The Second Voyage, Part 4

Summarizing John Paul II's Theology of the Body

06/24/2025

As we pull our ship into shore after our second voyage on the high seas of covenant/marriage, we are in an ideal position to summarize our entire journey of studying the Theology of the Body. Arguably the most famous statement of Vatican II’s Gaudium et Spes, which John Paul made more famous by quote frequently – and which he very likely himself authored – was: “Christ, the final Adam…fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear” (no. 22).

And if covenant/marriage has taught us anything in this second voyage it is that man’s “supreme calling” is ultimately a covenant/marriage to Christ. This mystical marriage between God and humanity has already been realized perfectly in the Person of Jesus Christ, who is both human and divine without confusion or separation. All Scripture bears witness that this divine-human union individually realized in Christ is the goal of human history, to be collectively realized when “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come’ [Lord Jesus]” (Rv 22:17).

This second voyage exploring the twin seas of Scripture and spousal love was a necessary addendum in order to demonstrate the utter compatibility between covenant theology and the Theology of the Body. Why? Both theologies are chiefly concerned with the meaning of marriage not only for individual Christian couples – indeed for all human persons, Christian or not – but no less so for the eternal Bride, the Church, and her eternal Bridegroom, Christ. Marriage unlocks the mystery of both the Holy Bible and of the human body.

But seeing Christ as covenant-Mediator par excellence (and therefore as the eternal Bridegroom) not only summarizes this last mile but likewise encapsulates all our preceding miles and meditations. How so? After the Introduction, we began to examine Christ’s three key words that unveil “an integral vision of man” (218-23). The pope in effect paints a tryptic altarpiece that reflects the human-divine saga of Scripture in three illuminating panels.

Only after we have fully delved into the human experience of Eden, earth, and eternity – answering the urgent and perennial question of “who [woman] will be for [man] and he for her” (301), that mutual relationship exceedingly exemplified in marriage – can we see the flag of the human vocation fully unfurled. We might say the Theology of the Body is the wind – the “ruah” of the Holy Spirit – that causes the flag of humanity’s “supreme calling” to flutter.

We glimpsed the undiminished glory of that human vocation shimmering briefly in Genesis 1 and 2 where Adam and Eve enjoyed the inner harmony of Original Solitude, Unity, and Nakedness, and expressed it as an earthly icon of the communion of persons, reflecting the eternal Communion of Persons hidden in the Holy Trinity. The key that unlocked the mystery of this “communio personarum” was “the hermeneutic of the gift.” That is, only when we become a gift to one another – especially spouses – do we achieve the exalted status of an icon of divine love. Christ’s first word, then, unveiled the first panel of Original Humanity.

Through Christ’s second word, he taught us how concupiscence causes discord rather than harmony in the heart – the true culprit for “adultery in the heart” – which in turn destroys the external harmony between spouses. Unwittingly (and sometimes wittingly) spouses use one another rather than become an unconditional gift to each other. The true polar opposite of love, therefore, is not to hate someone, but to use another human person, because you degrade them below their human dignity.

But thanks to the gifts of the Holy Spirit – who is Himself the eternal Gift of love between Father and Son – both harmonies (the interior of the heart and the exterior of the home) are not only healed but even elevated to new heights of holiness. Redeemed man and woman experience in their bodies the Spirit’s gifts of reverence, piety, and fear of the Lord. Only then can marriage and family life become the sturdy building blocks not only for natural society on earth, but also the bedrock upon which rests the supernatural society of eternity. Christ’s second word painted the second panel of Fallen and Redeemed Humanity.

And finally Christ third word reveals the plentitude of eternal glory waiting for the children of God in paradise. The blessed will experience a twofold glory in eternity: spiritualization or a new system of powers flowing between the body and the soul, and divinization by which human nature partakes of divine nature. We receive a foretaste of that union of natures every time we receive Holy Communion. In this way, by painting a three-panel portrait of the epic story of humanity, “Christ fully reveals man to man himself.”

In Part Two, John Paul narrowed his focus from the human vocation in general – the universal call to holiness – to the specifically Christian vocation in the sacrament of marriage. With sublime eloquence and saintly erudition, the pope-saint described marriage as standing in a class by itself in relation to the other sacraments. Indeed, the other sacraments shine even brighter in the brilliant light of marriage.

Then John Paul plumbed the liturgical depths of marriage by examining the words spoken by spouses at the wedding and the corresponding significance of the consummation of marriage when the two become one flesh in the bedroom. He drew a clear and unbreakable connection between the vows and the consummation welded together by the language of the body. Thus, he concluded that every act of sexual intimacy between spouses reiterates (or should reiterate!) the vows of the wedding day. Spouses should say with their bodies in the bedroom what they said with their words at the wedding.

One of our parishioners who serves as an usher told me one day after Mass, “Fr. John, you need to bring it on home.” He noticed I was losing my hair and encouraged me to shave my head, “bring it on home.” John Paul brings the Theology of the Body "on home" (quite literally) by analyzing the Church’s traditional moral teaching prohibiting contraception.

He argues persuasively and pastorally how the dignity of the human person – established irrefutably in Part One, thanks to help from the philosophies of personalism and phenomenology – and the sacramentality of marriage and its liturgical expression (the thrust of Part Two) irrefutably mean that the two ends of the sexual act – union and procreation, or babies and bonding – may never be intentionally separated or artificially blocked.

With good reason, therefore, the Holy Father concludes his masterwork – and with which we can conclude our own reflections – by declaring:

It is in this [biblical and theological] sphere that one finds the answers to the perennial questions of the conscience of men and women and also to the difficult question of our contemporary world concerning marriage and procreation (663).

And that is how you really “bring it on home” because only at home do man and woman, with God’s grace, forge a loving family and live out their “supreme calling.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!

The Second Voyage, Part 3

Seeing the covenant significance of the bride's price

06/23/2025

We wade across the center aisle of church from the bride’s side to meditate on matters from the groom’s side. Every groom feels he must pass a test to win the hand of his beloved; in point of fact, he longs for the chance. The pop band the Proclaimers sang about this chivalrous sentiment: “I would walk five hundred miles / And I would walk five hundred more / Just to be the man who walked a thousand / Miles, to fall down at your door.”

We find a more classic test of love in Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice. Various eligible bachelors solicit fair Portia’s hand in marriage, but first they must pass the “the casket test.” Portia’s deceased father has left detailed instructions that each supposed suitor must select from three caskets. The test is devised to weed out arrogant, selfish, or vain partners for Portia. You fathers really should read more Shakespeare.

The first casket box is covered in gold and bears the inscription: “Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire” (II, vii, 37). The implied question is: are you like “many men” or do you have a unique strength of character? The second casket of silver states cryptically: “Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves” (II, vii, 23). That is, do you egotistically think you deserve the best, or assess yourself more humbly?

The third casket is coated in unattractive lead and reads: “Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath” (II, vii, 16). Put practically, you must give everything and expect nothing in return - who would choose that? Stop reading if you don’t want to know the test results, but all suitors fail except humble and heroic Bassanio. Let us pause to ponder why Bassanio believes lead best symbolizes love:

So may outward show be least themselves, /

The world is still deceived with ornament /

…

Therefore then, thou gaudy gold /

Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee. /

Nor none of thee, [silver] thou pale and common drudge /

‘Tween man and man. But thou, thou meager lead, /

Which rather threaten’st than does promise ought, /

Thy paleness moves me more than eloquence, /

And here choose I. Joy be the consequence! (III, ii, 75-76, 103-110).

Holding his breath Bassanio opens the leaden casket relieved that Portia’s portrait smiles back. Bassanio graduated from suitor to spouse.

What Shakespeare calls the casket test, Scripture labels the bride’s price. We who live in modern Western culture may not immediately grasp the significance of the bride’s price. Why not? Because today it is the bride who pays the price to marry the man. Her family forks over the funds to pay for the ceremony, music, photography, dress, the venue, etc.

But in the Bible and the ancient near east, the roles were reversed and the groom paid the bride’s price by some heroic feat or personal sacrifice. Consider this extraordinary example: in 1 Samuel 18. King Saul says to David, “[T]he king desires no other the price for the bride [my daughter Mical] than the foreskins of one hundred Philistines” (1 Sm 18:25).

