In previous articles, we saw how Pope St. John Paul II used the term “original solitude” to refer to the human search for identity.  As we interact with the world around us seeking answers to fundamental questions about who we are and why we are here, we discover that we are alone among bodily creatures.  This is so because only the human body reveals a person — a free, rational subject capable of self-awareness and self-determination.  As a person, man is unique in the physical world, and the human body, therefore, takes on a special, sacramental character.  The human body reveals and makes present the spiritual reality we call “person” and points in a veiled way to his transcendent Creator in whose image man is made. 

Having explored these fundamental truths of our identity, let us turn to the second of the original experiences:  original unity.  The pope guides us to reflect on Genesis 2 where we read about the creation of the woman from the rib of man.  Man’s search for his identity left him longing for a “helper fit for him” (Gen 2:20b), but what sort of “help” is this that he is lacking?  He needs someone like himself to help him discover his identity and vocation.  He needs another embodied person.

Guiding man along the path of self-discovery, the Lord forms the woman out of man’s rib and presents her to him.  In response, he exclaims, “This at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh” (Gen 2:23a).  The phrase “at last” signifies that the search is over; his helper has been found.  The rest of the sentence speaks to the kind of help that the woman provides.  Her embodied presence shows the man who he is and what he is made for.  Her body is like the man’s in that her body too reveals a person.  Her body too “is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine” (TOB 19:5).  Her body reveals another “partner with the Absolute” who is capable of “genuinely human activity” (TOB 7:2).  Like me, she too is “set into a unique, exclusive, and unrepeatable relationship with God himself” (TOB 6:2). 

With the creation of the woman, the biblical language used in Genesis shifts from speaking about man in an inclusive sense (i.e., humanity) to using the gendered language of man/male and woman/female.  This is not to say that human nature is now divided or that man and woman are separate kinds of creatures.  Rather, male and female now constitute “two different ‘incarnations,’ that is, two ways in which the same human being, created in the image of God, ‘is a body’” (TOB 8.4).  Human nature is indeed one, yet there are now two ways of being human:  male and female.  Though fundamentally distinct, man and woman are utterly equal in dignity, united in the same human nature.  As Pope St. John Paul II remarked in his apostolic letter on the dignity of women (Mulieris dignitatem), “Man is a person, man and woman equally so, since both were created in the image and likeness of the personal God” (no. 6).  Continuing to reflect on the unity of man and woman in their common humanity, the pope went on to observe,

“The woman is created by God ‘from the rib’ of the man and is placed at his side as another ‘I’, as the companion of the man, who is alone in the surrounding world of living creatures and who finds in none of them a ‘helper’ suitable for himself. Called into existence in this way, the woman is immediately recognized by the man as ‘flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones’ and for this very reason she is called ‘woman’” (no. 6).

The equal dignity of man and woman is unmistakable and founded on our creation as embodied persons sharing the same human nature.  Equally unmistakable is the fact that our bodies differ precisely in our maleness or femaleness.  This distinction of sex is a decisive aspect of our human identity and vocation and will therefore be the focus of further reflections.

Note:  This article is part of a series of reflections on Pope St. John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body”.

Continue Reading: Original Unity Part 2:  The Sexual Difference

Dr. Sodergren’s Introduction to Theology of the Body: A Collection of Articles from the Catholic Telegraph

Written by, Dr. Andrew Sodergren, M.T.S., Psy.D.,
Director of Ruah Woods Psychological Services

(Article originally published in The Catholic Telegraph, November 2021 Issue, the official magazine of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati)

In recent articles, I have reflected on Pope St. John Paul II’s concept of original unity.  Reflecting on Genesis 2, the pope drew our attention to our own experience of being male or female.  This sexual difference inserts a duality in our humanity.  As I discussed in prior articles, man and woman both possess the fullness of human nature, but they have and express that nature differently by way of their maleness or femaleness.  It is as if male and female are two modes of being human.  Man and woman are thus equal in dignity and united in the one human nature but distinct from each other in a fundamental and profound way because of their sex.  Pondering further this paradox of unity and duality with the help of Pope St. John Paul II will deepen our understanding of our human identity and vocation.    

We discover our sexual identity as male or female in the body.  The body reveals the person, and in doing so, reveals whether this person is male or female.  As the Church has repeatedly affirmed, this maleness or femaleness is not a superficial feature or mere biological fact that can be overlooked or dismissed.  The maleness or femaleness revealed by our bodies reflects a reality inscribed in the depth of the person.  Being created male or female, affects the entire person all the way to the core of our being.  The body bears witness to this and testifies that we — male and female — are both human persons, but we are distinct from each other in this mysterious and irreducible way. 

