{"id":10424,"date":"2011-06-29T16:52:48","date_gmt":"2011-06-29T20:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thebloggingmonk\/?p=10424"},"modified":"2012-03-05T18:42:34","modified_gmt":"2012-03-05T23:42:34","slug":"st-benedict-theology-of-the-body-and-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thebloggingmonk\/2011\/06\/st-benedict-theology-of-the-body-and-love.html","title":{"rendered":"St Benedict, the Theology of the Body and Human Love"},"content":{"rendered":"<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Pope meets with members of John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yyXh_EvAdIo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>At the beginning of the fourth chapter of his Rule, Saint Benedict emphasizes the primary importance of love as the greatest instrument, and indeed the goal, of every good work his monks would seek to accomplish:\u00a0 <em>First of all, love the Lord God with your whole heart, your whole soul and all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself <\/em>(Mt 22.37-39, Mk 12.30-31, Lk 10.27) (RB 4.1-2).\u00a0 Likewise, Saint Benedict states later in the same chapter that <em>the love of Christ must come before all else <\/em>(RB 4.21).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The phrase \u201cfirst of all\u201d is important to underline here, as it shows the primacy of place (in primis) that love is to hold in our lives as human beings.\u00a0 We must embrace love as our primary vocation if we desire to live life to the fullest, that is, if we seek to please God and to discover full communion with Him, which is cojoined intimately with our love for neighbor and growing in communion with our fellow man.<\/p>\n<p>Concerning God\u2019s divine plan for such human love, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima on May 13 marked the 30th anniversary of two important events in the Church\u2019s history that happened to coincide on the same day, and it seems not by coincidence.\u00a0 On May 13, 1981, Blessed Pope John Paul II held a public audience at which he had intended to announce the new establishment of the John Paul II Institute for Studies in Marriage and Family, which he had opened earlier that day at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, before he had a chance to share his passionate vision at having created this new research institute within the Church, both to study love within the sacred institutions of marriage and the family and to counter threats working against them, a gunman opened fire on the beloved Pope in an assassination attempt that shook the world.\u00a0 By the grace of God, and through the heavenly intervention of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Fatima to whom the Pontiff credited the sparing of his life, the firm resolve of Blessed John Paul II to carry out the mission of evangelizing anew the authentic love of God and neighbor within the Church and across the globe only strengthened.<\/p>\n<p>In his recent speech marking the anniversary of both of these historic events, Pope Benedict XVI highlighted that the Blessed Pontiff had entrusted to the John Paul II Institute the study, research, and dissemination of his Catecheses on Human Love (known commonly now in the United States as the \u201ctheology of the body\u201d).\u00a0 This Magisterial teaching profoundly reflects upon the meaning of the human body in God\u2019s divine plan for human love.\u00a0\u00a0 On May 13, 2011, Benedict XVI emphasized a crucial development in this \u201ctheology of the body\u201d for the\u00a0Institute and thus for educating the world in its proper interpretation:\u00a0 <em>Joining the theology of the body with that of love in order to find unity in the human journey:\u00a0 this is the theme I would like to point out to you as a horizon for your work<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Our Holy Father\u2019s words here provide crucial insight as we move forward in seeking both personally to comprehend, then subsequently to educate individuals, couples, and families in Blessed John Paul II\u2019s Magisterial teachings on human love in the divine plan.\u00a0 We discover in Pope Benedict\u2019s words here that the theology of the body is most importantly a theology of love, as reflected in his first and great encyclical on human love, <em>Deus caritas est<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0 in his remarks on May 13, Pope Benedict highlighted to the Institute that our bodies hide a mystery, one in which the spirit is manifest and active, pointing us to our ultimate vocation as human beings to \u201cbe spiritual bodies\u201d (cf. 1 Cor. 15.44).\u00a0 Our bodies \u201c<em>are not inert, heavy matter but, if we know how to listen, they speak the language of true love<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We understand at a theological level that our human bodies are called to be sacred, by virtue of Jesus\u2019 Ascension body and soul into heaven.\u00a0\u00a0 In ascending to the throne of His Heavenly Father, Jesus shows Himself to us as the Way, the Truth, and the Life and the path to eternal life upon which we are called to walk if we truly desire perfect communion with the Triune God, Who is Being-in-Communion.\u00a0 The theology of the body, when correctly understood and applied, marks God\u2019s vocation of man to love God and neighbor perfectly.\u00a0 Man is to be conformed fully into the image and likeness of His Son Jesus Christ Who is the Love Incarnate of God the Father, so that the human person may become sacred in body and soul like Christ and dwell forever with Him in perfect communion with God the Father in heaven.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It is in this manner that we discover God\u2019s destiny for man:\u00a0 <em>From the moment of the mysterious Incarnation of our Lord, when Jesus takes on human flesh and sanctifies it in the eyes of the Father (cf. image), and through His Nativity and life of ministry on earth, Jesus manifests in His body and spirit the love of God the Father through perfectly loving, virtuous action and points the way to perfect communion with God (cf. likeness).\u00a0 When we live excellently by way of choosing virtuously loving action, we thereby reflect God\u2019s glory and fulfill God\u2019s desire for the human person, becoming a fragrant and pleasing offering to God Who Is Love, Deus Caritas est.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Pope Benedict teaches us that the first word in the language of love is discovered in the creation of the human person, highlighting that the body \u201cspeaks to us of an origin that we have not conferred upon ourselves\u201d.\u00a0 In revealing our origin to us, the body \u201cbears a filial significance\u201d [emphasis added] as it helps us to understand that we are generated, pointing us back &#8212; through our parents who first gave us life &#8212; to God the Creator as the Source of our life and love.\u00a0 Pope Benedict wisely instructs that only when we recognize the originating Love Who has given us the gift of life can we as human persons accept ourselves fully and \u201cbe reconciled with nature and with the world.\u201d<a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/231\/2011\/06\/body.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-10425\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/231\/2011\/06\/body.