1. The time has now come to
conclude the reflections and analyses based on the words Christ
spoke in the Sermon on the Mount, with which he appealed to the
human heart, exhorting it to purity: "You have heard that it was
said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that
everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed
adultery with her in his heart" (Mt 5:27-28). We have said
several times that these words, spoken once to the limited
number of listeners to that Sermon, refer to people of all times
and places. They appeal to the human heart, in which the most
interior and, in a way, the most essential design of history is
inscribed. It is the history of good and evil (whose beginning
is connected, in Genesis, with the mysterious tree of the
knowledge of good and evil). At the same time, it is the history
of salvation, whose word is the Gospel, and whose power is the
Holy Spirit, given to those who accept the Gospel with a sincere
heart.
Christ's words teach
2. If Christ's appeal to the human heart and, still earlier, his
reference to the beginning, enable us to construct or at least
to outline an anthropology which we can call the theology of the
body, such a theology is, at the same time, a pedagogy. Pedagogy
aims at educating man, setting before him the requirements,
motivating them, and pointing out the ways that lead to their
fulfillment. Christ's pronouncements have also this purpose:
they are pedagogical enunciations. They contain a pedagogy of
the body, expressed in a concise and at the same time extremely
complete way. Both the answer given to the Pharisees with regard
to the indissolubility of marriage, and the words of the Sermon
on the Mount concerning the mastery of lust, prove—at least
indirectly— that the Creator has assigned as a task to man his
body, his masculinity and femininity; and that in masculinity
and femininity he, in a way, assigned to him as a task his
humanity, the dignity of the person, and also the clear sign of
the interpersonal communion in which man fulfills himself
through the authentic gift of himself. Setting before man the
requirements conforming to the tasks entrusted to him, at the
same time the Creator points out to man, male and female, the
ways that lead to assuming and discharging them.
Self-education of man
3. Analyzing these key texts of the Bible to their very roots,
we discover that anthropology which can be called the theology
of the body. This theology of the body is the basis of the most
suitable method of the pedagogy of the body, that is, the
education (the self-education) of man. This takes on particular
relevance for modern man, whose science in the field of
biophysiology and biomedicine has made great progress. However,
this science deals with man under a determined aspect and so is
partial rather than global. We know well the functions of the
body as an organism, the functions connected with the
masculinity and femininity of the human person. But in itself,
this science does not yet develop the awareness of the body as a
sign of the person, as a manifestation of the spirit.
The whole development of modern science, regarding the body as
an organism, has rather the character of biological knowledge.
This is because it is based on the separation of that which is
corporeal in man from that which is spiritual. Using such a
one-sided knowledge of the functions of the body as an organism,
it is not difficult to arrive at treating the body, in a more or
less systematic way, as an object of manipulations. In this case
man ceases to identify himself subjectively with his own body,
because it is deprived of the meaning and the dignity deriving
from the fact that this body is proper to the person. We here
touch upon problems often demanding fundamental solutions, which
are impossible without an integral view of man.
Need of adequate spiritual maturity
4. Precisely here it appears clear that the theology of the
body, which we derive from those key texts of Christ's words,
becomes the fundamental method of pedagogy, that is, of man's
education from the point of view of the body, in full
consideration of his masculinity and femininity. That pedagogy
can be understood under the aspect of a specific "spirituality
of the body." In its masculinity or femininity the body is given
as a task to the human spirit (this was expressed in a
stupendous way by St. Paul in his own characteristic language).
By means of an adequate maturity of the spirit it too becomes a
sign of the person, which the person is conscious of, and
authentic "matter" in the communion of persons. In other words,
through his spiritual maturity, man discovers the nuptial
meaning proper to the body.
Christ's words in the Sermon on the Mount indicate that lust in
itself does not reveal that meaning to man, but on the contrary
dims and obscures it. Purely biological knowledge of the
functions of the body as an organism, connected with the
masculinity and femininity of the human person, is capable of
helping to discover the true nuptial meaning of the body only if
it is accompanied by an adequate spiritual maturity of the human
person. Otherwise, such knowledge can have quite the opposite
effect. This is confirmed by many experiences of our time.
