep ache within each and every one of us, and this yearning and longing in each of our lives, it is the sexual urge. And we know that just by looking at the sexual chaos in our world. In all of um my own personal study on the theology of the body, and then my formal study taking courses at the Theology of the Body Institute, um, something I've really come to not only learn in my head, but really has begun integrating itself into my heart is that what is most heavily attacked by the devil is what is most highly favored by God. And the way I typically explain this to people is kind of like when you're playing basketball, if you know the other team has a really good point guard, you're gonna put your best defenders on them. You know, you're you don't want them to score. You're gonna put your best against their best. You're gonna put your most valuable player against their most valuable player. That's that's kind of how that's kind of how the enemy works. He knows what is most valued by God. Um, and so he is going to put his greatest attacks on that. And you can just look around us and um see that the sexual chaos of our world is being deeply and greatly profoundly attacked. Um, so I just want to speak truth to you that our bodies, our sexuality as male and female is very, very good. It is so good. Uh, we were made in the image and likeness of God, who himself is a loving communion of persons. And sometimes I wish that this wasn't just a podcast, that this was like a video, and I could show you um my like two or three draw. I I have like two go-to drawings of the Trinity. Um, but God Himself is a loving communion of persons. The Father gives his entire self, not holding anything back to the Son. And the Son receives that gift and gives not only that gift back, but he adds to it the gift of his own self, the gift of his own self, withholding nothing and gives it all back to the father. And the father receives this and gives it back to the son, and it just is this spiration. It just you can you you can imagine me drawing on a board from the father to the son, they're just spinning back and forth um with one another, giving of themselves to each other. And from this love, this total outpouring and gift of self, this completely selfless gift of self comes the Holy Spirit. Um the theological word for how the Holy Spirit comes to us is spiration. Um and so he is the holy spiration of love, as I would like to call him. And so he he is he is love. He is love, God is love, God is a loving communion of persons, and we are made in the image and likeness of that. We are called to give ourselves fully to one another. without reserve. Um and the most um potent, the most actually the the correct term is the least inadequate um parallel like of how God communicates himself to us. Like we know how God communicates himself to us, that he is a loving communion of persons and how he operates by looking at the sacrament of marriage and by looking at a husband and wife and how they're called to give their whole selves to one another. The sacrament of marriage um as established by Christ it is a call to love how God loves like so intimately how God loves and it is it is the least inadequate way of understanding the Trinity is by looking at how a a husband and wife love one another or are called to love one another. And I just have to like stop here for a second and say that God is not sexual. We are made in his image he is not made in ours. That's kind of why it's the least inadequate way of understanding the Trinity the Trinity because we cannot we can't cast our own human brokenness and fallen um tendencies and all of this onto God and be like, oh I struggle with lust so God struggles with lust. No, it's it doesn't work like that. We have to look at how he instituted marriage and what he calls us to be now Saint Paul affirms this. Saint Paul affirms this in um Ephesians chapter five and actually John Paul II referred to this passage as the synthesis of all scripture it's Ephesians chapter five verses thirty one to thirty two for this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery but I speak in reference to Christ in the church so marriage is what we would call the primordial sacrament. It is the first sacrament we see it um and we see it in the Garden of Eden in Genesis it is the first sacrament and it is the most fundamental sacrament because by their union a husband and wife image the life giving love of the Trinity and it is so good and it's so beautiful. It's the primordial sacrament but it is not the greatest sacrament the Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith as the catechism says and it is the greatest sacrament because what is being imaged by the sacrament of marriage is actually happening still under a sacramental veil of bread and wine but is actually happening in the Eucharist when Jesus says at the Last Supper as he's instituting the Eucharist this is my body given up for you in the Eucharist he gives his whole self to you body, blood, soul, and divinity without reserve and asks you to give your whole self back to him. And there are some really really beautiful um prayers and they're in most everyone's missiles honestly um like your your breaking bread missiles that are in your pews at church they're in the prayer section there is a prayer by St. Thomas Aquinas for um prayer before mass like before receiving communion and then there is a prayer of thanksgiving after communion after receiving the Eucharist after mass um and that's something I've recently started adopting personally is praying that before mass and then praying after mass. It's two separate prayers but they're in your missile and they are so beautiful. They're both written by Thomas Aquinas but they really, really help you kind of enter into that of like Lord I I help me to understand more deeply that you're giving your whole self to me and empower me to give my full self to you because I can't do it on my own. Now the last thing I kind of wanted to talk about is the resurrection of the dead and you might be like Emily I knew you were all over the place but girl you're really you're really throwing me for a loop here. Just hang on. So the fullness of the reality that both marriage and the Eucharist point towards is a full bodily participation in the life-giving love of the Trinity I'm gonna just say that one more time um it is a full bodily participation in the life-giving love of the Trinity the Holy Spirit is here to scoop you up and bring you into that spiration of love that communion of the Trinity that is what we are made for to not just like gaze upon the Trinity but be brought into the Trinity full bodily participation in the exchange of love of the Trinity and it is a mind boggling it is mind boggling it is definitely a point for prayer and meditation and reflection and it's like what does that even mean um but whenever we pray in the creed every Sunday um I look forward to the resurrection of the body we say that every Sunday when we pray the creed we are what we are saying there is that we are proclaiming that we have faith that our deepest aches and desires will be fulfilled superabundantly. Not only will we get to gaze upon the Trinity in the beatific vision, the the beatific vision is a participation in the Trinity where those aches um that are awakened when you think about sweet potato casserole or grandma's dressing or Tokyo hibachi fried rice those aches that are awakened and you're kind of like okay and maybe that doesn't ring with you maybe the whole food thing doesn't ring with you but that ache you have for a husband or for a wife or for a child and you're like oh my gosh this hurts and this cuts deep the the joy and the peace and the ecstasy and the bliss um that comes from experiencing those things is still just a drop in the ocean of what awaits us in the beatific vision. And I feel like um I've I've never had a child before but you always see and hear about people like seeing their newborn child for the first time or um like a husband watching his bride walk down the aisle after they open the doors and um just the they always say there is no greater feeling in this world. And it's like honey you got a big storm coming like in the best way because that is still just a drop in the ocean of what the beatific vision is like. So times that by like a million times that feeling by like a gazillion gajillion million billion um whatever gargantuan number um and that is what awaits all of us and that is um what the theology of the body is all about is how um the our creation of as male and female and how marriage like how how it is an image of the Trinity and how it is like the greatest image of the Trinity here on earth or you know the least inadequate however you want to say it man um but that is what theology of the body is all about is the the Bible summarized in five words God wants to marry us God wants to marry us and I know that there is a lot packed into this episode um and this is like only the introduction to all of this but I would really encourage you um maybe listen to it again and what what sticks out to you what maybe don't you understand you know uh get your journal out or something and um what sticks out to you what do you need to pray with what what is the Lord trying to tell you and where is he meeting your heart at so until next time um I hope you have learned something new um but even more so I hope the Lord has spoken to your heart in some way of how much he loves you and cares for you and that together we can begin to more deeply understand the mystery of our creation as male and female and the call to become one flesh and what the great mystery of the resurrection of the dead and the beatific vision is. So until then I hope you have a blessed day