The sexual difference of man and woman opens up a new possibility for unity that builds upon and completes our more basic unity in the one human nature.  Our sexually differentiated bodies show us that we are made “for” each other.  Male and female are fundamentally oriented toward each other.  Pondering our sexual difference, man and woman discover in themselves a certain openness inscribed by God to receive the other as a gift and give ourselves totally in return.  Thus, we discover through our male and female bodies the call and capacity for communion of persons.  This communion refers to the intimate union that can be experienced by persons through a total gift of self.  It is possible because of our unity and distinctness in our sexually differentiated humanity.  The “place” God specifically designed for this intimate union to occur and come to fruition is what we call marriage, which the Church has always affirmed, is only possible between a man and a woman. 

Because of our sexual difference, man and woman can come together and form a communion of persons through the intimate giving and receiving of their whole selves in marriage.  Our bodies show us that we are made for this.  The male human body makes no sense without reference to the female human body and vice versa.  Both bodies reveal a unique, irreplaceable human person, while at the same time showing that our maleness and femaleness complement each other.  Indeed, man and woman are apt to come together in a way that unites the two so intimately that Scripture refers to them as “one flesh” (Gen 2:24).  

The capacity for communion that we discover through our bodies reveals a new and deeper layer of our identity and calling as human persons made in the image and likeness of God.  Indeed, Pope St. John Paul II wrote,

“Man becomes an image of God not so much in the moment of solitude as in the moment of communion.  He is, in fact, ‘from the beginning,’ not only an image in which the solitude of one Person, who rules the world, mirrors itself, but also and essentially the image of an inscrutable divine communion of Persons” (TOB 9:3).

Pope St. John Paul II is referring here to the Blessed Trinity, and he goes on to assert that this “trinitarian” understanding of the human person as image of God “constitutes perhaps the deepest theological aspect of everything one can say about man” (TOB 9:3).  Therefore, it bears returning to this theme to unpack further how man as male and female images the eternal Triune God.

Note:  This article is part of a series of reflections on Pope St. John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body”.

Continue Reading: Original Unity Part 4:  Imago Trinitatis

Dr. Sodergren’s Introduction to Theology of the Body: A Collection of Articles from the Catholic Telegraph

Written by, Dr. Andrew Sodergren, M.T.S., Psy.D.,
Director of Ruah Woods Psychological Services

(Article originally published in The Catholic Telegraph, January 2022 Issue, the official magazine of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati)

I began several months ago to explore the three “original experiences” Pope St. John Paul II pondered in his Theology of the Body.  In these reflections, we have seen that the original experiences reveal fundamental truths about who we are as human persons (identity) and how we are called to live (vocation).  Through original solitude, we discovered that we alone in the visible world are embodied persons, capable of self-awareness and self-determination, existing in a unique relationship with God as his sons and daughters, and are called to freely partner with Him in His divine plan.  Through original unity, we reflected on how our bodies reveal that we are created male and female in the one human nature.  This difference of sex affects the whole person and capacitates us to form a communion of persons through total, embodied self-giving.  The “place” that God designed for this total self-giving is called marriage, which is a lifelong union of a man and a woman.  Through their mutual self-gift, the love of the spouses can become personified through the child born of their union.  Thus, the communion of the family forms an icon of the Divine Communion of Persons we call the Blessed Trinity. 

There remains one final original experience to ponder:  original nakedness.  Pope St. John Paul II used this term in reference to Genesis 2:25: “The man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.”  This verse links together the absence of shame and the freedom the man and woman enjoyed in regard to one another and even to God.  Shame is a powerful emotion that arises when we feel especially vulnerable and exposed in the presence of another.  It is linked with a sense of fear of being used, abused, judged, or rejected by the other.  It gives rise to an urge to hide or conceal ourselves physically or psychologically.  In this way, shame cuts us off from others, but it also serves to preserve and protect our dignity in the face of real or perceived threats.

The Holy Father emphasized that the absence of shame experienced by our first parents does not so much indicate some lack but actually reflects a fullness.  Due to the absence of original sin and the abundance of grace bestowed upon them, our first parents possessed a fuller capacity to see the world and one another as God intended.  For them, the body perfectly revealed the person.  Rather than merely seeing the exterior (e.g., the feminine or masculine features of the body), they beheld the spiritual reality and dignity of the person made in God’s image shining through the body.  This inner vision of the person, which they possessed, naturally gives rise to a sense of awe, reverence, and non-possessive love.  It also creates the conditions for man and woman to fully share themselves with each other without any threat of being reduced to a mere object to be used.  Thus, the absence of shame and the corresponding fullness of vision leads to a greater capacity for true intimacy — to see the other and be seen as we truly are.   

