Theology of the Body for Beginners: Legalism to LIberty

Since I was first introduced to Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body as disseminated by Christopher West a few years ago, I have been a big proponent of his teaching on sex and the body. 

It is a shame how little of the Pope's teaching has spread through the Protestant church.  I guess I should not be too surprised considering the immense distrust of all things Roman in most Protestant circles.  If Protestants are honest with themselves, they must admit that we desperately need help when it comes to issues of sexuality and the body.  We have such a poor foundation for these issues.  The entire spectrum of Protestant theology is vapid. From the meager traditional teaching, "'don't have sex before marriage," to the more progressive teaching that seems to have even less to offer, we are floundering in our efforts to communicate solid and encouraging teaching on the body to our children.

To this end, I would like to recommend Christopher West's Theology of the Body for Beginners. It is solid and accessible.  There is plenty you will disagree with, but at least it will give you something to work with, which is more than most of us have. 

The following quote from his introductory chapter sums it all up for me, "[Pope John Paul II's teaching] is a message of sexual healing and redemption, not condemnation. With this compassionate approach-the Gospel approach-John Paul shifts the discussion of sexual morality from legalism to liberty. The legalist asks, "How far can I go before I break the law?" Instead, the Pope asks, "What's the truth about sex that sets me free to love?"

This is the premise of the Pope's extensive theology of the body and I commend it to everyone. It is time to break down some of the walls between the Protestant and Roman traditions.  We have a lot to learn from one another.

Theology of Grace

Here are some brief thoughts concerning a theology of grace over what I have found to be the more commonly accepted theology of grace and law (law being what we are required to do as Christians).  

As I have come to understand it, the scriptures and the tradition of the Church speak to a theology of grace alone by faith alone and this grace and this faith come to us through the mediation of Jesus Christ alone.

This is a difficult teaching for most people because we desire so much to retain some control over our lives.  Once we accept the grace of God through Jesus, we feel the need to go out and do something more.  No matter how much we hear about free grace, we cannot help but insist that there is more to be done.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” (Eph 2:8-10, italics mine)

This is from the Epistle reading for the Fourth Sunday in Lent.  It is clear in just these few verses (and I promise you will find this same message throughout the whole of scripture) that our salvation and righteousness have nothing to do with us, but solely by the free gift of God, that even our good works after we receive this gift are not of ourselves, but prepared by God for us to live into them. Who we are as Christians has nothing to do with what we do and everything to do with what God has already done. 

It is hard for us to receive things freely.  Even gifts are most often exchanged and rarely given expecting nothing in return. We are much better and paying for what we get, even when it comes to gifts.  Just think about how you felt the last time someone offered to buy your coffee or lunch when you were out.  What is your first inclination?  I know mine is always about buying their coffee or lunch the next time, in other words, to repay them.  We don’t even think about it.  Our instinct is always to repay and we are flustered by our inability to repay God. This leads us to work and work toward living a “good Christian life,” which does not exist.

In this life, there is only the “Christian life,” and it is neither “good” nor “bad.” The message of the gospel is that despite our best efforts to be bad, God declares us good. We were unable to live up to the standards of God before faith in God and it is the same after that faith is given to us.  Christians remain helpless to live up to the standards of God, but despite our efforts God saw fit to have mercy on us, to declare us saints while we were still sinners.  Thanks be to God!

"Taken"

Any man reading this post should run, don't walk, to go see "Taken."  It was the most satisfying movie I have seen in a long, long time.

"Taken" stars Liam Neeson as Bryan Mills, a retired CIA operative whose daughter is kidnapped into forced prostitution.  The stage is set in the first 10 minutes and the rest of the movie is Liam Neeson wrecking people with cold and merciless efficiency.  At every turn are pimps, henchmen, kidnappers, bodyguards, and men who bid on women "certified 100% pure" at auction for unscrupulous purposes and Mills is there to obliterate them.

This in itself, while unassailably cool, would not be post-worthy if it were not for my excitement every time one of the offenders got wasted.  Every time Mills tortures a lead from one of the antagonists, every time he shoots someone without warning to extract information, every time he leaves someone in agony in his righteous pursuit for his beloved, I was putting up the horns in victory.

I could pretend that my emotions were driven by a heightened sense of justice and righteousness (being a priest and all), but that would be a complete lie.  I know myself well enough to know that it was not a sense of justice, but the "satisfaction" of revenge that riveted me at the movies last night.

I hear people talk about justice all the time: our president and political leaders, clergy in the pulpit, my friends at the bar, and protesters on street corners, but I am not convinced any of us actually have a sense of justice, true justice.  I am even starting to believe that there is no such thing in this world, that any system of justice humans have created, no matter how developed, is at best only playing at justice.  

If a stalker kills a young woman in the street there can be no justice for that situation.  His death does not serve justice, but revenge.  The young woman is never coming back and that pain will never go away.  

Even the idea of "social justice" is a myth.  Ask a young boy in a war-torn African village, as you hand him food and supplies, what he is experiencing and his response will never be justice. There is no justice for a starving boy no matter how much food, aid, and medication you bring from rich, white America.

Our world talks a lot about justice, but what we cry out for is blood and gore, revenge and misery, anything that will dull the pain of living in a broken world.  The crowds cried out for Jesus' blood on the cross out of the insanity of sin, not out of a sense of justice.  "Justice" is the sugar coating we put on our blood lust.  "Justice" is what we hope will fill in the hole in our broken and battered hearts.  

I know it is so for me.  I am terrified by the part of me that leaps with a dark joy when I watch movies like "Taken." I pretend it is really justice that I am seeking. That I am driven by my attempt to right the wrong I see all around me. But I am the source of that wrong and my justice, my good work, is filth.

It is only compassion, and not an attempt at justice that will move to heal a broken world.  Jesus came and died for us.  This is the only act in all of history where actual Justice was served and it was in the most unjust way imaginable.  Jesus came that we might know compassion and mercy, love and hope, joy and peace, not justice...never justice.