2015/11/08 — 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

As we approach the end of this year in the liturgical cycle, the first reading and the gospel show us instances of extreme generosity by poor widows, while the second reading foreshadows the emphasis on the glorious return of Jesus which will become a major theme in the next few weeks.


In the first reading — 1 Kings 17:10-16 — we hear the story of Elijah and the (pagan) widow of the (pagan) city of Zarephath in (pagan) Sidon. The background is that the wicked King of Israel, Ahab, has married Jezebel, the daughter of the King of Sidon, and under her influence has introduced the worship of her god into Israel. Through Elijah, God announced that he was sending a drought on the land. Remarkably, God sent Elijah to the country of Jezebel's father to be safe from Ahab, promising that a widow would provide for him. This is why, as the reading begins, Elijah goes to Zarephath and requests hospitality from a poor widow. Her generosity and reliance on the word of Israel's God bring her and her son life in place of the death which had seemed their certain fate.

We should strive to emulate the widow's faith in the word of God which is proclaimed to us, with its promise, not of earthly life, but of eternal life: the salvation promised in the second reading.


The responsorial psalm — Ps 146:7-10, with response from the beginning of the psalm — leads us to make our own, the sort of faith in God's care for us that the widow of Zarephath exhibited, and to praise God for that loving care. The words recall those of Isaiah which Jesus quoted in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4:16-21; Isaiah 61:12), as well as the description of the Lord's care for the widow, the orphan, and the alien, in Deuteronomy 10:18, which then the people (we) are commanded to emulate.


In the gospel — Mark 12:38-44 — Jesus is approaching the last days of his ministry, teaching in Jerusalem. He begins with a warning against the pride and greed of the scribes, whose conduct is the very opposite of God's care for widows. Jesus then calls attention to the generosity of a certain widow. At that time, widows, having lost the income produced by their husbands, basically had no reliable source of income. If there were children, they would be expected to support them. Otherwise, they had to rely on charity from others. So the generosity of this widow who gave all she had to the temple is the most radical generosity possible, and must be based on an absolute faith in God's providential care.

The widow, in giving all she had, is in effect an example of total self-giving. Jesus, giving himself on the cross shows us the epitome of such a gift of self. Pope St. John Paul II teaches us in his Theology of the Body, that marriage is a promise of the mutual self-giving of each spouse totally to the other and that celibacy for the kingdom of God should be a comparable self-giving of the celibate to God.


The theme of self-giving is also found in the second reading — Hebrews 9:24-28. We continue to hear about Jesus as our high priest. There are three main themes: Jesus offers himself to the Father once; this self-offering is on our behalf and takes away our sins; and he will return to bring the fullness of salvation to those whose sins have been taken away.


We might ask the Holy Spirit to show us to what extent we give ourselves either to a spouse or to God. If not in a state which calls for such a total self-giving, do we still give generously of ourselves to those who are in our lives, and do we realize that ultimately all we have and all we are belongs to God? On the other hand, to what extent do we seek to maintain our status, like the scribes of whom Jesus speaks? Do we neglect the needs of others while concentrating on being admired in our community or in our circles of friends and associates? Is our religiosity empty, or even partially for show? We can ask God to help us be more like these generous widows and less like the greedy and status-seeking scribes.

The Catholic belief is that the Mass brings that unique sacrifice of Jesus to us so that we become participants in it as members of his body. This participation should strengthen us to live out the message of the scriptures, if we accept the grace of God which enables us to do so. We can be both those who proclaim God's loving care and who provide for the needs of others on God's behalf.

Theology of the Body 2014/08/31

I'm surprised that it has been more than three months since I've made a post on the Theology of the Body. Recent excerpts have dealt with the point that our resurrected bodies will transcend marriage (the supreme bodily expression of our call to a communion of persons), but there will still be a self-giving. And God will give himself to us completely.