This way of seeing clearly involves more than just the eyes.  It involves the heart and requires a purity of intention and openness to seeing transcendent value inscribed by God in created things, especially the human body.  As Pope St. John Paul II wrote, 

“Seeing each other reciprocally, through the very mystery of creation, as it were, the man and the woman see each other still more fully and clearly than through the sense of sight itself, that is, through the eyes of the body.  They see and know each other, in fact, with all the peace of the interior gaze, which creates precisely the fullness of the intimacy of persons” (TOB 13.1).

Reflecting on original nakedness reinforces the dignity of the person and shines light on the depth of intimacy we are created to experience.  This can help us gradually re-orient our vision so that we can see each other as the divine gifts that we are.  To this end, we will ponder these themes further next time.

Note:  This article is part of a series of reflections on Pope St. John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body”.

Continue Reading: Original Nakedness: Receiving One Another as Gifts

Dr. Sodergren’s Introduction to Theology of the Body: A Collection of Articles from the Catholic Telegraph

Written by, Dr. Andrew Sodergren, M.T.S., Psy.D.,
Director of Ruah Woods Psychological Services

(Article originally published in The Catholic Telegraph, March 2022 Issue, the official magazine of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati)

For several months, I have been reflecting in these articles on the “original experiences” explored by Pope St. John Paul II in his Theology of the Body.  Before moving on to other aspects of TOB, I want to ponder the crucial theme of gift, which is like a golden thread woven throughout the late pope’s work. 

Like our first parents, we all come into the world by a power other than our own.  None of us creates ourselves or bestows the gift of life on ourselves.  Rather, we all come from Another.  Our life, our being comes to us as an unmerited gift from God our Creator mediated through our parents.  This points to a fundamental truth:  all of creation depends on God for existence.  Indeed, an important principle in Catholic theology that informed Pope St. John Paul II’s thought is that God is the only being that necessarily exists.  He possesses His own existence and does not depend on anything or anyone in order to be.  Rather, God exists for all eternity in a state of fullness and perfection.  Even more, this state of fullness and perfection consists of an exchange of love without beginning or end among the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that is so real and perfect that we can affirm with St. John the Apostle that God is love (cf. 1 Jn 4:8b).  God Himself is a Divine Communion of Persons in which there is an eternal giving and receiving of Love.

When God creates, He does not do so out of any necessity but does so freely out of the superabundance of His love.  Everything that He creates depends on Him for the gift of existence.  This is true not only at the beginning of life but also at every moment thereafter.  Indeed, all of creation only exists moment-by-moment because God continually wills it into existence.  It is through His loving gift, that you and I exist right now.  As my college chaplain once told me, “If God ever ceased loving you, you would cease to exist.” 

This connection between love and existence is incredibly profound.  It means that all things that exist — rocks, plants, animals, humans, angels — only exist because God loves them into being at every moment.  One implication of this is that there is NEVER a moment in which God is not thinking about you specifically and loving you into existence.  Every beat of your heart, every breath of your lungs, every second that goes by is a gift of love given to you by our God who is Love.  Indeed the very ground of our being is the infinite love of God.  Our first and most fundamental calling, then, is simply to receive God’s gift of life with gratitude, awe, and wonder.

Furthermore, we saw in our reflections on original solitude that all of the visible creation is further given as a gift of love to humanity.  All creatures are meant to reveal — in the measure they are capable — something of the glory and majesty of God.  God gave us the entire cosmos to remind us of Himself and for us to cultivate and make a home worthy of humanity, His most beloved creation in the visible world. 

In our reflections on original unity, we saw that it was not enough for our loving Father to give us the world, but He also gave us to each other by introducing the sexual difference into our humanity.  Through our maleness and femaleness, which are revealed in the body and affect the whole person to his or her very core, we are called and capacitated to form a communion of persons through spousal love.  Through the total gift of self in marriage, the love of man and woman can be personified in the gift of their child, thus forming an icon of the Blessed Trinity.

In all of this, we see that the logic of gift defines the very structure of reality.  In God, there is an eternal giving and receiving among the Divine Persons.  The act of creation itself is also a sheer act of generosity in which creatures are given the gift of existence at every moment by God.  Man most of all is the recipient of God’s greatest gifts — life, the cosmos, each other, and, ultimately, Himself.  This logic of gift is thus fundamental for our understanding of God, the world, and ourselves.  We will ponder this theme further next time and unpack its importance for our vocation.

Note:  This article is part of a series of reflections on Pope St. John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body”.

Continue Reading: Gift, Self-gift, and the Meaning of Life — Part 2

Dr. Sodergren’s Introduction to Theology of the Body: A Collection of Articles from the Catholic Telegraph

Written by, Dr. Andrew Sodergren, M.T.S., Psy.D.,
Director of Ruah Woods Psychological Services

(Article originally published in The Catholic Telegraph, May 2022 Issue, the official magazine of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati)

We saw in previous reflections that all of creation is a gift held in being at every moment by God, whose inner life is an eternal giving and receiving of Love.  Since the very meaning of our existence is gift, and we are made in the image of God who is Love, the fulfillment of our being and existence is to give ourselves away in love (i.e., self-gift).  When we make a “total” gift of self, we give our whole selves — body, soul, past, present, and future — to another.  This most complete form of self-gift is properly called “spousal,” and the proper “place” for this spousal gift is marriage.  The human body, which reveals our maleness or femaleness, shows us that man and woman are made for this kind of spousal gift of self.  The body bears witness to the fact that man and woman are made to belong to each other in an exclusive, permanent way through which may flow the blessing of children. 

Reflecting in this way on the human body and the logic of gift led Pope St. John Paul II to coin the phrase the “spousal meaning of the body.”  This concept was crucial in his thinking about the human person, so much so that he used the term a total of 117 times in Theology of the Body, prompting the editor of the English edition to refer to it as “the single most central and important concept in TOB” (M. Waldstein, TOB, p. 682).  Let’s unpack this concept further.

Referencing one of his favorite passages from the Second Vatican Council, Pope St. John Paul II wrote, “The body has a ‘spousal’ meaning because the human person… is a creature that God willed for his own sake and that, at the same time, cannot fully find himself except through the gift of self” (TOB 15:5).  How do we “find” ourselves by making a gift of self? 

According to the late pope, we discover who we are in how we are received by another, especially in those moments when we are truly “naked,” not necessarily physically but truly vulnerable with another, revealing our inmost self.  In those moments of deep encounter, we “find” ourselves — for better or worse — in  the other’s reception of us.  If we are fully “welcomed” and “accepted” by the other as a gift, we discover the truth of our “giftness.”  We learn, “I am a gift, a person to be loved, respected, treasured.”

In applying these insights to the encounter between our first parents described in Genesis 2, Pope St. John Paul II wrote of how the man and woman beheld in one another “a beauty that goes beyond the simply physical level of ‘sexuality.’”  They looked on each other with a “deep availability for the ‘affirmation of the person.’”  The man and woman saw more than just their sexual features but “through the body someone willed by the Creator ‘for his own sake,’ that is, someone unique and unrepeatable, someone chosen by eternal Love” (TOB 15:4).  Though they were naked, they felt no shame because they perceived that they were completely safe in the person-affirming gaze of the other.  They discovered that each of their bodies revealed a mystery we call “person,” and through their reciprocal self-giving and welcoming of one another, they discovered their true value as gifts to be treasured.  In this way, our first parents discovered the spousal meaning of the body and its essential connection to man’s “original happiness” (TOB 15:5).  

Indeed, we are all called to see in each other’s bodies a person who must be welcomed, accepted, even treasured, as a supreme gift from the Creator.  By receiving one another in this way, we help each other “find” ourselves, discovering the truth of our “giftness.”  We are then emboldened to reveal and welcome each other more and more deeply such that our “mutual gift creates the communion of persons” (TOB 17:3).  Thus, the spousal meaning of the body means that through this giving and welcoming, accepting and finding, our bodies proclaim to us the eternal truth that “happiness is being rooted in Love” (TOB 16:2).

Note:  This article is part of a series of reflections on Pope St. John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body.”

Continue Reading: Knowledge, Procreation, & the Primordial Sacrament

Dr. Sodergren’s Introduction to Theology of the Body: A Collection of Articles from the Catholic Telegraph

Written by, Dr. Andrew Sodergren, M.T.S., Psy.D.,
Director of Ruah Woods Psychological Services

(Article originally published in The Catholic Telegraph, July 2022 Issue, the official magazine of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati)