Prayers

Direct, O Lord, all our actions by your holy inspirations, and carry them on by your gracious assistance, so that every prayer and work of ours may always begin from you and by you be happily ended through Christ, our Lord.

Lord, send a drop of your precious blood upon us and protect us from all attacks of the enemy. We ask all this in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and through the intercession of our Mother Mary.

Amen.

 

St. John Paul II, pray for us.

St. Joseph, pray for us.

St. Thomas Aquinas, pray for us.

Most pure Virgin Mary, pray for us.

All the saints in heaven, pray for us.

 

Bible Verse

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

 

Theology of the Body Quote of the Day

“In every man without exception the historical state plunges its roots deeply into his theological prehistory, which is the state of original innocence” (see TOB 4:1).

 

Theology of the Body

To enter into and understand this quote more deeply, some context is needed into St. John Paul II’s language. St. John Paul II distinguishes three different states of man in his Theology of the Body. The first state is original man, which is the state in the garden before the fall, where we were in perfect love with God. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states,

 

“Being in the image of God the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something, but someone. He is capable of self-knowledge, of self-possession and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other persons. And he is called by grace to a covenant with his Creator, to offer him a response of faith and love that no other creature can give in his stead” (CCC 357).

 

This was the original meaning of our existence, and though we can never fully go back to our original state, “we are to live according to the original norm, even though we suffer the effects of original sin” (Hogan Pg. 39).

 

The second state is that of historical man, which St. John Paul II describes as the state we are in now. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states,

 

“Sin is present in human history; any attempt to ignore it or to give this dark reality other names would be futile. To try to understand what sin is, one must first recognize the profound relation of man to God, for only in this relationship is the evil of sin unmasked in its true identity as humanity’s rejection of God and opposition to him, even as it continues to weigh heavy on human life and history” (CCC 386).

 

We now must realize that sin has entered into the world because of the fall, but sin certainly does not define us. As St. John Paul II said, “We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures, we are the sum of the Father’s love for us and our real capacity to become the image of His Son Jesus” (Homily, 2002).

 

The third and final state is eschatological man which is our future state in heaven in perfect union with God. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says this about eschatological man:

 

“Those who die in God’s grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live forever with Christ. They are like God for ever, for they ‘see him as he is,’ face to face” (CCC 1023).  

 

This is the state for which we all so desperately long. One could say that, “The whole purpose of our creation, the whole purpose of our redemption is so that we may be fully united with God in every aspect of our being” (The fulfillment of all Desire, Pg. 8).

 

St. John Paul II begins his whole catechesis by alluding to the beginning before there was concupiscence (a desire for sin that we experience after the fall). He focuses on the verse, “For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so” (Matthew 19:8).  Using this Bible verse as a springboard, St. John Paul II reflects on the fact that, although we are living as fallen man and must deal with concupiscence and sin, we as Catholics are called to rise above concupiscence as Jesus is calling us to do.

 

We must never forget the way we were originally made, and God’s original plan for all of us. In the beginning, there was no concupiscence and no lust, only love. Lust is a symptom of the fall, and it only becomes a festering disease if we make the active choice to allow it. Because of the fall, concupiscence entered the world; but the only real difference between our original state in the garden and our state here and now is that we lost the grace of God. “Christ is expecting us to go beyond the boundary caused by original sin” (Hogan pg. 39). We can still rise above concupiscence, we can trample over lust with love, but we need to ask for God’s grace.  

As a Solutions Evangelist for Diocesan, Tommy is committed to showing parish and diocesan staffs how to use our communication tools to their best advantage. He has worked for years in various, youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. As an expert on Catholic communication, Tommy uses his parish and diocesan experiences to help you make your ministry effective. To bring Tommy to your parish or for general inquiry, contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com or find him online at www.rodzinkaministry.com.

Sources

Catechism of the Catholic Church. (1994). Liguori, MO: Liguori Publications.

Hogan, R. (n.d.). The Theology of the Body in John Paul II, What it is and Why it Matters (1st ed., Vol. 1).

Martin, R. (2006). The fulfillment of all desire: A guidebook for the journey to God based on the wisdom of the saints. Steubenville, Ohio: Emmaus Road Pub.

Waldstein, M. (2006). Man and woman He created them: A theology of the body. Boston, MA: Pauline Books & Media.

Quotes may be paraphrased in some instances in order that the language makes sense in the context of the program. Please visit the original source for full quotes. © Tommy Shultz, 2018