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86. Mystery of the Body's Redemption Basis
of Teaching on Marriage and Voluntary Continence
By Pope John Paul II
"We
ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we
await...the redemption of our body" (Rom 8:23). In his Letter to the Romans, St.
Paul sees this redemption of the body in both an anthropological and a cosmic
dimension. Creation "in fact was subjected to futility" (Rom 8:20). All visible
creation, all the universe, bears the effects of man's sin. "The whole creation
has been groaning in travail together until now" (Rom 8:22). At the same time,
the whole "creation awaits with eager longing the revelation of the sons of God"
and "nourishes the hope of also being freed from the slavery of corruption, to
obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God" (Rom 8:19, 20-21). 2. According
to Paul, the redemption of the body is the object of hope. This hope was
implanted in the heart of man in a certain sense immediately after the first
sin. Suffice it to recall the words of the Book of Genesis, which are
traditionally called the proto-evangelium (cf. Gn 3:15). We could
therefore also call them the beginning of the Good News, the first announcement
of salvation. The redemption of the body, according to the words of the Letter
to the Romans, is connected precisely with this hope in which, as we read, "we
have been saved" (Rom 8:24). Through the hope that arises at man's very origin,
the redemption of the body has its anthropological dimension. It is the
redemption of man. At the same time it radiates, in a certain sense, on all
creation, which from the beginning has been bound in a particular way to man and
subordinated to him (cf. Gn 1:28-30). The redemption of the body is therefore
the redemption of the world. It has a cosmic dimension. 3. Presenting
in his Letter to the Romans the cosmic image of redemption, Paul of Tarsus
places man at its very center, just as "in the beginning" he had been placed at
the very center of the image of creation. It is precisely man who has "the first
fruits of the Spirit," who groans inwardly, awaiting the redemption of his body
(cf. Rom 8:23). Christ came to reveal man to man fully by making him aware of
his sublime vocation (cf. Gaudium et Spes 22). Christ speaks in the
Gospel from the divine depths of the mystery of redemption, which finds its
specific historical subject precisely in Christ himself. Christ therefore speaks
in the name of that hope that had already been implanted in the heart of man in
the proto-evangelium. Christ gives fulfillment to this hope, not only
with the words of his teaching, but above all with the testimony of his death
and resurrection. So the redemption of the body has already been accomplished in
Christ. That hope in which "we have been saved" has been confirmed in him. At
the same time, that hope has been opened anew to its definitive eschatological
fulfillment. "The revelation of the sons of God" in Christ has been definitively
directed toward that glorious liberty that is to be definitively shared by the
children of God. 4. To
understand all that the redemption of the body implies according to Paul's
Letter to the Romans, an authentic theology of the body is necessary. We have
tried to construct this theology by referring first of all to the words of
Christ. The constitutive elements of the theology of the body are contained in
what Christ says: in recalling "the beginning," concerning the question about
the indissolubility of marriage (cf. Mt 19:8); in what he says about
concupiscence, referring to the human heart in his Sermon on the Mount (cf. Mt
5:28); and also in what he says in reference to the resurrection (cf. Mt 22:30).
Each one of these statements contains a rich content of an anthropological and
ethical nature. Christ is speaking to man, and he is speaking about man: about
man who is "body" and who has been created male and female in the image and
likeness of God. He is speaking about man whose heart is subject to
concupiscence, and finally, about man before whom the eschatological prospect of
the resurrection of the body is opened. 5. Since in
the previously analyzed texts Christ is speaking from the divine depths of the
mystery of redemption, his words serve that hope which is spoken of in the
Letter to the Romans. According to the Apostle, ultimately we await the
redemption of the body. So we await precisely the eschatological victory over
death, to which Christ gave testimony above all by his resurrection. In the
light of the paschal mystery, his words about the resurrection of the body and
about the reality of the other world, recorded by the synoptic Gospels, have
acquired their full eloquence. Christ, and then Paul of Tarsus, proclaimed the
call for abstention from marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven,
precisely in the name of this eschatological reality. 7. In his
daily life man must draw from the mystery of the redemption of the body the
inspiration and the strength to overcome the evil that is dormant in him under
the form of the threefold concupiscence. Man and woman, bound in marriage, must
daily undertake the task of the indissoluble union of that covenant which they
have made between them. But also a man or a woman who has voluntarily chosen
continence for the sake of the kingdom of heaven must daily give a living
witness of fidelity to that choice, heeding the directives of Christ in the
Gospel and those of Paul the Apostle in First Corinthians. In each case it is a
question of the hope of every day, which in proportion to the normal duties and
difficulties of human life helps to overcome "evil with good" (Rom 12:21). In
fact, "in hope we have been saved." The hope of every day manifests its power in
human works and even in the very movements of the human heart, clearing a path,
in a certain sense, for the great eschatological hope bound with the redemption
of the body. 8.
Penetrating daily life with the dimension of human morality, the redemption of
the body helps first of all to discover all this good in which man achieves the
victory over sin and concupiscence. Christ's words spring from the divine depths
of the mystery of redemption. They permit us to discover and strengthen that
bond that exists between the dignity of the human being (man or woman) and the
nuptial meaning of the body. They permit us to understand and put into practice,
on the basis of that meaning, the mature freedom of the gift. It is expressed in
one way in indissoluble marriage and in another way through abstention from
marriage for the sake of the kingdom of God. In these different ways Christ
fully reveals man to man, making him aware of his sublime vocation. This
vocation is inscribed in man according to all his psycho-physical makeup,
precisely through the mystery of the redemption of the body. Source: L'Osservatore Romano
87. Marital Love Reflects God's Love for His People - 7.28.1982
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