"Jesus argued for the resurrection based on Old Testament Scriptures and the power of God, but his ultimate testimony was his own resurrection. …

"Because of his direct experience of the risen Christ, the resurrection became a centerpiece of Paul's teachings. The resurrection is the foundation of Christian belief, Paul argues. …

"In his First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul buildson Jesus' words in the Gospels, offering a profound meditation on the resurrection. … Paul agrees that the body, as we experience it, is weighed down by sin, but he uses this to argue for the resurrection:

But someone may ask, 'How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?' … The body that is sown is  perishable, it is raised imperishable: …it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. (1Cor. 15:[35; 42-44])

…

"Paul's synthesis is rooted in a total view of humanity, from creation to the fullness of redemption. According to Genesis, the creation of man is an enlivening of matter by spirit. Also according to Genesis, the body became subject to corruption and death because of the Fall. … Even so,  the body contains and reveals hope, like the hope of a woman in labor awaiting the promise of new life.

"Christ's resurrection confirms the promise of the redemption of the body. … [W]e can look forward to the day when 'the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God' (Rom. 8:21). …

"Redemption is the way to resurrection. The coming resurrection will complete our redemption in Christ."

 

Prostitution, Promiscuity, and Pornography

Readers of this blog will know that I have been slowly going through a 185 page book titled Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body in Simplified Language. Recently, inspired by Gabriel Blanchard, (on Twitter he uses the screen name snarkangel and the address @MudblodCatholic) I have started reading the original book (in which the text runs to 553 pages). This morning, I came across a section which made the point about what's wrong with prostitution, promiscuity, and pornography clear to me.

     Analyzing the accounts of creation in the book of Genesis, Pope John Paul II sees creation as a gift of God to humanity. The culmination of that gift is Adam and Eve as gifts to each other, not only as God's gift to each, but then as their gift to each other.

     It says that man is created in the image and likeness of God, and this applies both to body and spirit. Within the Trinity, there is total love and mutual self-giving. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit belong completely to one another in love. Our bodies enable us the give a physical image of the spiritual reality that is God. We are created male and female: sexual. We recognize our bodies as the means of expressing the total gift of self and the total receiving of the gift which we are called to as the image of God. "It is not good for the man to be alone." He needs someone to give himself to in love. Just as God's self-giving is loving and irrevocable, so should ours be.

     Our sexual bodies are made to show the mutual self-giving in love that images God. In other words, sex is created to be an expression of the complete self-giving of each party to the other in love.

     But that is what is lacking in prostitution, promiscuity, and pornography. Instead of giving oneself to the other, those who engage in these things use the other person for their own purposes. There is no loving commitment to the other. The prostitute does it for the money, the customer for the physical pleasure. The pornstars do it for the money and possibly for the physical pleasure, the viewers watch for the pleasure. The promiscuous are only seeking the physical pleasure, without love or commitment. So they all falsify the image and likeness of God which their sexuality is supposed to show. If they have any feeling toward the other(s) involved, it is lust, not love.

     Contemporary culture seems widely to regard sex as merely something one can enjoy. There is no idea, in many quarters, that it should be meaningful. So the slogan is that as long as nobody is hurt and it's consensual on both sides, it's okay. But a Christian needs to view it within the context of creation, as an important part of God's plan which exists for a purpose — to enable us to be like God.

Theology of the Body 2012/11/04

"In Genesis we see the body as a gift, revealed in all its radiant purity — its 'nakedness.' In the state of original innocence, nakedness wasn't shameful. Nakedness becomes shameful when the woman is an object for the man, or the man an object for the woman.[*] Interior innocence kept Adam and Eve from reducing each other to the level of a mere object. They were united by their shared awareness of the body as a gift.

"When does the body cease to be a gift? When we turn it into an object, using it for self-gratification. This denial of the gift marks the end of innocence and the beginning of shame.

"In their nakedness, Adam and Eve gave of themselves and accepted each other. This exchange of the gift involved the whole of their being — their humanity, their masculinity and femininity, their bodies and souls.

"At this level, the giving and the receiving are so intertwined that there is almost no distinguishing between them. The two become one — it is difficult to know where giving stops and receiving begins.

"In the mystery of creation, the woman is brought to man as a gift. Thanks to original innocence, she is accepted by him as a person good in and of herself, not as an object. …Eve discovers herself and the meaning of her femininity …. because she's been accepted [by Adam] in the way the Creator meant her to be accepted.

"From the beginning, the woman was a gift for the man. She was entrusted to his eyes, his sensitivity, his heart. To complete the exchange of the gift, he must give himself to her in return.

"This mutual self-giving creates the communion of persons, enriching both the man and the woman. Love begets love."


