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GENERAL AUDIENCE IN ST PETER'S SQUARE: 8 APRIL
On Wednesday, 8 April, the weekly audience was held in St Peter's
Square. Concluding the catechetical cycle that has dealt with the theology
of the body, the Holy Father delivered the following address to the more
than thirty thousand people gathered in the Square.
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.
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