That is, Saul wanted David to add insult to injury by not only conquering the Philistines, but circumcising them. Was David offended by such a request? Quite the contrary, we read two verses later: “David arose and went with his men and slew two hundred Philistines” (1 Sm 18:27). Saul pressed David to walk 500 miles and David eagerly walked 1000 to prove his love for Mical.

Moreover, when the groom in the Bible stands as covenant-mediator, he represents primarily God’s marital interests and not merely his own. Now, is there any other suitor out there seeking humanity’s hand in marriage besides God? As the Church Lady from Saturday Night Live rhetorically reminded us: “Hmmm, could it be…Satan?!”

The bride’s price in salvation history, thenceforth, consists of rescuing her from her Satanic suitor, and returning her to God, her rightful Lover. But more often than not, the unrepentant bride runs back into Satan’s arms. But don’t be too hard on Eve: every time we sin, the modern bride of Christ backslides exactly like the original biblical bride.

Pondering deeply this notion of the bride’s price reveals another crucial aspect of the story of Scripture. How often we hear the words “redemption” and “salvation," and immediately our minds conjure up images of Jonathan Edwards surreal sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”? We unreflectively think, “I want to be redeemed or saved so that I don’t burn in hell for all eternity!”

And that infernal image is certainly an accurate description of some aspects of redemption and salvation. However, it does not exhaust its meaning, nor does it penetrate its true depths which can only be found in the eternal Father’s heart. Rather every time you hear the word “redemption” or “salvation” in the Bible, in the liturgy, or in personal prayer, think of “the bride’s price.”

The bride’s price, then, helps us catch the peculiar trajectory and plot twists of Scripture writ large from the first pages of Genesis to the last verses of Revelation. Tragically such insights escape us modern westerners because the roles of bride and groom are reversed in who pays the price (the dowry) for the wedding. Indeed, it is hard for Christians in our modern milieu to learn many of the lessons the Bible tries to teach us.

Further, we should not forget that each covenant-mediator remains a fallen man, and therefore also forms part of the fickle bride. As such, he must overcome his own inner resistance – remember concupiscence? – to God’s overtures of love. St. Augustine deftly described this double duty, stating: “For you I am a bishop, with you I am a Christian.” That solidarity with sinful humanity proves to be a fatal flaw in every covenant-mediator, save the last, Jesus.

Like Portia’s suitors tempted by the gold and silver caskets, the first five covenant-mediators – Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David – admirably succeed in expanding the bride to her proper proportions, but still finally fail to pay the bride’s price. Only the sixth mediator, Jesus, the God-Man, pays the full price to redeem the bride by paying “the pound of flesh”, that is, his human nature nailed to a tree.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Eucharist and Everybody

Seeing God in our neighbor and the Eucharist

06/22/2025

Luke 9:11b-17 Jesus spoke to the crowds about the kingdom of God, and he healed those who needed to be cured. As the day was drawing to a close, the Twelve approached him and said, "Dismiss the crowd so that they can go to the surrounding villages and farms and find lodging and provisions; for we are in a deserted place here." He said to them, "Give them some food yourselves." They replied, "Five loaves and two fish are all we have, unless we ourselves go and buy food for all these people." Now the men there numbered about five thousand. Then he said to his disciples, "Have them sit down in groups of about fifty." They did so and made them all sit down. Then taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing over them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. They all ate and were satisfied. And when the leftover fragments were picked up, they filled twelve wicker baskets.

Today’s feast of Corpus Christi is one of my favorite feasts of the whole year. Why? Well, because it’s all about the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Jesus, which the Catechism calls nothing short of “the source and summit of the Christian life.” It’s like those old commercials used to say, “It doesn’t get any better than this!”

And yet, today is also touched with some sadness because according to the 2019 Pew Research poll, only about 30% of Roman Catholics believe that Jesus is truly present in the Bread and Wine of the Mass. Conversely, we might say: roughly 70% of ya’ll think the Eucharist is a merely a symbol. By the way, believing the Eucharist is a symbol is called “Protestantism.”

So, in order to reinvigorate our Catholic faith in the Real Presence, Virginia Ricketts and her crew have individually baked, iced, and decorated, 2,200 Corpus Christi cookies, which we will hand out to everyone who comes to Mass this weekend. If a Corpus Christi cookie doesn’t restore your faith in the Eucharist, I don’t know what will! What more do you people need?

In the gospel today, Jesus also offers us some food to deepen our faith in the Eucharist. In Luke 9 Jesus multiplies 5 loaves and 2 fish to feed over five thousand hungry people. Now, what does that have to do with Eucharistic faith? Well, the feeding in Luke 9 directly parallels the feeding in Luke 22 at the Last Supper, because Luke describes both feedings with the same four highly charged words: “he took, he blessed, he broke, and he gave.”

That is, there exists a mutually reinforcing faith between believing in the Jesus who feeds us at Mass with Bread and Wine, and believing in the Jesus who feeds the masses with bread and fish. One of the best ways, therefore, to deepen our faith and love for the Eucharist is to strengthen our faith and love for everybody. And that is why Virginia is feeding us with cookies today, like Jesus fed the people in the gospel.

St. Mother Teresa required her sisters to spend 3 hours a day in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, staring at Jesus as Eucharistic Bread. Then they spent the rest of the day taking care of the poor dying in the streets of Why? She explained: “If you cannot see Jesus in the distressing disguise of the poorest of the poor, you will not see him in the Most Blessed Sacrament.” That is, we cannot love the Body of Christ on the altar, while we ignore the Body of Christ in the alleyways.

J.R.R. Tolkien gave similar advice to his sons, saying: “Boys, make your Communion in circumstances that affront your taste: choose a snuffling or gabbling priest or proud or vulgar friar” – by the way, that’s why people love coming to I.C. Church, to see those gabbling priests! – “and a church full of…ill-behaved children – from those who yell to those products of Catholic school who the moment the tabernacle is opened sit back and yawn.”

He continued: “It could not be worse than the mess of the feeding of the Five Thousand – after which our Lord propounded the feeding that was to come.” In other words, faith in Jesus in the Eucharist and faith in everybody rise and fall together. Put differently, blindness to Jesus in your blessed neighbor, causes blindness to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

Here are a couple of things I do to increase my faith in the human species, so that I can better see Jesus in the Eucharistic species. Many Hispanics have a habit of kissing the priest’s hand when they greet him. By now I have learned who this devout Hispanics are. So before they can do that to me, I kiss their hand first. They really hate it when I do that.

The Filipinos have a different custom of taking the priest’s hand when they greet him and touch it to their forehead as a sign of reverence. So, again, I do that same gesture to them in return. Now, do I do that just to bug and irritate them? Well, maybe a little bit. But it is also because if I cannot see Jesus in his humble presence in the mob, I will never see Jesus in his holy presence in the Mass.

My friends, we priests as well as ya’ll people of God can have 30% Catholic faith or 70% Protestant faith in the Eucharist. Why? Well, faith in the Mass and faith in mankind rise and fall together because Jesus is really present in both. And that is why feeding people with Corpus Christi cookies is exactly what the divine Doctor ordered for a lack of faith in the Eucharist.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

The Second Voyage, Part 2

Setting out on the high seas of spousal love

06/20/2025

As we embark on this second voyage of the Theology of the Body through the seas of Sacred Scripture and spousal love, we should define the scope of our journey. Do you remember the scope of the U.S.S. Minnow’s misadventures on Gilligan’s Island?

Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale

A tale of a fateful trip

That started from this tropic port

Aboard this tiny ship

The mate was a mighty sailin’ man

The skipper brave and sure

Five passengers set sail that day

For a three hour tour, a three hour tour.

Our skipper is John Paul II, and I will be your “mighty sailin’ man” the first mate. And we will soon discover how choppy the seas of Scripture become as they recount the love story between God and man, specifically, God’s covenant faithfulness and man’s covenant failures. Smooth sailing doesn’t last long for spouses, about five minutes after they get home from the honeymoon.

So, here is our scope: we will narrow our attention to only two distinctive features of the six covenant/marriages of the Bible. First, we will explore how each successive covenant/marriage expands to include all humanity.

And second we will consider how each covenant mediator – Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and finally Jesus – faces a test to prove his love and win the bride. That is, we will look at covenant/marriage first through the eyes of the bride, that is, humanity, and second from the vantage of the Bridegroom, namely, God, represented by each covenant-mediator.

First, a little full disclosure. I will steal most of my material on covenant/marriages from Scott Hahn’s book "A Father Who Keeps His Promises." Hahn provides this helpful overview, a map to plot our course:

As you study Scripture, you’ll see how covenant laws [the requirements to marry God] are not arbitrary stipulations but fixed moral principles which govern the moral order. Moreover, they reflect the inner life of the Blessed Trinity. In short, “covenant” is what God does because “covenant” is what God is (29).

That is, this 3-hour tour is not some sight-seeing joyride to the Bahamas, but a journey to the heart of God, which Hebrews describes as “an all-consuming fire.” Or as St. Augustine memorably put it: “To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek him the greatest adventure; to find him the greatest human achievement.” And the good news is that God is chasing us even more than we are seeking him.

First, let’s consider covenant/marriage from the bride’s point of view, humanity as God’s beloved. When we survey the covenant/marriage landscape of the Bible, it becomes quickly apparent how each successive covenant grows and expands. For example, God’s first covenant was forged with a married couple, Adam and Eve. Only two people were betrothed to each other and to God.

God’s second covenant was established with Noah and his family (3 sons, their wives, and their children). The covenant package had become family-size. The third covenant with Abraham grew to tribal proportions embracing everyone in the patriarch’s household, or as we say today, all of Abraham’s “kith and kin”, both blood and non-blood relations.

God fashions a fourth and far grander covenant with Moses. Now an entire nation gathers at the foot of Mt. Sinai, and swears covenant fidelity to God through the mediation of Moses. And for his last Old Testament covenant, God works through King David, “a man after God’s own heart” (1 Sm 13:14) to rule over a kingdom.

Scott Hahn explains how a kingdom, unlike a nation, is virtually unlimited in size:

As covenant mediator, King David…gradually transformed the national family of Israel [under Moses] to…a dynastic kingdom. The difference [between kingdom and nation] is subtle but crucial. A nation maintains sole sovereignty, whereas a kingdom exercises sovereignty over other states and nations (214).

In other words, finally under David, the bride reaches her proper proportions, that is, the People of God is truly “catholic” a Greek word meaning “present everywhere.”

And lastly, Jesus, the only perfect covenant-mediator, because he is the God-Man, will build on this “catholic conception” of his Bride by commanding his disciples to complete what King David began: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19).

Can you see the concentric circles of God’s covenant plan laid out throughout Scripture? Or, as we gush and sing at weddings, “Here comes the bride, all dressed in white…” That white wedding gown bespeaks not only betrothal but also Baptism, which incorporates us into the Church, the Bride of Christ.

Perhaps a more dramatic way to appreciate the depths of God’s covenant love for humanity is when the north winds blow and the waves crash over the bow submerging the ship of spousal love. Again and again, the prophets used the metaphor of adultery to identify Israel’s covenant/marriage infidelities in their religious observances with God.

John Paul highlights how the prophets treated idolatry (worshiping alien gods) synonymously with adultery (having other lovers):

While Isaiah emphasizes in his texts above all the love of Yahweh, the Bridegroom, who in all circumstances goes to meet the Bride, overlooking all her infidelities. Hosea and Ezekiel abound in comparisons that show above all the ugliness and moral evil of the adultery [idolatry] committed by the Bride, Israel (274).

Ironically, it is exactly Israel’s infidelities that underscore emphatically God’s covenant faithfulness. Or think about it this way: what husband or wife today would stay in a marriage when their spouse commits adultery? Well, that unconditional, unheard-of, devotion is how the prophets described God’s love for his Bride.

Therefore, both positively and negatively, we see how God perfects and purifies his people for an eternal covenant/marriage to him. Again, Scott Hahn states it succinctly:

From a sinful, shameful couple cast out of paradise, to God’s glorious redeemed world-wide family of saints at home forever in heaven – that miraculous transformation is the covenant story of the Scripture…From the beginning the Father planned that Adam and Eve would be the first members of a world-wide family circle, swept up into the eternal love of the Trinity” (36).

“Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of the fateful trip…”

Praised be Jesus Christ!

The Second Voyage

Applying the Theology of the Body to the study of Scripture

06/19/2025

Today we commence our last mile in our “Long Walk with Jesus” by applying Pope St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body to interpreting Sacred Scripture. John Paul had initially used the Theology of the Body to examine and establish the immorality of contraception.

But he acknowledged that application was only the maiden voyage of the Theology of the Body. In his last address, he elaborated on the need for future voyages:

One must immediately observe, in fact, that the term “theology of the body” goes far beyond the content of the reflections here [on contraception]. These reflections do not include many problems belonging, with regard to their object, to the theology of the body (e.g., the problem of suffering and death, so important to the biblical message) (660).

Someone else who had seen this wider application, these further voyages, was Angelo Scola, who accurately predicted:

Virtually every thesis in theology – God, Christ, the Trinity, grace, the Church, the sacraments – could be seen in a new light if theologians explored in depth the rich personalism implied in John Paul II’s theology of the body (George Weigel, Witness to Hope, 343).

In other words, Captain John Paul has now proven that the vessel of the Theology of the Body is sea-worthy. Therefore, we can confidently take her out on open water again for her second voyage to explore Sacred Scripture.

One day a young girl came home from school where her teacher was talking about where people come from. She first went to her father and asked him, “Daddy, where do people come from?” The father answered, “Well, dear, first there were apes and monkeys and all humans eventually descended from them.”

Wanting to fact check her father, she asked her mother: “Mommy, were do people come from?” The mother replied, “Well, sweetie, God created Adam and Eve and all the people eventually descended from them.” Puzzled, the little girl continued: “Well, why did daddy say we came from monkeys?” The mom smiled: “Well, dear, your father was talking about his side of the family and I was talking about my side.”

If the little girl had questioned John Paul II about where people come from, the pope-saint would have agreed with the mother. Why? Well, the central thrust of the Theology of the Body is that man and woman act most like God – and least like apes – when we unite in marriage. Genesis teaches that man was created “in the image and likeness of God” (Gn 1:26).

Difficult as it may be to grasp, the Holy Father nonetheless maintains that the marital communion of human persons imitates – albeit analogously – the eternal Communion of the Holy Trinity, “an inscrutable communion of the three divine Persons” (163). This understanding of the personalist principle – human persons reflect diving Persons – is precisely why Christians assert that man descended from Adam and Eve, not from apes.

I realize such suppositions of the Theology of the Body seem to fly in the face of most – though not all – modern science. But science does not have a monopoly on the truth; indeed, if it is misused, science can, at times, even blind us to the truth. C. S. Lewis warned back in 1949:

[Y]ou and I have need of the strongest spell that can be found to wake us from the evil enchantment of worldliness which has been laid upon us for nearly a hundred years. Almost our whole education has been directed to silencing this shy, persistent, inner voice; almost all our modern philosophies have been devised to convince us that the good of man is to be found on this earth” (Weight of Glory, 31).

As we embark on this second voyage of the Theology of the Body, on the high seas of Sacred Scripture, bear in mind that modern science will not be our main sextant to guide us. Indeed, science sometimes turns out to be the siren song that shipwrecks unwary sailors.

Many years ago if a child exclaimed on the playground: “Ah, I sure do love the monkey bars!” Another would tease him: “If you love it so much, why don’t you just marry it?!” I would suggest to you that taunt touches the deepest chord of the scriptural narrative, namely, God is so enamored with humanity, the pinnacle of his creation, that he plans to marry us! And therefore the Theology of the Body – concerned chiefly with marriage as well – is an infallible guide to correctly interpret Sacred Scripture as nothing less than God’s marriage proposal to humanity.

When the inspired authors of the Bible talk about marriage to God, they employ the highly charged word “covenant.” Many people confuse a covenant with a contract, but the difference could not be greater. A covenant is an exchange of persons; whereas, a contract is an exchange of goods and services. Put a little crudely, a covenant differs from a contract like marriage differs from prostitution. The former exchanges persons, the latter exchanges services.

When we read Scripture with this meaning of covenant as marriage in mind, we discover that the Bible is in fact punctuated by six successive covenant/marriages that God establishes with humanity. At the beginning of the Bible, we find the paradigmatic passage on marriage that sets the stage for the subsequent drama of salvation history: “Therefore a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife and they become one flesh” (Gn 2:24).

At the other end of the scriptural timeline, we hear allusions to another betrothal: “And I saw the holy city...prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Rv 21:2). In other words, we don’t want to marry a monkey, like the woman in the joke, we want to marry a Lamb, Jesus, the Lamb of God. Rv 19:9 describes this mixed-marriage between God and man: “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”

My parents proudly display the wedding portraits of my brother and sister in their home. And by the way, my ordination picture hangs high above theirs on the wall. Those portraits display how marriages mark the natural milestones of our personal Antony family history.

Covenants, likewise, are the sacred milestones that mark our collective Christian family history. Just as human history is a story of marriages, so salvation history is a story of covenants. That is, Holy Matrimony is the undercurrent surging throughout the Holy Bible. And it is neatly captured in a childish taunt: “If you love it so much, why don’t you just marry it?!”

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Operation Strength of a Lamb

Seeing how Jesus perfects us as his Bride

06/17/2025

Matthew 5:43-48 Jesus said to his disciples: "You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect."

I don’t know about you, but every morning recently when I wake up I say my first prayers – Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be – and then immediately check my phone to see if the world has blown up. That is, I wonder what the next step in the Israel-Iran war is going to be.

One of our parishioners, Philip Stevens, a major in the Air Guard, texted me last Thursday at 8 p.m. to tell me Israel had started an operation known as “Strength of a Lion” to eliminate Iran’s nuclear weapon capability and to kill its top military officers. I texted him back writing: “This is not going to end well.”

And then I added: “By the way, I am sitting in my office writing the last couple of homilies on Pope St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body.” Now, focusing on some abstract, esoteric theology might seem like a waste of time while the world is blowing up. But I believe that is exactly the best use of our time. Why?

Well, we might say while Israel is conducting its military Operation Strength of a Lion, Jesus is conducting his marriage Operation Strength of a Lamb. That is, one way to interpret world is history is in terms of wars, natural disasters, and geo-political events. But that lens is not the only way – or even the best way – to read the signs of the times.

Besides natural, world history, there is also supernatural, salvation history that sort of runs along beside it like on two parallel tracks. Or better yet, salvation history absorbs world history into its own superior matrix. Think of how a human being consumes plants or animals for food – a salad and a cheeseburger for lunch.

Those lower creatures are then digested and subsumed into our higher, human dimension of life. And in a sense, they share our destiny by being part of us. Perhaps that is how Betsy the cow will one day be saved, because I will be saved and Betsy will be part of me after lunch.

So, instead of waking up every morning and being filled with fear over Operation Strength of a Lion, we should wake up every morning filled with faith over Operation Strength of a Lamb. That is, Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, is slowly preparing and perfecting his Bride, the Church for her wedding day to him.

That paradigm of preparation and perfection is the larger matrix of salvation history into which the smaller events of world history must be absorbed and understood. And this larger perspective of Operation Strength of a Lamb is how we should interpret Jesus’ teachings in his Sermon on the Mount today.

He contrasts what he presently expects of his disciples from what was required of them in the past. “You have heard that it was said, but I say to you.” It will be precisely through the Strength of the Lamb – his glorious grace – that we will be “perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect.”

Being perfect is a tall order when you rely solely on self-centered and stupid human beings like me and you. But not when you rely on grace, the divine strength of the Lamb. I got a glimpse of how the Lamb’s grace is slowly preparing and perfecting his bride, the Church.

The Carmelite nuns sent me their quarterly bulletin and shared what has been going on lately in their monastery nestled in the heart of Little Rock. They have two young ladies preparing to take their vows, and one young lady spent a week discerning her vocation. This year they will celebrate their 75th anniversary of their foundation in Little Rock.

And they talked about how a couple of large trees fell in their wooded property, and they prayed for those whose trees fell on homes. That made me wonder: if a tree falls in the forest, does a Carmelite nun hear it? Yes she does, because in the deep silence of contemplation, she hears everything. In other words, even though you and I are far from perfect, there is nonetheless, a limb of the Body of Christ that is close to perfection, even though the humble nuns would vehemently deny it.

Thus, Jesus through Operation Strength of a Lamb patiently carries on his perfecting work upon his Bride, the Church. That invisible work of grace remains hidden from the eyes that only see wars, natural catastrophes, and geo-political upheavals. But that inexorable work of grace is a brilliant and beautiful reality for all who look at the world through the eyes of faith, even seeing how cows can be saved.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Dogs that Don't Bark, Part 3

Getting onboard the Barque of St. Peter

06/16/2025

John Paul II titles the second section of the third chapter of Part Two an “Outline of Conjugal Spirituality” (639-63), where three distinct systems of powers converge. I am reminded of the 1985 hit by Huey Lewis and the News called “The Power of Love.” The opening lines go: “The power of love is a curious thing / Make one man weep, make another man sing / Change a hawk into a little white dove / More than a feeling, that’s the power of love.”

John Paul concludes his entire Theology of the Body by examining this “curious thing” of human love down to its divine depths, especially as couples experience it in marriage. The intersection of these three powers of love constitutes the heart of “conjugal spirituality.”

First, the pope points out that the sacrament of marriage endows spouses with a new spiritual/sacramental power. He explains:

This, then, is the essential and fundamental “power”: the love [of God] planted in the heart (“poured out in our hearts”) by the Holy Spirit…[S]pouses must implore [God] for such “power” and for every other “divine help” through prayer;…from the ever-living fountain of the Eucharist;…[and] must overcome their own faults and sins in the sacrament of penance (641).

Therefore, married couples can always avail themselves of two kinds of power: natural powers called virtues and supernatural powers called sacramental graces and gifts of the Holy Spirit.

We might compare these two marital powers to two maritime engines, that is, how ships are propelled over the water. A ship possesses internal sources of power like oars or an engine. But a ship can also utilize external sources of power when it unfurls its sails is carried along effortlessly by the wind.

First of all, the enormous exertion of rowing with oars in order to move a ship is similar to the virtue of chastity or continence helping couples cross the rough seas of sexuality. The Holy Father elaborates:

“Continence”…consists in the ability to master, control, and orient the sexual drives (concupiscence of the flesh) and their consequences in the psycho-somatic subjectivity of human persons (644).

By the way, the word “virtue” comes from the Latin word “vir” which means man or manliness. Being manly, therefore, means completing hard tasks through sustained effort. Continence is for men, not for wimps.

But there is a second – and easier! – power to move the ship of spousal spirituality, namely, by unfurling the sails and catching the graces and gifts of the Holy Spirit. Here the Holy Father highlights the gift of reverence, in Latin donum pietatis. The pope describes reverence in these terms:

Reverence for the two meanings of the conjugal act – Janet Smith memorably labelled these two meanings “babies and bonding” – can fully develop only on the basis of a deep orientation to the personal dignity of what is intrinsic to masculinity and femininity in the human person, and inseparably in reference to the personal dignity of the new life that can spring from the conjugal union of man and woman (654).

That is, the gift of reverence instills in spouses a holy and healthy fear of how spousal sexuality (bonding) brings a new life (babies) into the world. Reverence trains them to see that babies and bonding both share a mutual and inseparable divine dignity. How so?

Think of how hard it is for a child to learn he or she was adopted. Why is such a discovery so unsettling – even traumatic – for a child, even if the adoptive parents genuinely love and care for her? Because it matters where we come from, where we are conceived. In every child’s deepest sense of self, they know they should come from the loving embrace of a mother and father. Anything less – rape, IVF, even contracepted sex – deeply offends a baby’s inherent sense of its own divine dignity. In other words, reverence empowers couples to catch the shared dignity of babies and bonding.

Don’t misunderstand: I am not criticizing adoption. I only intend to illustrate how the child’s visceral reaction to the news of her adoption points to the fact that her biological parents failed to avail themselves of the gift – the power – of reverence. That is, in the storm of their unfettered passions, the biological parents ran the ship of their spousal spirituality aground, by separating their baby from their bonding.

We might recall how Moses felt a similar intense donum pietatis in Exodus 3 when he approached the “burning bush.” He removed his sandals as a gesture of awareness that he was walking on holy ground. So, too, married couples, feeling the power of the same donum pietatis, remove all forms of artificial contraceptives – their proverbial sandals – as they become intensely aware they are treading the holy ground of spousal intimacy.

Third, the pope considers why married couples need both natural and supernatural sources of the power of love. Simple: they are constantly buffeted by the evil power of concupiscence, the wind and waves of this world whisking couples away from arriving at their divine destination.

John Paul employs his typical technical language to describe this third power concupiscence as it erodes conjugal spirituality:

[T]he concupiscence of the flesh – and the corresponding sexual “desire” aroused by it – expresses itself in the sphere of somatic reactivity and further with a psycho-emotive arousal of the sexual impulse (644).

In simpler terms: the contrary current of their sexual passions blind husband and wife to their spouse’s dignity as children of God, and tempts them to use the other as a mere object for sexual pleasure.

Therefore, the only way for spouses to overcome this powerful undertow of concupiscence is by faithfully using the oars of the virtues and the sails of the grace of the sacraments and the gifts of the Spirit. That is how these three powers of love converge at the crossroads of spousal spirituality, and how spouses must make their way through this world.

In a sense, John Paul’s last “bark” ends up being an invitation to board the “Barque” of St. Peter, the perennial motif for the Church as a ship weathering the storms of this world. I once heard Scott Hahn offer a maritime analogy for the Christian life that seem eminently appropriate for spousal spirituality. He said: Imagine everyone in the world is in the ocean and we are competing in a swimming race. Everyone is swimming as hard as they can confronting the currents and the waves. The only difference is, Catholics are in a speed boat.

Similarly, everyone onboard the Barque of St. Peter, which for 26 years was steered by Peter’s successor, the holy helmsman, Pope St. John Paul II, called married couples to climb onboard so they could be empowered by the virtues and graces and gifts. And John Paul II has installed a new navigation system for the Barque of the Fisherman, the Theology of the Body, so all passengers can arrive safely at their heavenly port of call.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Father’s Day without Dad

Hearing our father’s words as God’s wisdom

06/15/2025

John 16:12-15 Jesus said to his disciples: "I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you."

This past Saturday I was talking with Fr. Jason Sharbaugh and he off-handedly remarked: “This Sunday will be my first Father’s Day without my dad.” His comment cut me to the quick because I knew one day I would face that same dreaded day. And I felt a surge of gratitude that I still had my dad. I felt bad for him, but very blessed for me. Still, sooner or later everyone will face a Father’s Day without dad.

Today we begin our novena of Masses for our dads, whether living or deceased: that’s what the bundle of envelopes is on the altar. So, I hope you will reach out to your dad in some way today: with a personal visit, or a phone call, or if he has passed, include him in our novena. And I hope this is not your first Father’s Day without your dad, like it is for Fr. Jason.

In the liturgy today we celebrate the Most Holy Trinity, that even in God we find the fullness of Fatherhood. The heavenly Father is the only perfect Father, and therefore, every earthly father tries to emulate. And in the gospel Jesus says something that also made me think of my own father. He said to his disciples: “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.”

My father is a man of few words – like most men are – but every now-and-then, he lets some pearls of wisdom fall from his lips. I sometimes wonder if my father, like Jesus, also has “much more to tell me”, but his son is too self-absorbed and stubborn to listen and learn, like the apostles were.

But I have picked up and practiced some of my father’s wisdom that he has accumulated over 90 years of life. I am so blessed that my dad will be 91 in October this year. And by the way, not even the NSA knows how old my mom is. Today I would like to share three of those pearls with you. And maybe these pearls will jog your memory of how your human father has taught you the heavenly Father’s wisdom. That’s what fathers are for.

My dad often says in Malayalam, “innu njaan, naale nee” which means, “today me, tomorrow you.” As my father gets older and moves slower, he’s telling me not to look down on his failing health as I still enjoy my relative physical stamina. Today, I am weak, but tomorrow it will be you.

To illustrate, he told me the parable of the leaves. One day the green leaves were shaking in the wind and laughing as the wind knocked the old brown leaf off the branch. As he was falling, he looked up at the green leaves and said, “Innu njaan, naale nee”. Why? Because in a few months the green leaves would suffer the same fate. How many young people think they will always stay young and beautiful, and never grow old and die? Today me, tomorrow you.

My father also repeats while watching commercials: “Avar aalukale kaliyaa-kukayaanu”. That means, “They are just playing with people.” In other words, don’t believe everything you see or hear on T.V. I wish more people would heed his advice instead of freaking out over someone who says some outlandish thing just to get your attention. Then of course they feel compelled to respond and say silly things, too. People are just playing with you and they made you play along. You foolishly bit on their click bate.

Another holy habit my dad displays is he will give me some of his food when we sit down for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. As he gives me his portion, he says, “Have some food from my plate.” And by the way, he only share when we have American food, never delicious Indian curry. My dad is no dummy. It took me a long time to catch on to this gesture of love.

And now I copy my father at Mass, this holy meal with my family. How so? You have seen how the priest gets a large Host and everyone else only a small Host. But I don’t eat that entire Host Instead I break it in half and distribute it to others, sometimes to an altar server, or a Communion minister. And I think in my mind: “Have some food from my plate.”

And at a wedding Mass, I not only give the bride and groom half of my large priest’s Host, but also let them sip from the priest’s chalice. After all, at every wedding, the bride and groom are the official ministries – in a sense, they are the priests – of their own marriage. So I think not only: “Have some of my Eucharistic food,” but also “have some of my priesthood.” My father has taught me to share deeply, even if he still does not share his Indian curry.

My friends, we live in a culture that has a very low regard for fatherhood. Have you noticed this in the media? Dads are often depicted as the butt of jokes, or as inept and imbeciles. Why is that? Well, in a culture that is becoming more atheistic and trying to get rid of God, it is no surprise it wages war on fatherhood, on the earthly icons of God the Father. Get rid of the evidence and people will think there is no proof for the existence of God. So we need to cherish our fathers more than ever, and stop making fun of them.

I don’t know if your father is still with you, or he has passed, but I hope you too can remember some of the life-lessons and pearls of wisdom he has taught you. Why? Well, because even though our human fathers are far from perfect, they are nonetheless one of the instruments – indeed icons – that the heavenly Father uses to communicate his own eternal love and wisdom to his children.

And perhaps the greatest lesson they can teach us is that even if this Sunday is the first Father’s Day without your dad, it will never be a Father’s Day without your heavenly Father. 

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Dogs that Don't Bark, Part 2

Hearing John Paul II's three barks in section one

06/14/2025

We have reached now the penultimate section of the entire Theology of the Body (only one to go). All the preceding pages were essentially John Paul plowing fertile ground so that the Word of God, the Sower’s seed (Mt 13, Mk 4, Lk. 😎 could be planted in it and bear much fruit. And the pope-saint will not allow any contraceptives to frustrate the fecundity and yield an abundant harvest.

The Holy Father wants to accomplish three objectives in this first section of chapter three named “The Ethical Problem”, or according to our metaphor in this chapter he is a guard dog that barks three times. First, the pope insists that the teaching about contraception proceeds from a deeply pastoral care and concern for Christians.

Second, he shows how the teaching on contraception is built on the whole preceding Theology of the Body, and stands as its culmination point. And third, he believes that even though the teaching on contraception feels daunting, indeed, like way of the cross, it is the surest road to follow Jesus.

First John Paul admits that human sexuality and regulating births is a genuinely vexing question and has far-reaching ramifications. Still it is precisely because the Church takes these challenges so seriously that she reiterates her unbroken doctrine against contraception. Consider the pope’s pastoral perspective:

[The Church’s teaching about contraception] is intended to be a response to the questions of contemporary men and women…Those who believe that the [Second Vatican] Council and the encyclical [Humanae Vitae] do not sufficiently take into account the difficulties of concrete life do not understand the pastoral concern that stood at the origin of these documents. Pastoral concern means seeking the true good of man, promoting the values impressed by God on the human person (623, 625)

That is, Paul VI and John Paul II are not preaching from some lofty ivory tower far removed from the problems of common Christians.

In fact, the opposite is true, both are keenly aware of exactly what is at stake. If the popes allowed Christians to behave as they pleased – indiscriminately following their erotic passions – and use contraceptives without censure, the popes would analogously be like parents who negligently let their children eat junk food and ignore the harm it inflicts on their physical health.

Think about it: contraceptives poison our souls like excessive cookies and cakes are inimical to our bodies. They may taste pleasant at first, but in the end they rob us of our physical and moral health. "Pastoral parents" make their children aware of of that danger and protect them from it. "Permissive parents" allow their children to consume whatever their disordered hearts desire because they are like dogs that don’t bark.

Secondly, John Paul asserts that the morally relevant reason that contraception is wrong is because of who the human person is, that is, he or she is created “in the image and likeness of God” (Gn 1:26). Recall how the pope painted a picture of man in the Garden of Eden by describing him as enjoying three unique experiences: Original Solitude, Original Unity, and Original Nakedness.

If we wanted to combine those original experiences into one concept, we might say Adam and Eve formed – especially in their sexual intimacy – a “communion of persons.” Further, that human communion of spouses reflects – albeit by analogy – the Holy Trinity, the infinite and divine Communion of Persons. And just as God’s communion is always loving and fruitful – the Holy Spirit is the eternal Fruit or the love of the Father and the Son – so spousal love is intrinsically and necessarily both unitive and procreative.

The pope ties together several strands of his foregoing arguments, and states:

As ministers of a sacrament that is constituted through consent and perfected by conjugal union [the wedding words and works], man and woman are called to express the mysterious “language” of their bodies in all the truth that properly belongs to it…According to the criterion of this truth…the conjugal act “means” not only love but also potential fruitfulness, and thus it cannot be deprived of its full and adequate meaning by means of artificial interventions. Such a violation of the inner order of the conjugal communion, a communion that plunges its roots into the very order of the person, constitutes the essential evil of the contraceptive act (632, 633).

In other words, spouses should not use artificial means to block their sexual fruitfulness for the same reason that in the heart of the Holy Trinity nothing blocks their essential love and eternal fruitfulness. Until you can behold each human person, especially a husband and wife, as a child of God, you will not catch the “essential evil of contraception.”

Let me bring this a little closer to home. I adopted my dog Apollo when he was 4 months old. The vet told me I should wait until he was between 6 to 8 months old before having him neutered, by removing his testicles. Poor guy. Now that is a morally good thing to do to Apollo, but it would be a morally very bad thing to do to Fr. John. Why? Because Fr. John is created in the image and likeness of God, and Apollo is not; although he think he is a god because he’s named Apollo.

The difference between me and Apollo highlights “the essential evil of the contraceptive act.” This difference between man and dog, and this dignity between man and God, is precisely what the pope has been at pains to demonstrate in the preceding 600 pages. And the reason people continue to use contraception is because they can neither acknowledge that difference nor do they appreciate that dignity.

Thirdly, John Paul gets to the “brass tacks”, the hard part of not using contraceptives, namely, periodic abstinence. He states the salient points of Paul VI’s encyclical: “Humanae Vitae underlines several times that “responsible parenthood" is connected with a continual effort and commitment and that it can be realized only at the price of a precise [asceticism or self-discipline] (see HV 21)” (637).

When I meet with young couples for marriage preparation I encourage them to learn and use Natural Family Planning. I present NFP by asking them: “In most forms of contraception, which person makes all the sacrifices?” The young girl immediately raises her hand with a wry frown on her face. She take the pill, the IUD, the Depovera, the diaphragm, etc. I go on: “And when one person is carrying all the weight and making all the sacrifices, it can create some imbalance, and even resentment.”

But then I add: “The reason NFP is so good and healthy for marriage is that even though for 7 to 10 days you cannot have sex (and that is hard), you both have to tighten your belt and suck it up together. By sharing the burdens and carrying your crosses together, you build a stronger marriage.” By the way, couples who faithfully practice Natural Family Planning have a virtually zero divorce rate.

Put differently, couples who avoid using contraception are avoiding consuming moral poison. Instead, by practicing periodic abstinence, they are doing the ethical work-out called Natural Family Planning, and building the muscles to sustain a strong marriage. And most importantly, they are shining examples of the love and fruitfulness, the unity and procreativity, of the Most Holy Trinity. Woof! Woof! Woof!

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Dogs that Don't Bark, Part 1

John Paul II's TOB demonstrates he is a dog that barks

06/13/2025

One of Sherlock Holmes’ most famous detective cases was called “The Adventure of Silver Blaze.” The Scotland Yard police, typically inept, enlists Holmes’ sleuth skills to solve the mystery of a stolen horse. The key piece of evidence that helped Holmes to catch the culprit was a guard dog that did not bark. From the dog’s silence Holmes astutely deduces that the horse thief was someone known to the dog, hence the canine kept quiet.

Msgr. J. Gaston Hebert, my first pastor, once delivered a very memorable homily – every homily was memorable – using the illustration of a dog that didn’t bark. Believe it or not, his topic that day was contraception and why the Church teaches that its use is immoral. He admitted candidly that as a priest in the 1960’s and 70’s, like many of his confreres, Msgr. Hebert too felt the Church’s teaching was no longer relevant. And so he neglected to preach on it. In effect, he became like a guard dog that did not bark.

He humbly confessed that his silence had been sinful because he had failed to warn his congregation of the moral danger of contraception. He quoted Isaiah 56:10 which describes Israel’s priests as “mute dogs, they cannot bark.” And then Msgr. Hebert, a priest of immense propriety and panache, did the unthinkable: he barked like a dog to conclude his homily: “Woof! Woof!” His sermon was a stroke of Shakespearean genius. And left the congregation contemplating how he broke his sinful silence by a bark.

We might say that the entire Theology of the Body we have surveyed over the course of two years of homilies was but propaedeutic preparation for John Paul II’s final chapter called “He Gave Them the Law of Life as Their Inheritance.” In this concluding chapter, the pope-saint in effect “barks” like a good guard dog, and warns the People of God of the moral and spiritual danger of artificial contraception, the wolf at the door.

John Paul reflects deeply on Pope St. Paul VI’s controversial encyclical called Humanae Vitae (On Human Life) prohibiting contraception. You may remember Paul VI issued his encyclical in the 1960’s at the height of the sexual revolution, the era of so-called free love, made possible by the birth control pill. The pope explains exactly how he intends to “bark” like Msgr. Hebert eventually did:

We want to take this further step, which will bring us to the conclusion of our, by now, long journey, under the guidance of an important pronouncement of the recent magisterium, the encyclical Humanae Vitae, which Pope Paul VI published in July 1968. We will reread this significant document in the light of the conclusions we reached when we examined the original divine plan and Christ’s [three] words referring to it (617).

Even though many clergy in the United States and throughout Western Europe were becoming “dogs that didn’t bark” while contraception was spreading like wildfire – when was the last time you heard a homily on contraception? – Pope Paul VI courageously opened his mouth to proclaim the whole truth about human sexuality and spirituality.

Incidentally, John Paul directly influenced the writing of Humanae Vitae while he was still cardinal archbishop of Krakow. Dr. Janet Smith, who has written and spoken extensively on contraception and Humanae Vitae – and has translated the original Latin text into English – details John Paul’s considerable contribution to this watershed encyclical. She states:

That [John Paul's] theology [of the body] is so compatible with Humanae Vitae may be less surprising when it is recognized that views of John Paul may have had a significant influence on the contents of Humanae Vitae. He was on a special commission that advised Paul VI on the subject of birth regulation…[And] Pope Paul VI was reportedly reading [John Paul’s early work] Love and Responsibility when he wrote Humanae Vitae (Why Humanae Vitae was Right: A Reader, 229).