[*] I'd add that it also becomes shameful when people regard others of the same sex as objects.

Theology of the Body 2012/10/16

"The mystery of creation … is that it is a gift from God's boundless love. Only love creates what is good. … The creation of man as male and female, the nuptial meaning of the body, the original happiness of Adam and Eve — all these things are aglow with the radiance of love.

"The opening verses of the Bible speak not only of creation, but of grace. Grace is the communication of God's holiness, the radiance of his Spirit. …

"Happiness is the fruit of love. Man was happy in the beginning because he was created by Love and gave love in return. But even after the Fall, love didn't vanish from the world — because it can never be eradicated. Generations after sin entered the world, Christ came to redeem it — bearing witness to the irreversible love of God first expressed in creation.

"As we've seen, man and woman felt no shame from the beginning. Freedom from shame is the result of love. … Because they were in complete communion with God and with each other, Adam and Eve experienced creation at its fullest and deepest dimension. Filled with grace, they walked in God's holiness. This was the source of their innocence. Grace is what enables a man and woman to make a sincere gift to one another.

"For Adam and Eve, the body was a witness to innocence. The statement that they were 'both naked and felt no shame,' is unique in the Bible. … Elsewhere, nakedness is associated with shame and even disgrace. In the ancient Middle East, clothing was linked to status. …

"In this context, we can see just how striking Genesis 22:5 is. Innocence was a gift of grace to Adam and Eve. Because their hearts were pure by the radiation of God's love, they were able to see the true meaning of their nakedness and give themselves completely to each other.

"Original innocence speaks of the Creator's gift. It speaks of grace …."

Theology of the Body 2012/10/07

"Each human person is willed by God for his own sake. Human life is good in and of itself — it is not a means to an end. Life is sacred, and we cannot put a price on it. Each person is unique and unrepeatable; someone chosen by eternal Love.

"By giving themselves away, Adam and Eve were able to discover this truth about each other. In their first meeting, Adam found Eve, and Eve found Adam. He accepted her as a unique person, willed by the Creator for her own sake, reflecting the image of God in her femininity. And she accepted him in the same way — as a unique person reflecting the image of God in his masculinity.

"The person is affirmed in the acceptance of the gift, made possible by the nuptial meaning of the body. This mutual self-giving, first manifested in God's self-giving love, is the basis for the communion of persons. This joyful communication explains why Adam and Eve existed in a state of original happiness. Though this was a short-lived period in human pre-history, comprising only a few verses of Genesis, it is full of implications for the theology of the body. Most particularly, it reveals the nuptial meaning of the body as a gift given in the freedom of love."

Theology of the Body 2012/09/24

"If creation is a gift for man, we have to ask: did Adam live as though creation was a gift? Was he grateful to the Creator.

"When God first created Adam, he lived in a state of original happiness. But the Bible …. focuses on the fact that Adam was alone.

"…[S]omething was lacking. In Genesis 2:18, for the first time, God notices that something is not good: 'It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.' Adam, too, is keenly aware of this lack. While naming all the animals, he found no suitable helper. No other creature was suitable for him; none could unite with him in a relationship of mutual giving.

"When God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone,' he affirmed that man was created to live in communion. A man realizes his full potential only by living with someone — or, even more completely, by living for someone.

"…. In a communion of persons, human beings live for each other, as gifts to each other. This is the fulfillment of our original aloneness. When God brings Eve before him, Adam expresses gratitude: 'This now is bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh.' Adam and Eve were gifte for each other. This mutual gift was expressed by their complementary bodies, male and female.

"The body reveals the 'living soul' that man became when God breathed life into him. It's a witness to the fact that all of creation is a gift. Because of this, the body is a witness to the Love that brings forth and sustains all life. Our masculinity and our femininity — our sex — is the sign of a gift.

"By uniting so closely as to become 'one flesh,' husband and wife open themselves to the blessing of procreation …. In Genesis, there is a difference between the sex instinct of animals and the procreative power of human beings. Because man alone is created in the image of God, human sexuality is raised to a higher level — the level of persons.

"From the beginning, man's existence as male and female is connected with gift-giving — the nuptial meaning of the body. Human sexuality is fundamentally about mutual self-giving, mirroring the Creator's love."