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The theology of the body, in manifesting most importantly a theology of love, demonstrates that God has designed our human sexuality to open us as human beings to the vastness of His love through genuine love of neighbor.\u00a0 Properly understood, the theology of the body is much more a theology of loving communion and not a mere \u201ctheology (or Gospel) of sex\u201d, which would reduce and even risk debasing Blessed John Paul\u2019s real intent in promulgating his Catecheses on Human Love.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Reflecting on Blessed Pope John Paul II\u2019s teachings, Pope Benedict elaborates that human sexuality is born of the vastness of God\u2019s Love, leading us to discover \u201cintegral beauty, the universe of the other person and of the \u2018we\u2019 that is born of the union, the promise of communion that is hidden therein, the new fruitfulness, the path towards God, the source of love, which love opens up.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>When the body is separated from its filial meaning, from its origin in the Creator, it \u201crebels against the person, loses its capacity to let communion shine through and becomes a place for the appropriation of the other.\u201d\u00a0 The Holy Father poses a crucial question here for our reflection: \u201c<em>Is this not perhaps the drama of that sexuality which today remains enclosed in the narrow circle of one\u2019s own body and emotions, but which in reality can only find fulfilment in that call to something greater?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Pope Benedict leads us to the family as the place where we engage the process of redemption of the body.\u00a0 Emphasizing a key theological development here concerning the meaning of the human family, Benedict XVI proclaims:\u00a0\u00a0 <em>The family: this is the place where the theology of the body and the theology of love are interwoven.\u00a0 Here we learn the goodness of the body, its witness to a good origin, in the experience of the love we receive from our parents.\u00a0 Here lives the self-giving in a single flesh, in the conjugal charity that unites the spouses.\u00a0 Here we experience that the fruitfulness of love and life is interwoven with that of other generations.\u00a0 It is in the family that the human person discovers that he or she is not in a relationship with an autonomous person, but as a child, spouse or parent, whose identity is founded in being called to love, to receive from others and to give him or herself to others.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>We discover more deeply, in light of Pope Benedict\u2019s recent words, the value of family as the place where we discover both love of God and love for God, and as well as the love of neighbor and find our meaning in relationship.\u00a0 Saint Benedict established monastic community in his Rule specifically to form his monks as such a family, to provide the forum where love of God and love of neighbor might be fostered and nurtured through the monks\u2019 daily rhythm of prayer and work dedicated to God.\u00a0 Indeed, Saint Benedict calls his monks cenobites (RB 1.2), people who live together in the communion of family surrounding the table of the cena, that Supper of our Lord which is the Eucharist, where the monk most expressly receives and gives God\u2019s love openly within the intimate exchange of loving communion in spiritual family.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The monastic community thus provides a model for families to embrace in light of these two great modern popes, that gathered around the altar of the Lord where we receive Jesus as our Eucharistic food for this life\u2019s journey toward life eternal in Him, we become authentic family as we grow in perfect loving communion with God and neighbor.\u00a0 When we finally realize this communion in God\u2019s perfect love, we receive the fulfillment for which we long:\u00a0 <em>What the eye has not seen nor the ear heard, God has prepared for those who love him <\/em>(1 Cor 2.9) (RB 4.77).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At the beginning of the fourth chapter of his Rule, Saint Benedict emphasizes the primary importance of love as the greatest instrument, and indeed the goal, of every good work his monks would seek to accomplish:\u00a0 First of all, love the Lord God with your whole heart, your whole soul and all your strength, and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":385,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,18,26,15,10,22,74,76,17,16],"tags":[4,80,5,27,25,13,7,6,24,83,12,73,23,75],"class_list":["post-10424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-benedictine","category-family","category-love","category-monastic-2","category-monks-2","category-morality","category-prayer","category-rule","category-sexuality","category-theology-of-the-body","tag-benedictine","tag-family","tag-fr-gregory-gresko","tag-love-2","tag-marriage","tag-monastic","tag-monasticism","tag-monks","tag-moral-life","tag-sexuality","tag-st-benedict","tag-theology-of-human-love","tag-theology-of-the-body-2","tag-worship"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>St Benedict, the Theology of the 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Gregory Gresko is Chaplain of the new Blessed John Paul II Shrine in Washington D.C. In his new responsibilities, Fr. Gresko strives to integrate the charisms of Benedictine spirituality and life, emphasized beautifully in the current pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI, with the Magisterial teachings of Blessed John Paul II to help set a firm course for today's Christians in their marriages, families, and religious lives. From 2000-2012, Fr. Gresko was a monk of Mary Mother of the Church Abbey in Richmond, Virginia. He earned his S.T.B. from the Pontificial Athenaeum of Sant'Anselmo (2005) in Rome and his S.T.L. magna cum laude in Marriage and Family Studies (2008) from the Pontifical Lateran University, John Paul II Institute (Vatican City). His S.T.L. dissertation was entitled, \"Educating to Love: Foundational Pedagogy in Light of Karol Wojtyla's Love and Responsibility\". Fr. Gregory is working on his doctoral dissertation for the same Vatican institute, on \"The Consecration of the Family to the Heart of Jesus in Light of the Pastoral Ministry of P\u00e8re Mateo Crawley-Boevey\".","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thebloggingmonk\/author\/ggresko"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thebloggingmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thebloggingmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thebloggingmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thebloggingmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/385"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thebloggingmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10424"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thebloggingmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10506,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thebloggingmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10424\/revisions\/10506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thebloggingmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thebloggingmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thebloggingmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}