5. From this point of view it is necessary to consider prudently
the pronouncements of the modern Church. Their adequate
understanding and interpretation, as well as their practical
application (that is, pedagogy) demand that deep theology of the
body which we derive mainly from the key words of Christ. As for
the pronouncements of the Church in modern times, it is
necessary to study the chapter entitled, "The Dignity of
Marriage and the Family," of Pastoral Constitution of the Second
Vatican Council (Gaudium et Spes, part II, chap. 1) and,
subsequently, Paul VI's Encyclical Humanae Vitae. Without any
doubt, the words of Christ, which we have analyzed at great
length, had no other purpose than to emphasize the dignity of
marriage and the family. Hence there is a fundamental
convergence between them and the content of both the
above-mentioned statements of the modern Church. Christ was
speaking to the man of all times and places. The pronouncements
of the Church aim at applying Christ's words to the here and
now. Therefore they must be reread according to the key of that
theology and that pedagogy which find roots and support in
Christ's words.
It is difficult here to make a total analysis of the cited
pronouncements of the supreme Magisterium of the Church. We will
confine ourselves to quoting some passages. Here is how the
Second Vatican Council—placing among the most urgent problems of
the Church in the modern world the dignity of marriage and the
family—characterizes the situation that exists in this area:
"The happy picture of the dignity of these partnerships (that
is, marriage and the family) is not reflected everywhere, but is
overshadowed by polygamy, the plague of divorce, so-called free
love and similar blemishes; furthermore, married love is too
often dishonoured by selfishness, hedonism, and unlawful
contraceptive practices (Gaudium et Spes 47). Paul VI, setting
forth this last problem in the encyclical Humanae Vitae, writes,
among other things: "Another thing that gives cause for alarm is
that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive
methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and,
disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her
to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own
desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should
surround with care and affection" (Humanae Vitae 17).
Are we not here in the sphere of the same concern which once
dictated Christ's words on the unity and indissolubility of
marriage, as well as those of the Sermon on the Mount,
concerning purity of heart and mastery of the lust of the flesh,
words that were later developed with so much acuteness by the
Apostle Paul?
Demands of Christian moralilty
6. In the same spirit, speaking of the demands of Christian
morality, the author of Humanae Vitae presents at the same time
the possibility of fulfilling them when he writes: "The mastery
of instinct by one's reason and free will undoubtedly demands an
asceticism"—Paul VI uses this term—so that the affective
manifestations of conjugal life may be in keeping with right
order, in particular with regard to the observance of periodic
continence. Yet this discipline which is proper to the purity of
married couples, far from harming conjugal love, rather confers
on it a higher human value. It demands a continual effort [this
effort was called above asceticism], yet, thanks to its
beneficent influence, husband and wife fully develop their
personalities, [and] enrich each other with spiritual values....
It favors attention for one's partner, helps both parties to
drive out selfishness, the enemy of true love, and deepens their
sense of responsibility..." (Humane Vitae 21).
Need of Magisterial pronouncements
7. Let us pause on these few passages. They—particularly the
last one—clearly show how indispensable, for an adequate
understanding of the pronouncements of the Magisterium of the
modern Church, is the theology of the body, whose foundations we
sought especially in the words of Christ himself. It is
precisely that theology—as we have already said—that becomes the
fundamental method of the whole Christian pedagogy of the body.
Referring to the words quoted, it can be affirmed that the
purpose of the pedagogy of the body lies in ensuring that the
"affective manifestations"—particularly those "proper to
conjugal life"— be in conformity with the moral order, or, in a
word, with the dignity of the person. In these words the problem
returns of the mutual relationship between eros and ethos, which
we have already dealt with. Theology, understood as a method of
the pedagogy of the body, prepares us also for further
reflections on the sacramentality of human life and especially
married life.
The Gospel of purity of heart, yesterday and, today: concluding
with this phrase this cycle of our considerations—before going
on to the next one, in which the basis of analyses will be
Christ's words on the resurrection of the body—we still wish to
devote some attention to "the need of creating an atmosphere
favorable to education in chastity," with which Paul VI's
encyclical deals (cf. Humanae Vitae 22), and we wish to focus
these observations on the problem of the ethos of the body in
works of artistic culture, referring especially to the
situations we encounter in modern life.
Taken from: L'Osservatore Romano Weekly Edition in English 13
April 1981, page 3
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