By promulgating his encyclical, Paul VI stood fast against a growing wave of Christian denominations that accepted contraception one-by-one, ever since the landmark Lambeth Conference of 1930 when the Anglican Church first capitulated. In other words, both pope-saints had learned well the lesson of Isaiah 56:10. They did not want to be “dogs that didn’t bark” when the thief was trying to steal the prize race horse.

Let me give you a mental map of chapter three of Part Two of Pope St. John Paul II tome called Man and Woman He Created Them, to which he gave the working title “the theology of the body” (660). The entire chapter is only 46 pages long and the Holy Father believes every page was extremely pertinent, and therefore did not omit anything like he did with Song of Songs and Tobit. It is subdivided into two sections, the first titled, “The Ethical Problem,” and the second, “Outline of Conjugal Spirituality.”

Even though this chapter comes at the end of his book, we should not cavalierly conclude that it is inconsequential, like the caboose at the end of a train, merely tagging along for fun. Quite the contrary, it is the most critical part – or at least the most practical part – like the rising crescendo at the end of a symphony, or the dramatic denouement to finish an epic story.

Stephen Covey, the leadership guru, taught in his Habit 2 that good leaders always “begin with the end in mind.” He observed humorously: "It is incredibly easy to work harder and harder at climbing the ladder of success only to realize that it’s leaning against the wrong wall.”

John Paul reveals how he carefully followed Habit 2, and that contraception is indeed the “right wall” his entire Theology of the Body ladder is leaning against, and in fact looks to topple. He clarifies:

It follows that this final part is not artificially added to the whole, but is organically and homogeneously united with it. In some sense, that part, which in the overall disposition is located at the end, is at the same time found at the beginning of that whole. This is important from the point of view of structure and method (662).

We should also note that this chapter, with merely 46 pages, is evidently the shortest of all the chapters of the Theology of the Body. But don’t let that brevity fool you: Chihuahuas are smallest dogs but they often exhibit the fiercest bark.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Righteous Indignation

Learning from two giants of non-violent resistance

06/12/2025

Matthew 5:20-26 Jesus said to his disciples: "I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven. "You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, Raqa, will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to fiery Gehenna. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny."

Many years ago Fr. Warren Harvey, the first Black priest of the Diocese of Little Rock, gave me a painting of Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King was depicted as standing at a desk and hanging on the wall behind him was a painting of Mahatma Gandhi. It was a striking painting of two modern champions of non-violent resistance as the best means to confront injustice.

Both men galvanized two groups of people who desperately desired a path to defend their human dignity but were being deprived of it. African Americans here in the United States, and Indians under the British Empire. And I think their philosophy of non-violent resistance has a very timely message for all people protesting across the United States today.

Peaceful protesting is a hallmark of American history going back to our founding days. The American Revolution was sparked by the British government’s overreach and injustice, namely, taxation without representation. That injustice led to the so-called “Boston Tea Party”. And this right to peaceful protest is enshrined in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

It reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibit the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech; or of the press, or” – and this is the money line for us – “the right of people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” The key word, of course, is the adverb “peaceably”, and that is precisely what Gandhi and King would insist on.

Let me share a few quotations from these two giants of non-violence in the hopes that their words might reach the ears of today’s protesters or at least touch our own hearts. Dr. King said: “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”

A second quote by Dr. King: “Darkness cannot drive our darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” A third quote from King: “We must learn to live together as brothers, or perish together as fools.” Dr. King certainly had a persuasive way with words.

Here are a few quotes of non-violent wisdom from Gandhi: “An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” Here is a second quote: “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” And a third quote from Gandhi: “I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.”

Even though King was a Baptist and Gandhi was a Hindu, their words can help us Catholics better understand Jesus’ words in the gospel today. Jesus exhorts his followers: “Whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.” I think the best way to avoid that sinful anger is to learn the ways of non-violent protest.

Sometimes we must disagree with our brothers and sisters. But we can disagree lovingly, that is, without anger, when we adopt the spirit of non-violent resistance. Often what really needs to change are not so much unjust laws, or policies, or practices – although sometimes they do – but our own hearts.

The anger, resentment, and revenge that reside there, beating in our own breasts is often the true enemy. In other words, the spirit of non-violence turns the sword of righteous indignation away from our neighbor and plunges it into our own bosom, and kills the anger and hate that are lurking there.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Wedding Words and Works, Part 4

Seeing married life as liturgical life

06/11/2025

As John Paul II turns the corner, concluding his meditations on the Song of Songs to consider Tobit, suddenly the finish line of chapter two emerges on the horizon. Only 23 more pages to go! Once again, we should note that the poor people crowded into St. Peter’s Square back in 1984 listening to the future saint deliver his Theology of the Body addresses in person were deprived of hearing several sections of Tobit. But we are not deprived because we have the full text before our eyes.

First, John Paul summarizes the story-line of Tobit, and how the plot thickens with a test of life and death. He writes:

We read there that Sarah, daughter of Raguel had already “been given in marriage to seven men” (Tob 6:14), but that each one of them had died before uniting with her. This happened through the work of the evil spirit Asmodeus…Young Tobias too had reasons to fear a similar death. When he asks for Sarah’s hand, Raguel gives her to him with the significant words, “May the Lord of heaven help you tonight, my child, and grant you his mercy and peace” (Tob 7:12) (596).

Incidentally, the Holy Father omitted one intriguing detail, namely, Raguel fully expected Tobias to suffer the same fate as Sarah’s other seven suitors. So Tob 8:9-10 recounts: “But Raguel arose and went and dug a grave, with the thought, ‘Perhaps, [Tobias], too, will die.’” By the way, how would you feel if your new father-in-law were digging your grave on your honeymoon night? And people say the Bible is boring?

In any case, the pope-saint’s principal preoccupation in this section is with the prayer of Tobias and Sarah on their honeymoon night. How many newlyweds said a prayer before consummating their marriage? Indeed, John Paul begins this portion by quoting the entire prayer from Tobit 8:5-8. The Holy Father contends that their shared prayer effectively encapsulates the entire liturgy of marriage.

John Paul explains:

The prayer of Tobias and Sarah becomes in some way the deepest model of the liturgy, whose word is a word of power. It is a word of power drawn from the sources of covenant and of grace. It is the power that frees from evil and purifies (604).

The spouses utter this liturgical prayer in two distinct ways and in the two chief moments of the sacrament of marriage. First, they enunciate the vows of marriage and act as the ministers of the sacrament of marriage. Incidentally, as the priest-presider, I do not marry anyone, I merely serve as the official witness.

Rather, the groom bestows the sacrament on his bride, and the bride does so conversely. That is, their vows are precisely the “words of power that free from evil and purify.” At this point in the wedding I ask the bride and groom to face each other rather than look at me. When they do so, they turn and look at the true minister of the sacrament of marriage.

The spouses speak this liturgical prayer a second time with their bodies – what John Paul repeatedly calls “the language of the body” – at the moment of consummating their marriage. Properly speaking, the wedding liturgy only begins at church but it is not completed until the couple reaches the bedroom. And that is also why couples traditionally kiss at the end of the wedding Mass. The kiss, as body language, becomes a preview of coming attractions: the remainder of the liturgy will occur in the bedroom.

But note this well: every occasion in which couples consummate their marriage is not just a sexual act, it is also a liturgical act. Husband and wife repeat with their bodies 10, 20, or 30 years later the vows they said with their lips. In that sense, each and every act of consummation should be a moment of liturgical prayer. Why? Because with their bodies, spouses pronounce “a word of power that frees from evil and purifies.”

Now, what precisely is this liturgical power of marriage, and from where exactly does it pour forth? The liturgical prayer of spouses (spoken by words and actions), unleashes divine power that originates in the heart of the Holy Trinity, an infinite Communion of three divine Persons. Or, as Hebrews 12:29 eloquently expresses it: “Our God is a consuming fire." In other words, God is an infinite inferno whose combusting power purifies human love until all the dross of lust is burned away; until spouses learn to love like God loves.

This past spring I flew to San Antonio to give a retreat on the Theology of the Body to a zealous little Bible study group. While waiting in the airport I was watching families going on Spring Break: some dressed for the beach, others for camping, others for a cruise. But I really began to see that each family, however chaotic or comical, was a small mirror of the Holy Trinity. How so?

Husbands and wives who as ministers of their own marriages had spoken the words of their vows with their lips at church, and later with their bodies repeated those vows in the bedroom, had borne the fruit of that love in their children. You see, every natural family is not merely the basic cell of society; it is a spark flying from the infinite inferno of all-consuming fire of the Holy Trinity. I felt a sudden urge to stand up in the middle of DFW airport and exclaim: “What a perfect place for contemplation!” Indeed, that bustling airport was almost as holy as the Adoration Chapel.

The Holy Father devotes the final six pages of chapter two (610-15) to recapping how Ephesians elevates the liturgical prayer of Tobit onto a mystical plane. John Paul writes:

This text [of Ephesians] brings us to a dimension of the “language of the body” that could be called “mystical”…[The author of Ephesians] does not hesitate to extend that mystical analogy to the “language of the body,” reread in truth of spousal love and of the conjugal union of the two (613).

Sometimes we think to experience something sublime, other-worldly, or mystical we have to climb to a lofty mountain and seek wisdom from a solitary Tibetan monk. Well, married couples do not need to climb a mountain because your marriage IS a majestic Mt. Everest, and your married life IS the mystical life spread over the years between your wedding day and “till death do you part.”

Every Sunday families sit in the pews and look toward the sanctuary to see the presence of God. And you see it enacted in the divine liturgy called the Mass. Likewise, every Sunday I sit in the sanctuary and look toward the pews filled with families and try to see the presence of God. And I see it enacted, too, in the conjugal liturgy that is married life.

At the altar I whisper liturgical words of power that purify and transform natural bread and wine into the sacramental presence of the second Person of the Holy Trinity. In the pews you whisper words of power – “Be quiet! Sit still! Pay attention! Stop fighting!” – that purify and transform natural families into the sacramental presence of the Most Holy Trinity. And that is the unflagging hope of the Theology of the Body: to grasp that your marriage and family are the sacramental equivalent of a Solemn High Mass.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Wedding Words and Works, Part 3

Learning the spousal spirituality of the Song of Songs

06/10/2025

John Paul II completes his treatment of the wedding work by providing a special spousal spirituality reflecting deeply on the unique Old Testament books of Song of Songs and Tobit. Sooner or later, all couples experience dryness, discouragement, and sometimes even face divorce. Husband and wife feel like the unfortunate couple at Cana in John 2, who embarrassingly ran out of wine at their wedding (Jn 2:3).

Symbolically speaking, the initial inebriation of married love (the wine) of the honeymoon gives way to the staid sobriety (the water) of the honey-do list: the daily drudgery, emotional distance, bickering, and who’s turn is it to wake up with the baby? By contrast, John Paul’s analysis of Song of Songs and Tobit seeks to produce the opposite effect: to turn the water of lack-luster love back into the wine of the Lord’s love for us. And ultimately, he wants to raise a cup to the couple’s lips like at a wedding Mass so they can taste again “the best wine” (Jn 2:10), namely, Jesus.

Let me make three quick comments about the pope’s penetrating examination of the Song of Songs. First, he notes that the overall structure is not simply an inspired poem, but more of a duet or a dialogue between a lover and his beloved. John Paul remarks:

What was barely expressed in the second chapter of Genesis (vv 23-25) in just a few simple and essential words is developed here in full dialogue, or rather in a duet, in which the Bridegroom’s words are interwoven with the bride’s, and they complete each other (552).

I will never forget the loving duet by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton called “Islands in the Stream.” They sang in sync: “Islands in the stream / That is what we are / No one in between / How can we be wrong? / Sail away with me / To another world / And we rely on each other, ah, ha / From one lover to another, uh ha.” Now, Kenny and Dolly are clearly not inspired authors of Scripture. Nonetheless, they still capture the same enchanting duet and dialogue of lovers. As such, their song gives us a glimpse into the enduring appeal of the Song of Songs.

Secondly, John Paul calls our attention to the paradoxical titles that the bridegroom and the bride bestow on each other. The bridegroom says: “You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride” (Song 4:9). And for her part, the bride replies: “O that you were a brother to me, who nursed at my mother’s breast!” (Song 8:1).

The Holy Father notes that by addressing the bride as “sister” the bridegroom expresses “a disinterested tenderness” that is filled with respect and reverence for the person of the bride. John Paul recognizes the result of this disinterested love: “From here [the perspective of seeing the bride in familial terms], consequently, arises the peace that the bride speaks of” (566).

I had a professor in the seminary who suggested that whenever we feel lustful thoughts toward a beautiful woman, we should try to visualize her as a family member. How so? Well, if she were older to think of her as our mother; if she were the same age, to see her as our sister, if she were younger then as our daughter. Now I know where he got that idea! In other words, To gaze upon an attractive woman as family effectively extinguishes Cupids’ flaming arrows of eros. Purity, therefore, restores peace in relationships.

Thirdly, the pope-saint turns his attention to the highly suggestive metaphors of “a garden closed” and “a fountain sealed” (Song 4:12). John Paul maintains that these restrictive images reveal that the depths of each spouse’s personality – particularly the bride’s – remain inviolable, in a sense, out of the bridegroom’s reach, until she willingly unlocks the gates to her heart. The pope argues:

The “sister-bride” is for the man the master of her own mystery as a “garden closed” and a “fountain sealed.” The “language of the body” reread in the truth goes hand in hand with the discovery of the inner inviolability of the person (572).

The most moving depiction I have ever seen of the inviolability of the human heart was in the movie “Gandhi”, starring Ben Kingsley. The intrepid liberator of India called his countrymen to non-violent resistance to British rule. He declared:

All Indians must now be fingerprinted, like criminals [but we will not submit to this rule]...We will not strike a blow, but we will resist them…And through our pain we will make them see their injustice, and it will hurt – as all fighting hurts. They may torture my body, break my bones, even kill me. Then they will have my dead body – not my obedience.

Like citizens freely choose to obey government authority (or not), so spouses freely choose to submit to one another out of love (or not). Obedience and love reside infinitely higher than the ruthless reach of coercion.

John Paul articulates how spouses entrust the hidden depths of their personalities by becoming a gift:

The truth of the increasing closeness of the spouses through love develops in the subjective dimension “of the heart,” of affection and sentiment. In the same dimension, this is equally the discovery within oneself of the gift of the other, in some sense, of “tasting him” within oneself (574).

That is, a “fountain sealed” remains intrinsically inviolable until the person makes a gift of himself, allowing the other person to taste the depths of their love.

And then John Paul adds this concluding corollary. When the spousal gift of self has reached its maximum intensity and truth – when couples have given of themselves down to the last drop – they take a step beyond eros and reach the sublime heights of agape. That is, spouses move beyond the Old Testament world of the Song of Songs, and wade into the New Testament world of St. Paul.

John Paul seems to speak contemplatively:

[I]t seems that love here opens up before us, I would say, in two perspectives, as though that in which human eros closes its own horizon were opened further, through Paul’s words, in another horizon of love that speaks another language, the love that seems to emerge from another dimension of the person, and which calls, invites, to another communion. This love has been called agape (590).

In other words, every human love ultimately leaves the spouses thirsting for more. That is not a criticism of human love, but an important acknowledgement that we are made for divine love, for communion with God himself. As Christopher West once said: “Don’t hang your hat on a hook that cannot bear its weight.” No human spouse can bear the weight of our desire for infinite love.

And perhaps that is the most helpful insight for spousal spirituality: human love, great as it is, finally betrays a fatal flaw: it has an expiration date, but we seek a love that is eternal. Every human married couple inevitably runs out of wine, until they invite Jesus to their wedding feast, and finally realize he is “the best wine” because he alone is the eternal Bridegroom.

Praised be Jesus Christ!