The revelation of God in Jesus Christ is a very bodily revelation. Jesus, conceived by the Holy Spirit over two millenia ago, is the revelation of God. In his words and what he did, and in his very bodily presence among us, Christ revealed God and God's will for us. “For this I came into the world, to bear witness to the Truth,” he told Pilot.
Jesus, the revelation of God, is also, the kingdom of God -- our sharing in God's life. The effect of the revelation of God on those who live their faith in him, is to bring about the kingdom within them and among them-- a sharing in the very life of God (what Catholics have traditionally called "sanctifying grace") in the Mystical Body of Christ. This body conceived, as was the physical body and soul of Christ of Nazareth, by the Holy Spirit -- IS the kingdom of the God who shares his very life with those who give their life to him. "Those who seek to save their life, will lose it, but those who lose their life for my sake will have eternal life."
The Catholic Church doesn't have a philosophy although many through the ages have practiced philosophy with considerable passion. Nor does the Church have a theology although many have engaged in that kind of discourse. What the Church has is Jesus himself, the body of Christ, --the revelation of God-- and the kingdom of God.
The Church does not so much have a mission (as if "mission" were one among a dozen other things the Church does) but rather the mission God has for mankind, has a Church to bring it about. In and through the Church's prayer life the Word of God is incarnated in the life of our world.
At the center of the Church's liturgical prayer is the Mass. And at the center of the Mass is the consecration, where Jesus says, take and eat, this is my body which will be given up for you and for all that sins might be forgiven. It is his body given by God for a purpose. But not a physical body only, for a body is a symbol of more than a physical being but of a whole life. In so far as we through faith accept his bodily gift we enter into a covenant which claims our bodies in chastity and our very souls; so that, as Paul says, we carry about in our body the dying of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body (2 Cor.4:11). At each Mass the Church celebrates her wedding and vows to remain faithful.
The Church’s teaching on such things as premarital and homosexual sex as well as contraception is integral to her core being - the revelation of God in Jesus. These teachings are not going to change over time, no matter how many are scandalized by them. The Church knows and appreciates that God still actively hides from the learned what is revealed to children just as he did Christ's time.
Sex is intrinsically about the giving of our bodies as a symbol of our selves (even by those who don't intend or appreciate the symbolism God has attached to these acts from the very creation of the world.) The revelation of God in Christ to his Church is the Pascal Mystery of a body given and our salvation. When Christ was asked about divorce (see Mark: 10) he referred them back to the eternal truth about marriage as it was “from the beginning.” Even his disciples balked at this. But Moses, the prophet of God, allowed for divorce they pointed out. Was Jesus less compassionate than Moses-- or was the acceptance of divorce more costly to the immortal souls of people than they appreciated?
John the Baptist bore witness to the unchanging meaning of marriage to Herod, though it cost him dearly. Jesus also bore witness to his Father's will. “Not my will but thine be done,” he said. Blessed John Paul's catechesis on this giving of the human body in his Wednesday audiences provides substantial philosophical and theological support for what he Church has always taught on these matters.
The Pascal Mystery is our invitation to live the chaste life of God in Christ, who gave up his body for the forgiveness of sins. The members of his Mystical Body have a vocation each in their own way that contributes to the saving passion of Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment