HIGHLIGHTS FROM
THE THEOLOGY OF THE BODY
and
LOVE AND RESPONSIBILITY
By Pope John Paul II
Includes "Humanae Vitae," "The Gospel of Life," and "On the Dignity and Vocation of Women."
Love and Responsibility used with permission of Ignatius Press, www.ignatius.com.
The Theology of the Body used with permission of Pauline Books and Media, www.pauline.org.
"PURITY IS THE GLORY OF THE HUMAN BODY BEFORE GOD. IT IS GOD'S GLORY IN THE HUMAN BODY"
(ToB 209).
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Please see editor's explanatory notes at the end.
TOPICAL INDEX
1) SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BODY AND SEXUALITY. For us as creatures, there is no greater good than to be created--created as man and woman in the image of the living God. We are created through sex, as sexual beings, male and female from the moment of conception. Sex is a big deal.
2) IN THE BEGINNING. We are not Gods, nor are we mere animals. All of creation belongs to us, and we belong to our creator.
3) GIVING--Giving is the essence of God, the purpose of our bodies, the basis of pure love. God gives us life and then, in love, gives to us all of creation. He gives us the capacity to give ourselves to him and to one another. Therein we discover the meaning of our lives.
4) LUST AND USING (UTILITARIANISM)-- Understanding how the world rationalizes using.
5) ATTRACTION AND DESIRE VS. LUST: Lust obscures the true beauty and meaning of the body, toward which we should be attracted. Attraction, and desire, are of the essence of love.
6) FREEDOM AND TRUTH. Love is a choice to give. Giving requires freedom. Freedom requires truth.
7) MEN AND WOMEN--DIFFERENCES AND COMMONALITIES. We're basically the same, except for all of the critical ways we are different ;) Our differences are manifested powerfully in male sensuality and female sentimentality.
8) MARRIAGE. Jesus on the cross points back to the first wedding, in the Garden of Eden. He points forward to the wedding of the Lamb to his bride, the Church, in Heaven. The love of the Gospel is a nuptial love. Every human is called to nuptial love.
9) CELIBACY -- EUNUCHS FOR THE KINGDOM: There is no marriage in heaven, because there we all are mystically married to Christ. Celibacy here on earth is a participation in that heavenly marriage.
10) LOVE - CHASTITY - PURITY - HOPE: To be chaste is to be free from the bondage and torments of all types of lust. This freedom makes us capable of truly giving love.
11) THE UNIQUE GLORY OF WOMANHOOD. Women are closer to the mystery of the generation of life, more sensitive to others, and more like Christ in very many ways. As he died upon the cross, Christ was surrounded by many holy women who had not abandoned him at the most critical moment in history.
12) HUMANAE VITAE--COMMENTARY AND EXCERPTS. Perhaps the single most prophetic document written since the Revelation of John.
13) THE GOSPEL OF LIFE: EXCERPTS. A great world war is being waged between the culture of death and the Gospel of Life. The victory was won upon the cross.
14) GENERAL EXCERPTS. More goodies.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BODY AND SEXUALITY
"The sexual urge is a natural drive born in all human beings along which their whole existence develops and perfects itself. The sexual urge is a property of the whole of human existence and not just of one of its spheres or functions. [It] permeates the whole existence of man" (LaR 46f.).
"The sexual urge is something even more basic than the psychological and physiological attributes of man and woman" (LaR 49).
"The sexual urge is an attribute and a force common to humanity at large, at work in every human being. We have to reckon with its effects at every turn in all relationships between the sexes and indeed wherever they exist side by side. Man is at once a social being and a sexual being" (LaR 50).
"Although love grows out of the sexual urge and develops on that basis ... it is none the less [shaped] by acts of will at the level of the person" (LaR 49).
"Existence is the first and basic good for every creature. The natural route by which human beings begin to exist passes through the sexual urge. On no account then is it be supposed that the sexual urge is something inferior to the person and inferior to love" (ToB 51f.).
"The love of man and woman takes shape deep down in the psyche of the two persons, and is bound up with the high sexual vitality of human beings" (LaR 73).
"Any immediate contact between a woman and a man is always the occasion of a sensory experience for both of them. [The] ease with which emotions arise in contacts between persons of [opposite] sexes is bound up with the sexual urge as a natural property and energy of human existence" (LaR 104).
"The love of man and woman originates in the sexual instinct" (LaR 122).
"This theology of the body is the most suitable method of the education of man" (ToB 215).
"Purity is the glory of the human body before God. It is God's glory in the human body" (ToB 209).
"The redemption of the body is the end and mature fruit of the mystery of the redemption of man and of the world carried out by Christ" (ToB 174).
"By its nature, human life, its dignity and balance, depend, at every moment of history on who she will be for him, and he for her" (ToB 159).
"The body expresses the person" (ToB 41).
"The 'definitive' creation of man consists in the creation of the unity of two beings" (ToB 45).
"Every conjugal union renews in a way the mystery of creation in all of its depth and vital power. Procreation is rooted in creation, and every time, in a sense, reproduces its mystery" (ToB 50f.).
"[These] original human experiences are always at the root of every human experience. They are so intermingled with the ordinary things of life that we do not generally notice their extraordinary character" (ToB 51).
"The nuptial meaning of the body will always remain the deepest level. It demands to be revealed in all its simplicity and purity, and to be shown in its whole truth, as a sign of the image of God. The way that goes from the mystery of creation to the 'redemption of the body' also passes here" (ToB 66).
"Awareness of the meaning of the body, in particular of its nuptial meaning, is the fundamental element of human existence in the world" (ToB 66).
"The fundamental fact of human existence at every stage of its history is that God 'created them male and female'" (ToB 74).
"The body, and it alone, is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine. It was created to transfer into the visible reality of the world the mystery hidden since time immemorial in God, and thus be a sign of it" (ToB 76).
"Man ... from the beginning, searches for the meaning of his own body" (ToB 80).
"By means of the body, the human person is husband and wife" (ToB 81).
"Each person bears within him the mystery of his beginning, closely bound up with awareness of the generative meaning of the body" (ToB 85).
"Resurrection must be understood as the perfectly 'integrated' union of the soul and the body" (ToB 240).
"The resurrection will consist in the perfect participation of all that is physical in man in what is spiritual in him" (ToB 241).
"The glorification of the body will then be revealed again. [The] meaning of the body will be revealed in splendor when every participant in the other world will find again in his glorified body the source of the freedom of the gift" (ToB 248).
"[In] the vision of God face to face, [the body] will find its inexhaustible source of perpetual virginity (united to the nuptial meaning of the body), and of the perpetual [communion] of all men" (ToB 254).
"One of man's fundamental questions [is] the question about the significance of being ?in the body' a man or a woman" (ToB 299).
"According to Paul, the redemption of the body is the object of hope. This hope was implanted in the heart of man immediately after the first sin" (ToB 299).
"The redemption of the body is the redemption of the world" (ToB 300).
"The redemption of the body has already been accomplished in [the death and resurrection] of Christ" (ToB 300).
"The redemption of the body is a great expectation of those who possess ?the first fruits of the spirit (Rom
"The heart, that intimate place where good and evil struggle in man (ToB 347)."
"Every believer and especially every theologian should reread and ever more deeply understand the moral doctrine of [Humanae Vitae] in this complete context [of The Theology of the Body]" (ToB 390).
"The Theology of the Body is not merely a theory, but rather derives from the Bible, and especially from the Gospel. As the message of salvation, it reveals man's true good" (ToB 396).
"As a whole, the catechesis which I began over four years ago and which I am concluding today can be summed up under the title: 'Human love in the divine plan,' or more precisely, 'The redemption of the body and the sacramentality of marriage'" (ToB 419).
"The heart of the tragedy being experienced by modern man: the eclipse of the sense of God and of man. When the sense of God is lost, there is also a tendency to lose the sense of man. Without the creator, the creature would disappear. When God is forgotten, the creature itself grows unintelligible. Man is reduced to being 'a thing.' Life itself becomes a mere 'thing'" (ToB-GoL 509).
"In the materialistic perspective the first to be harmed are women, children, the sick or suffering, and the elderly" (ToB-GoL 511).
"We are facing an enormous and dramatic clash between good and evil, death and life, the 'culture of death' and the 'culture of life.' We all share in the inescapable responsibility of choosing to be unconditionally pro-life. 'See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil. I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live (Dt30:15,19)" (ToB-GoL 514).
IN THE BEGINNING:
"Man cannot find true happiness--toward which he aspires with all his being--other than in respect of the laws written by God in his very nature" (ToB-HV 440).
"During the talk with the Pharisees about the indissolubility of marriage, Jesus Christ twice referred to the 'beginning' (Mt 19:3ff.)" (ToB 25).
"'The beginning' means that which Genesis speaks about" (ToB 26).
"Being and the good are convertible" (ToB 29).
"Right from the beginning sinfulness is in relation to this real innocence of man. If this sin signifies a state of lost grace, then it also contains a reference to that grace" (ToB 33).
"'From the beginning' [man is] an image of the inscrutable divine communion of persons. [Gen 2] could also be a preparation for understanding the Trinitarian concept of the 'image of God.' Perhaps it even constitutes the deepest theological aspect of all that can be said about man" (ToB 46f.).
"Every conjugal union renews in a way the mystery of creation in all of its depth and vital power. Procreation is rooted in creation, and every time, in a sense, reproduces its mystery" (ToB 50f.).
"[These] original human experiences are always at the root of every human experience. They are so intermingled with the ordinary things of life that we do not generally notice their extraordinary character" (ToB 51).
"Each person bears within him the mystery of his beginning, closely bound up with awareness of the generative meaning of the body" (ToB 85).
"I think that among the answers that Christ would give to the people of our time and to their questions, the one he gave to the Pharisees (Mt 19:3ff.) would still be fundamental. Christ would refer above all to the 'beginning.' Christ would not be surprised by any of these [modern] situations. He would continue to refer mainly to the beginning" (ToB 87).
"Reflection on the ancient text of Genesis is irreplaceable. It is the beginning of The Theology of the Body. The fact that theology also considers the body should not astonish or surprise anyone who is aware of the mystery and reality of the Incarnation" (ToB 88).
"In short, the myth tends to know what is unknowable" (ToB 91).
"Man was God's image through the original communion of persons, constituted by the man and the woman together" (ToB 114).
"Right from the beginning a very clear and univocal boundary is laid down in the Bible between the world of animals and the man created in the image and likeness of God" (ToB 282).
"Man cannot exist 'alone' (cf.Gn
"Human life belongs only to God: for this reason, whoever attacks human life, in some way attacks God himself" (ToB-GoL 499).
GIVING:
"Creation signifies giving. It is a fundamental and 'radical' giving in which the gift comes into being precisely from nothingness" (ToB 59)."
"With regard to man a gift was conferred on him; the visible world was created 'for him'" (ToB 59).
"Alone, man does not completely realize [his] essence. He realizes it only by existing 'with someone'--and even more deeply and completely--by existing 'for someone'" (ToB 60)."
"That love in which the person becomes a gift fulfills the meaning of his being and existence" (ToB 63).
"[Man] can fully discover his true self only in a sincere giving of himself (Gaudium et Spes 24)" (ToB 63).
"The human body [reveals a value and a beauty] beyond the purely physical dimension of sexuality. The nuptial meaning of the body indicates a particular capacity of expressing love, in which man becomes a gift" (ToB 65).
"The affirmation of the person is nothing but acceptance of the gift, which, by means of reciprocity, creates the communion of persons" (ToB 65).
"Interior innocence consists in reciprocal 'acceptance' of the other such as to correspond to the essence of the gift" (ToB 70).
"The giving and the accepting of the gift interpenetrate, so that the giving itself becomes accepting, and the acceptance is transformed into giving" (ToB 71).
"In giving herself the woman 'rediscovers herself' because of the way in which she has been received by the man. So she finds herself again in the very fact of giving herself when she is accepted in the way in which the Creator wished her to be, that is, 'for her own sake,' through her humanity and femininity. When the whole dignity of the gift is ensured in this acceptance she reaches the inner depth of her person and full possession of herself" (ToB 71).
"Understanding the nuptial meaning of the body in its masculinity and femininity reveals the depths of their freedom, which is freedom of giving" (ToB 74).
"In the eternal language of human love, the term 'my' indicates the reciprocity of the donation" (ToB 129).
"[Eph 5:22-33, ?Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her etc.'] That passage from Ephesians, correctly understood [is] the crowning of sacred scripture" (ToB 304f.).
"Not only the fruits of redemption are a gift, but above all, Christ himself is a gift. He gives himself to the Church as to his spouse" (ToB 325).
"The gift of God in Christ is a total, that is, a radical gift. It is all that God could give of himself to man" (ToB 331).
"Man cannot exist 'alone' (cf.Gn
"Christ's blood reveals to man that his greatness, and therefore his vocation, consists in the sincere gift of self" (ToB-GoL 512).
"The fullest, the most uncompromising form of love consists precisely in selfgiving, in making [oneself] someone else's property" (LaR 97).
"In giving ourselves we find clear proof that we possess ourselves" (LaR 98).
"The concept of betrothed love implies the giving of the individual person to another chosen person" (LaR 98).
"The acts of surrender reciprocate each other. They combine to produce a perfect whole, an act of mutual self-surrender" (LaR 99).
"By its nature, because it is what it is, the person is its own master and cannot be ceded to another. But love forcibly detaches the person, so to speak, from this natural inviolability. It makes the person want to do just that--surrender itself to another, to become the property of that other. The reciprocated gift of self, so that two persons belong each to the other--this is the only full and satisfactory description of 'betrothed love'" (LaR 125f.).
A woman is capable of truly making a gift of herself only if she fully believes in the value of her person, and in the value as a person of the man to whom she gives herself. Realization of the value of the gift awakens the need to show gratitude and to reciprocate in ways which would match its value" (LaR 129).
"The sexual instinct wants above all to make use of another person, whereas love wants to give, to create a good. To desire 'unlimited' good for another person is really to desire God for that person (p. 138)."
LUST AND USING (UTILITARIANISM)
"Extorting of the gift and reducing him or her to a mere 'object for me,' should mark the beginning of shame and bears witness to the collapse of innocence" (ToB 70).
"In the three forms of lust (I John
"A certain fear always belongs to the essence of shame" (ToB 112).
"Lust is explained as a lack [in the] human spirit" (ToB 112).
"Reducing him or her to a mere 'object for me,' [marks] the beginning of shame. Shame [creates] a fundamental disquiet in all human existence" (ToB 70, 115).
"Lust, especially the lust of the body, is a specific threat to the self-control and self-mastery, through which the human person is formed. The structure of self-mastery is shaken to the very foundations [by lust]" (ToB 115).
"Man is ashamed of his body because of lust. In fact, he is ashamed not so much of his body as of lust" (ToB 116).
"Shame was born in their hearts together with the lust of the body" (ToB 117).
"After original sin, man had lost the sense of the image of God in himself. That loss was manifested with shame of the body" (ToB 118f.).
"The nuptial meaning of the body has not been completely suffocated by concupiscence, but only habitually threatened" (ToB 126).
"The heart has become a battlefield between love and lust" (ToB 126).
[Man] can fully discover his true self only in a sincere giving of himself" (GS 24). "Lust in general--and the lust of the body in particular--attacks this 'sincere giving.' It deprives man of the dignity of giving" (ToB 126f.).
"Concupiscence entails the loss of the interior freedom of the gift. [The] meaning of the human body is connected precisely with this freedom. Man can become a gift--that is, the man and the woman can exist in the relationship of mutual self-giving--if each of them controls himself. Concupiscence limits self-control. In a certain sense it makes impossible the interior freedom of giving. It does not unite, but appropriates" (ToB 127).
"Mutual giving changed after original sin to mutual appropriation" (ToB 128).
"Lust in its three forms is the heritage of all humanity, and the human heart really participates in it" (ToB 131).
"The history of the human heart after original sin is written under the pressure of lust" (132).
"Concupiscence of the flesh flaring up in man takes possession of his heart, suffocates in his heart the most profound voice of conscience" (ToB 145).
"In suffocating the voice of conscience, passion carries with it a restlessness of the body and the senses" (ToB 145).
"Man committed to satisfying the senses, finds neither peace nor himself, but, on the contrary, 'is consumed'" (ToB 146).
"Where passion enters into the whole of the most profound energies of the spirit, it can also become a creative force. If instead it suppresses the deepest forces of the heart and conscience (as occurs in the text of Sirach
"Although hidden in the heart, and expressed only by the look, there already occurs in him a change [in] the very intentionality of existence. If it were not so [the words] 'has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Mt
"A look expresses what is in the heart. A look expresses the man within. The man looks in conformity with what he is" (ToB 147).
"Concupiscence itself is an interior separation from the nuptial meaning of the body" (ToB 147).
"The separation of the matrimonial significance of the body causes a conflict with his personal dignity" (ToB 148).
"Lust is a deception of the human heart" (ToB 148).
"The man dominated by lust [is under] more or less complete compulsion. This brings with it loss of the freedom of the gift" (ToB 151).
"This reduction of such a rich, reciprocal and perennial attraction of persons in their masculinity or femininity does not at all correspond to the 'nature' of attraction" (ToB 152).
"It cannot be forgotten that the fundamental interior situation of historical man is the state of threefold lust" (ToB 222).
"Materialism breeds individualism, utilitarianism and hedonism" (ToB-GoL 510).
"In the materialistic perspective the first to be harmed are women, children, the sick or suffering, and the elderly" (ToB-GoL 511).
"The sexual relationship presents more opportunities than most other activities for treating a person -- sometimes without even realizing it -- as an object of use" (LaR 30).
"Utilitarianism preaches the maximum of pleasure for the greatest possible number of people. At first glance this principle seems both right and attractive -- it is difficult to imagine people behaving otherwise. The real mistake is the recognition of pleasure in itself as the sole or at any rate the greatest good, whereas pleasure is essentially incidental, contingent, something which may occur in the course of action. Pain or pleasure is not the decisive consideration if I am to act rationally. What is more, it is not fully identifiable beforehand. Pleasure and pain are always connected with a concrete action, so that it is not possible to anticipate them precisely, let alone to plan for them or, as the utilitarians would have us do, even compute them in advance. Pleasure is, after all, a somewhat elusive thing" (LaR 36).
{Editor's note: Pope Saint John Paul the Great then explains the ineluctable unraveling of utilitarianism if, and when, one no longer finds pleasure in the pleasure of others (LaR 37f.).}
"The only escape is by recognizing beyond pleasure, an objective good. Such an objective good is the foundation of love. Love is the unification of persons" (LaR 38).
"If we start from what utilitarians accept as the basis for the regulation of human behaviour, we shall never arrive at love" (LaR 40).
"The person is a good towards which the only proper and adequate attitude is love. The value of the person is always greater than the value of pleasure" (LaR 41).
"A person's rightful due is to be treated as an object of love, not as an object for use. Love is a requirement of justice" (LaR 42).
"This interpenetration of love and justice in the personalistic norm is very important. In the sexual context what is sometimes characterized as love may very easily be quite unjust to a person. This occurs because love in the sexual context lends itself to interpretation, sometimes conscious, sometimes unconscious, along utilitarian lines" (LaR 43).
"Psychologically, the sexual urge does not fully determine human behaviour but leaves room for the free exercise of the will" (LaR 50).
"Giving oneself only sexually, without the full gift of the person to validate it, must lead to [utilitarianism]" (LaR 99).
"Sensuality in itself has a 'consumer orientation' -- it is directed primarily and immediately towards a 'body....' Thus sensuality really interferes with the apprehension of the beautiful, even of bodily, sensual beauty" (LaR 105).
"Sensuality by itself is not love, and may very easily become its opposite. Sensuality in itself is quite blind to the person, and oriented only with the sexual value connected with 'the body'" (LaR 108).
"Take away from love the fullness of self surrender, the completeness of personal commitment, and what remains will be a total denial and negation of it" (LaR 129).
"It is impossible to judge the value of a relationship between persons merely from the intensity of their emotions. The very exuberance of the emotions born of sensuality may conceal an absence of true love, or indeed outright egoism" (LaR 145).
"Sensual or emotional reactions to a person of the other sex arise before and develop more quickly than virtue" (LaR 146).
"Carnal concupiscence leads to a 'love' which is not love [because the feelings are not integrated, and] do not rise to the level of the person. There is a serious possibility not only that love will be deformed, but also that its natural raw material will be squandered" (LaR 153).
"Emotion diverts the gaze of truth from the objective nature of the act and onto how we feel about the act. An act is supposed to be true or genuine to the extent that it is imbued with sincere emotion. This causes a detachment, or dis-integration between the subjective emotion felt about the act, and objective totality of the act itself. The problem here is that genuine emotion can inform an act which objectively is not good.
"When emotion becomes the supreme value, and the only scale by which we measure values, the result is confusion, a disorientation of feelings and actions so serious that it ends by destroying completely not only the essence of love, but even the erotic character of the experiences in question (LaR 154f.)'
"Concupiscence itself means a constant tendency merely to 'enjoy', whereas man's duty is to love" (LaR160).
"Sinful love is often very emotional, saturated in emotion, which leaves no room for anything else" (LaR 163).
"The more successfully the utilitarian attitude is camouflaged in the will the more dangerous it is. 'Sinful love' more often than not is not called 'sinful' but simply 'love', since those who experience it try to convince themselves and others that love is just this and cannot be otherwise" (LaR 170).
ATTRACTION and DESIRE vs. LUST:
"The perennial mutual attraction on man's part to femininity and on woman's part to masculinity, is an indirect invitation of the body. But it is not lust" (ToB 148).
"When compared with the original mutual attraction, lust represents a reduction, an intentional reduction, almost a restriction or closing down of mind and heart. It is one thing to be conscious that the value of sex is a part of all the rich storehouse of values with which the female appears to the man. It is another to 'reduce' all the personal riches of femininity to that single value of sex. Lust has the internal effect of obscuring the significance of the body" (ToB 148f.).
"This reduction of such a rich reciprocal and perennial attraction of persons in their masculinity or femininity does not at all correspond to the 'nature' of attraction" (ToB 152).
"Attraction is of the essence of love and in some sense is indeed love, although love is not merely attraction. Attraction is not just one of the elements of love, but is one of the essential aspects of love as a whole" (LaR 76f.).
"When we speak of the truth of an attraction, it is essential to stress that the attraction must never be limited to partial values, to something which is not the person as a whole. An attraction which fastens [from the] first upon the value of the person has the value of complete truth." (LaR 79).
"A human being is beautiful and may be revealed as beautiful to another human being" (LaR 79).
"Like attraction, desire is of the essence of love. This results from the fact that a human person is a limited being, not self-sufficient, and therefore needs other beings. Realization of the limitation and insufficiency of the human being is the starting point for an understanding of man's relation to God" (LaR 80).
"A human being is either man or woman. Sex is also a limitation, an imbalance. A man therefore needs a woman to complete his own being, and woman needs man in the same way. This need makes itself felt through the sexual urge. The love of one person for another grows up on the basis of that urge. This is 'love as desire.' There is however, a profound difference between love as desire and desire itself, especially sensual desire. Love-as-desire is not felt as mere desire. Love is apprehended as a longing for the person. Desire goes together with this longing, but is overshadowed by it. The [person] in love is conscious of its presence, but working to perfect this love, will see to it that desire does not dominate, does not overwhelm all else that love comprises. If desire is predominant it can deform love between man and woman and rob them both of it" (LaR 81f.).
"A false love is one which is directed toward a genuine good in a way which is contrary to its nature. A false love is an evil love. Love between man and woman would be evil, or at least incomplete, if it went no farther than love as desire. For love as desire is not the whole essence of love between persons. It is not enough to long for a person as a good for oneself, one must also, and above all, long for that person's good. Love as goodwill [is] unconditional. It is the purest form of love" (LaR 83).
"Neither sensuality nor carnal desire is in itself a sin" (LaR 160).
"There is a difference between ?not wanting,' and ?not feeling,' ?not experiencing'" (LaR 162.).
FREEDOM AND TRUTH:
FREEDOM
"We mean here freedom especially as mastery of oneself (self-control). It is indispensable that man may be able to 'give himself.' 'They were naked and were not ashamed' can and must be understood as the revelation of freedom. This freedom makes possible the nuptial sense of the body" (ToB 64).
"The man dominated by lust [is under] more or less complete compulsion. This brings with it loss of the freedom of the gift" (ToB 151).
"Man is precisely a person because he is master of himself and has self-control. Indeed, insofar as he is master of himself he can give himself to the other. The liberty of the gift becomes essential and decisive" (ToB 398).
"[The] culture of death betrays a completely individualistic concept of freedom, which ends up by becoming the freedom of 'the strong' against the weak. When freedom is made absolute in an individualistic way, it is emptied of its original content, and its very meaning and dignity are contradicted. Freedom negates and destroys itself leading to the destruction of others, when it no longer recognizes and respects its essential link with truth. When freedom shuts out even the most obvious evidence of an objective and universal truth society becomes a mass of individuals placed side by side, but without any mutual bonds" (ToB-GoL 507).
"It is of the greatest importance to re-establish the essential connection between life and freedom. No less critical is the recovery of the necessary link between freedom and truth" (ToB-GoL 568).
"His ability to discover the truth gives man the possibility of self-determination and that is what freedom means" (LaR 115).
TRUTH:
"He is called in that truth which has been his heritage from the beginning, the heritage of his heart, which is deeper than the sinfulness inherited, deeper than lust in its three forms" (ToB 167).
"Feelings naturally are not concerned with the truth. Truth is a function [of] reason" (LaR 77).
"A purely emotional love often becomes an equally emotional hatred for the same person. [In emotional attractions] the subject does not enquire whether the other person really possesses the values [perceived], but mainly whether the newborn feeling for that person is a true emotion. People generally believe that love can be reduced largely to a question of the genuineness of feelings. We must [insist] that the truth about the person who is [love's object is] at least as important as the truth about the sentiments. These two truths, properly integrated, [result in a] genuinely good and genuinely 'cultivated' love" (LaR 78).
"When we speak of the truth of an attraction, it is essential to stress that the attraction must never be limited to partial values, to something which is not the person as a whole. An attraction which fastens [from the] first upon the value of the person has the value of complete truth." (LaR 79).
"The process of integrating love relies on the primary elements of the human spirit -- freedom and truth" (LaR 116).
"Love demands freedom--the commitment of freedom, is, in a sense, its psychological essence. A really free commitment of the will is possible only on the basis of truth. The experience of freedom goes hand in hand with the experience of truth. Love also insists upon objective truth. Only on this basis can the integration of love take place" (LaR 117).
"It is a man's duty to choose the true good. It is, indeed, duty that most fully displays the freedom of the human will. The will 'ought to' follow the true good, but this 'ought to' implies that it 'may' equally well not do so" (LaR 119).
"Love is a virtue, an authentic commitment of the free will of one person resulting from the truth about another person" (LaR 123).
"[Love is delivered from anxiety when] the purely subjective truth of the emotion has given place to the objective truth about the person" (LaR 134).
"The strength of such a love emerges most clearly when the beloved person stumbles, when his or her weaknesses or even sins come into the open. One who truly loves does not then withdraw his love, but loves all the more, loves in full consciousness of the other's shortcomings and faults, and without in the least approving of them. For the person as such never loses its essential value. The emotion which attaches itself to the value of the person remains loyal to the human being.
"Only true knowledge of a person makes it possible to commit one's freedom to him or her. Love consists of a commitment which limits one's freedom--it is a giving of the self. Freedom exists for the sake of love. Love commits freedom and imbues it with goodness. The will aspires to the good, and freedom belongs to the will, hence freedom exists for the sake of love, because it is by way of love that human beings share most fully in the good. Man longs for love more than for freedom--freedom is the means and love the end. He longs however for true love, for only if it is based on truth is a genuine commitment of freedom possible. The will is free, but at the same time it 'is obliged to' seek the good which is congenial to it, it can seek and choose freely, but it is not free from the need to seek and to choose.
"The will cannot, however, allow [anything] to be imposed upon it as a good. It wants to choose, and to affirm its choice. In choosing a woman a man affirms her value as a person, not merely her 'sexual' value. Sexual values, after all, tend to impose themselves, whereas the value of the person waits to be chosen and affirmed. For this reason, the will of a man who has not yet succumbed to mere passion but has reserved his inner purity is usually the arena for a struggle, between the sexual instinct and the need for freedom. The sexual instinct makes the will desire and long for a person because of the person's sexual value. The will, however does not stop at this. It is free, or in other words capable of desiring everything relating to the unqualified, [unlimited], good" (LaR 135-137).
{Editor's note: Love is a free choice to give based upon truth.}
DIFFERENCES IN MEN AND WOMEN / RESPONSIBILITIES TO ONE ANOTHER:
"'From the beginning' the woman is entrusted to his eyes, to his consciousness, to his sensitivity, to his heart" (ToB 71).
"The fundamental fact of human existence at every stage of its history is that God 'created them male and female'" (ToB 74).
"[Christ] assigned as a duty to every man the dignity of every woman. Simultaneously he assigned to every woman the dignity of every man" (ToB 346).
"Each man must look within himself, to see whether she who was entrusted to him as a sister in humanity, as a spouse, has not become in his heart an object of adultery or exploitation" (ToB-DVW 464).
"It is pretty generally recognized that woman is 'by nature' more sentimental, and man more sensual. The male psyche is more readily 'compelled' to objectivize the [sexual component] of love for a person of the opposite sex. In the woman sensuality is covert, and concealed by sentimentality. For this reason she is 'by nature' more inclined to go on seeing as a manifestation of affection what a man already clearly realizes to be the effect of sensuality. There exists, then, a certain psychological divergence between man and woman. [The woman's] role and her responsibility will be different from the role and responsibility of the male" (LaR 111).
"One also has a responsibility for one's own love: is it mature and complete enough to justify the enormous trust of another person? The greater the feeling of responsibility for the person, the more true love there is (LaR 130f.).
"[Women] are less aware of sensuality and of its natural orientation in men. The evolution of modesty in woman requires some initial insight into the male psychology. [A man] is very keenly aware of his own sensuality. For him, sexual values are more closely bound up with the 'body and sex as potential objects of enjoyment'" (LaR 177).
MARRIAGE:
"The nuptial meaning of the body will always remain the deepest level. It demands to be revealed in all its simplicity and purity, and to be shown in its whole truth, as a sign of the image of God. The way that goes from the mystery of creation to the 'redemption of the body' also passes here" (ToB 66).
"Awareness of the meaning of the body in particular of its nuptial meaning--is the fundamental element of human existence in the world" (ToB 66).
"Christ's own resurrection enables us to go in two directions--in the first place, in the direction of that beginning which Christ referred to in his conversation with the Pharisees regarding the indissolubility of marriage (cf. Mt 19:3-9); in the second place, in the direction of the other world, to which the Master drew the attention of his listeners in the presence of the Sadducees, who 'say that there is no resurrection' (Mt22:23)" (ToB 245).
"The reality that we experience is above all man, his body, the body of historical man. [Christ's resurrection] permits us to go beyond the sphere of this experience in two directions--first, in the direction of [the] beginning; then in the direction of the future world" (ToB 246).
"Understanding the nuptial meaning of the body in its masculinity and femininity reveals the depths of their freedom, which is freedom of giving" (ToB 74).
"By means of the body, the human person is husband and wife" (ToB 81).
"Man was God's image through the original communion of persons, constituted by the man and the woman together" (ToB 114).
"The wife does not rule over her own body, but the husband does; likewise, the husband does not rule over his own body, but the wife does (1 Cor 7:4)" (ToB 297).
"[Eph 5:22-33, ?Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her etc.'] That passage from Ephesians, correctly understood, is the crowning of sacred scripture" (ToB 304f.).
"(Eph 5:27) The expression ?to present to himself' seems to indicate that moment of the wedding in which the bride is led to the groom" (ToB 317).
"(Eph 5:25-27) The image of the Church in splendor is presented as a bride all beautiful in her body" (ToB 318).
"The wife's submission to her husband signifies above all the ?experiencing of love'" (ToB 320).
"The most ancient covenant which God established by constituting marriage in the work of creation" (ToB 322).
"Not only the fruits of redemption are a gift, but above all, Christ himself is a gift. He gives himself to the Church as to his spouse" (ToB 325).
"The love of Yahweh for the chosen people can and should be compared to the love which unites husband and wife. Here one could quote many passages from Isaiah, Hosea, and Ezekiel. [One cannot forget the Song of Solomon also]" (ToB 326).
"[Is 54:5] God himself is explicitly called ?spouse' of the chosen people" (ToB 328).
"The gift of God in Christ is a total, that is, a radical gift. It is all that God gives of himself to man" (ToB 331).
"Man feels himself, in his body as male and female, the subject of holiness. That holiness pertains to the ?sacrament of creation.' Marriage is the central point of the ?sacrament of creation.' It is the primordial sacrament" (ToB 335).
"Marriage [constitutes] the basic main structure of [salvation] and the sacramental order. In a certain sense all the sacraments find their prototype in marriage (ToB 339)."
"The particular dignity of the human body lies at the root of the indissolubility of the conjugal covenant" (ToB 345).
"Marriage is assigned as an ethos to every man, male and female. It is assigned to his heart, to his conscience, to his looks, and to his behavior (ToB 347).
"Both of them, the man and woman, administer the sacrament. Indeed the very words, ?I take you as my wife--my husband' can be fulfilled only by means of conjugal intercourse" (ToB 355).
"Man cannot express [the] language of his personal existence and of his vocation without the body. The most profound words of the spirit--words of love, of giving, of fidelity--demand an adequate language of the body" (ToB 359).
"This enduring language of the body carries within itself all the richness and depth of the mystery, first of creation, and then of redemption" (ToB 362).
"Man--male or female--does not merely speak with the language of the body. But in a certain sense he permits the body to speak ?for him' and ?on his behalf,' in his name and with his personal authority" (ToB 364).
"The words, movements and gestures of the spouses correspond to the interior movement of their hearts" (ToB 368).
"The words of love uttered by both of them are therefore concentrated on the body. Because on the body there lingers directly and immediately that attraction toward the other person which, in the interior of the heart, generates love" (ToB 369).
"[You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride (Sg 4:9)] As though he and his woman were descended from the same family circle; as though from infancy they were united by memories of a common home. Through the name ?sister' the groom's words tend to reproduce the history of the femininity of the person loved. They embrace her entire soul and body. Hence that peace arises which the bride speaks of. This is the peace of the body. This is above all the peace of the encounter as the image of God. ?So am I in your eyes, like one who has found peace' (Sg
[Sg 2:16;cf. 6:3 My lover belongs to me and I to him.]
"The love that unites them is at one time of a spiritual and a sensual nature. This brings them joy and calm, and seems to lead them to a continual search for integral beauty, for purity that is free from all stain, for perfection that contains the synthesis of human beauty of soul and body. The fullness of their belonging [to one another] goes to the furthest limits of the language of the body in order to exceed them" (ToB 373f.).
[Tobiah's prayer Tb 8:5-8]
"The truth and the power of love are shown in the ability to place oneself between the forces of good and evil which are fighting in man and around him, because love is confident in the victory of good, and is ready to do everything so that good may conquer. [Love] is victorious because it prays" (ToB 376f.).
"In [the sacramental sign of marriage], through the language of the body conjugal life becomes in a certain sense liturgical" (ToB 380).
"As ministers of a sacrament, man and woman are called to express that mysterious language of their bodies by means of gestures and reactions, by means of the whole dynamism, reciprocally conditioned, of tension and enjoyment [of] the body in its masculinity and femininity. By means of all this the man and woman reciprocally express themselves in the most profound way possible" (ToB 398).
"The spirituality of married life [is] the power given to man in order to participate in that love with which God himself loves in the mystery of creation and redemption. It is a joy like that of the Creator himself, who in the beginning saw that everything 'was very good' (Gen
"In the spiritual life of married couples, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are at work, especially the gift of piety, that is, the gift of respect for what is a work of God" (ToB 417).
"Respect for the work of God contributes to seeing that the conjugal act does not become diminished, does not become a habit. It sees that it expresses veneration for the majesty of the creator" (ToB 418).
"Respect for what God creates gives freedom from all that reduces the other to a mere object, and it strengthens the interior freedom of the gift. This can happen only through a profound appreciation of the personal dignity of both the feminine and the masculine in their shared life. This spiritual appreciation is the fundamental fruit of the gift of the spirit" (ToB 418).
"As a whole, the catechesis which I began over four years ago and which I am concluding today can be summed up under the title: 'Human love in the divine plan,' or more precisely, 'The redemption of the body and the sacramentality of marriage'" (ToB 419).
"Man cannot exist 'alone' (cf. Gn
"To be human means to be called to interpersonal communion. [Genesis 2: 18-25] shows that marriage is the first, and, in a sense, the fundamental dimension of this call" (ToB-DVW 451).
"The Eucharist is the Sacrament of our redemption. It is the Sacrament of the Bridegroom and of the Bride. The Eucharist makes present and realizes anew in a sacramental manner the redemptive act of Christ, who 'creates' the Church, his body" (ToB-DVW 481).
"It is the Eucharist above all that expresses the redemptive act of Christ the Bridegroom toward the Church the Bride" (ToB-DVW 481).
"Holy matrimony, chosen and elevated above all other earthly gifts as the begetter of humanity, the creator of images of God" (ToB-GoL 527).
"By its nature, because it is what it is, the person is its own master and cannot be ceded to another. But love forcibly detaches the person, so to speak, from this natural inviolability. It makes the person want to do just that--surrender itself to another, to become the property of that other. The reciprocated gift of self, so that two persons belong each to the other--this is the only full and satisfactory description of 'betrothed love'" (LaR 125f.).
"Betrothed love has a natural grandeur all of its own. The measure of this is the value of the person who gives himself or herself, and not just the degree of sensual and sexual enjoyment which accompanies the gift of self" (LaR 128).
CELIBACY -- EUNUCHS FOR THE KINGDOM:
"The call to an exclusive donation of self to God in virginity and celibacy thrusts its root deep in the Gospel soil of the theology of the body. One must bear in mind Christ's words 'When they rise from the dead they neither marry nor are given in marriage' (Mk
"'Those who are able to receive it' [that is, the call to become eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven,] are those 'to whom it has been given.' The words quoted clearly indicate the importance of the personal choice and also the importance of the particular grace, that is, of the gift which man receives to make such a choice" (ToB 263).
"The charismatic choice of continence for the kingdom of heaven [is] linked, in Christ's words, with the highest recognition of the historical order of human existence" (ToB 264).
[Continence for the kingdom of heaven is] voluntary and supernatural. It is voluntary, because those pertaining to this category 'have made themselves eunuchs,' and it is supernatural, because they have done so 'for the kingdom of heaven.'" (ToB 265).
"Continence for the kingdom of heaven is certainly linked to the revelation [that] in the kingdom of heaven people 'will no longer marry' (Mt22:30). It is a charismatic sign. This is because God will be 'everything to everyone' (1 Cor
"Continence for the kingdom of heaven bears, above all, the imprint of the likeness to Christ. He himself made this choice for the kingdom of heaven" (ToB 268).
"To rediscover in continence that particular spiritual fruitfulness which comes from the Holy Spirit" (ToB 270f.).
"Throughout the gravity and depth of the decision [to live in continence], through the severity and the responsibility that it bears with it, love appears and shines through--love as the readiness to give the exclusive gift of oneself for the sake of the kingdom of God" (ToB 281).
"It is natural for the human heart to accept demands, even difficult ones, in the name of love for an ideal, and above all in the name of love for a person. (By it's very nature, love is directed toward a person.)" (ToB 281).
"Continence for the sake of the kingdom of heaven is a nuptial giving of oneself for the purpose of reciprocating in a particular way the nuptial love of the Redeemer" (ToB 282).
"It is necessary to reread and understand Christ's words about continence for the sake of the kingdom of heaven precisely in relation to this truth about the nuptial meaning of the human body. His words were spoken in the immediate context of that reference to the beginning, on which he based his teaching about the unity and indissolubility of marriage" (ToB 283).
"Here Christ explicitly required full understanding when he said, ?He who is able to receive this, let him receive it'" (ToB 284).
"The only key to understanding the sacramentality of marriage is the spousal love of Christ for the Church (cf. Eph
"Marriage also is tied in with the form of this world which is passing away" (ToB 296).
THE UNIQUE GLORY OF WOMANHOOD:
"[The] essential richness [of women] is indeed an enormous richness. In the biblical description, the words of the first man at the sight of the woman are words of admiration and enchantment, words which fill the whole history of man on earth" (ToB-DVW 457).
"Jesus enters into the historical situation of women which is weighed down by the inheritance of sin, [including] habitual discrimination against women. In countless [situations] a woman is left alone, exposed to public opinion with 'her sin,' while behind 'her' sin there lurks a man, equally responsible. And yet his sin escapes notice. How often the woman pays for her own sin, but she alone pays and she pays all alone! How often is she abandoned with her pregnancy, when the man, the child's father, is unwilling to accept responsibility for it? As a result of various pressures, even on the part of the guilty man, [women] very often 'get rid of' the child before it is born. 'They get rid of it;' but at what price? Normally a woman's conscience does not let her forget that she has taken the life of her own child, for she cannot destroy that readiness to accept life which marks her 'ethos' from the 'beginning'" (ToB-DVW 463f.).
"Christ speaks to women about the things of God, and they understand them" (ToB-DVW 465).
"Women were in the forefront at the foot of the cross. John was the only apostle who remained faithful, but there were many faithful women. Not only the Mother of Christ and 'his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleopas and Mary Magdalene' were present, but 'there were also many women there, looking on from afar, who had followed Jesus from
"From the beginning of Christ's mission, women show to him and to his mystery a special sensitivity which is characteristic of their femininity. This is especially confirmed in the Paschal Mystery, not only at the cross but also at the dawn of the resurrection. The women are the first at the tomb. They are the first to find it empty. They are the fist to hear; 'He is not here. He has risen, as he said.' They are first to embrace his feet. They are the first to be called to announce this truth to the apostles. The Gospel of John emphasizes the special role of Mary Magdalene. She is the first to meet the Risen Christ" (ToB-DVW 466).
"Although both of them together are parents of their child, the woman's motherhood constitutes a special 'part' in this shared parenthood, and the most demanding part. Parenthood is realized much more fully in the woman. It is the woman who 'pays' directly for this shared generation, which literally absorbs the energies of her body and soul. It is therefore necessary for the man to be fully aware that he owes a special debt to the woman. No program of 'equal rights' between women and men is valid unless it takes this fact fully into account. Motherhood involves a special communion with the mystery of life. [The] unique contact with the new human being developing within her profoundly marks the woman's personality. Women are more capable than men of paying attention to another person, and motherhood develops this predisposition even more. The man always remains 'outside' the process of pregnancy and the baby's birth; in many ways he has to learn his own 'fatherhood' from the mother. The mother's contribution is decisive in laying the foundation for a new human personality" (ToB-DVW 470).
"The 'woman' as mother and first teacher of the human being (education being the spiritual dimension of parenthood), has a specific precedence over the man. [It is the woman] upon whom the very humanity of the new human being mainly depends" (ToB-DVW 470).
"A woman often succeeds in resisting suffering better than a man" (ToB-DVW 471).
"All human beings, both women and men, are called through the Church, to be the 'Bride' of Christ. In this way, 'being the bride,' and the 'feminine' element, becomes a symbol of all that is 'human'" (ToB-DVW 480).
"Christ emphasized the originality which distinguishes women from men, all the richness lavished upon women in the mystery of creation" (ToB-DVW 480).
"The moral and spiritual strength of a woman is joined to her awareness that God entrusts the human being to her in a special way" (ToB-DVW 486).
"The Church gives thanks for each and every woman, for all women as they have come forth from the heart of God in all the beauty and richness of their femininity. The Church gives thanks for all the fruits of feminine holiness" (ToB-DVW 488).
"The Gospel of life is to be celebrated above all in daily living, which should be filled with self-giving love for others. Part of this daily heroism is also the silent but effective and eloquent witness of all those brave mothers who do not always find support in the world around them. We thank you, heroic mothers, for your invincible love!" (ToB-GoL 560).
LOVE - CHASTITY - PURITY - HOPE:
"The words Christ uttered in the Sermon on the Mount are not a call hurled into emptiness" (ToB 167).
"Does not man feel, at the same time as lust, a deep need to preserve the dignity of the mutual relations which find their expression in the body, to impregnate them with everything that is noble and beautiful, to confer on them the supreme value which is love?" (ToB 167f.).
"He is called in that truth which has been his heritage from the beginning, the heritage of his heart, which is deeper than the sinfulness inherited, deeper than lust in its three forms" (ToB 167).
"Christ [demands] from man that in relations with persons of the [opposite] sex he should have full and deep consciousness of his own interior acts. He should be aware of the internal impulses of his heart. He should be the true master of his own deep impulses" (ToB 172).
"Man must learn what the meaning of the body is. He must learn this above all in the interior reactions of his own heart. This is a 'science' [in which] man learns to distinguish between what composes the multiform riches of masculinity and femininity in their perennial call and creative attraction, and what bears only the sign of lust. These variants and nuances of the internal movements of the heart can, within a certain limit, be confused with one another. However, man has been called by Christ to discern and judge the various movements of his heart. This task can be carried out and is worthy of man" (ToB 172).
"The consciousness of sinfulness is an indispensable condition to purity of heart" (ToB 177).
"Purity is a requirement of love. It is the dimension of its interior truth in man's heart" (ToB 177).
"All moral good is a manifestation of purity, and all moral evil is a manifestation of impurity" (ToB 179).
"Everything that is morally good is pure, and on the contrary, everything that is morally bad is impure" (ToB 198).
"Paul considers purity as a concrete manifestation of life according to the spirit" (ToB 201).
"Purity is the glory of the human body before God. It is God's glory in the human body" (ToB 209).
"(Sir 23:4-6) Purity is the condition for finding wisdom and following it" (ToB 209).
"Purity of heart means freedom from every kind of sin or guilt, not just from sins that concern the lust of the flesh" (ToB 212).
"Christ's words [in the Sermon on the Mount] are realistic. They indicate the way to a purity of heart which is possible and accessible, even in the state of hereditary sinfulness" (ToB 213).
"Purity opens the way to a more and more perfect discovery of the dignity of the human body" (ToB 213).
"In mature purity man enjoys the fruits of the victory won over lust" (ToB 213).
"The full sense of mutual self-giving cannot be achieved unless the virtue of conjugal chastity is sincerely practiced (GS 51)" (ToB 393).
"Control of the will must develop beginning with the most simple acts in which it is relatively easy" (ToB 408).
"The virtue of [chastity] does not appear in isolation. But it always appears and acts in connection with the other virtues, prudence, justice, fortitude, and above all with charity" (ToB 409).
"Concupiscence of the flesh makes man blind and insensitive to the most profound values that spring from love. The essential character of conjugal chastity is its organic link with the power of love. Chastity gradually reveals itself as a singular capacity to perceive, love and practice the language of the body, which progressively enriches the marital dialogue of the couple, purifying it, deepening it, and at the same time simplifying it" (ToB 409).
"It is often thought that continence [or chastity] causes the inner tensions which man must free himself from. Continence [or chastity] is rather the only way to free man from such tensions. [Continence, or chastity] means nothing other than the spiritual effort aimed at expressing the 'language of the body' " (ToB 411).
"The virtue of continence reveals the pure spousal meaning of the body in the full truth of its possibilities. This truth has truth has two aspects, the personalistic, and the theological" (ToB 415).
"Chastity means to live in the order of the heart. Chastity [is] a virtue connected with the gifts of the Holy Spirit--above all, the gift of respect for what comes from God. Humanae Vitae speaks of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, especially [in passages] 21 and 26. Those who 'become one body,' cannot bring about this union except through the powers coming from the Holy Spirit who purifies, enlivens, strengthens, and perfects the powers of the human spirit" (ToB 415).
"To protect in each of them that deep-rooted peace which is the interior resonance of chastity" (ToB 419).
"Christ's blood reveals to man that his greatness, and therefore his vocation, consists in the sincere gift of self" (ToB-GoL 512).
"The body is an integral part of the person, and so must not be treated as though it were detached from the whole person: both the value of the body and the sexual value which finds expression in the body depend upon the value of the person" (LaR 107).
"Chastity can only be thought of in association with the virtue of love. Its function is to free love from the utilitarian attitude" (LaR 169).
"The virtue of chastity (whose function it is to free love from utilitarian attitudes) must control not only sensuality but -- perhaps more important -- those centres deep within the human being in which the utilitarian principle is hatched and grows" (LaR 170).
"[Chastity] is above all the 'yes' of which certain 'no's' are the consequence. The essence of chastity consists in quickness to affirm the value of the person in every situation, and in raising to the personal level all reactions to [sensuality]. This is above all positive and creative requiring a special, interior spiritual effort. Only the chaste man and the chaste woman are capable of true love" (LaR 171).
"[Chastity] has a dual content 'thou shalt love,' and 'thou shalt not use" (LaR 171).
"[Chastity] does not lead to disdain of the body, but it does involve a certain humility of the body. Humility is the proper attitude towards all true greatness, including one's own greatness as a human being. The human body must be 'humble' in face of the greatness represented by the person. Furthermore, the human body must 'humble itself' in face of the magnitude represented by love" (LaR 172).
"Without chastity and self-control it is impossible to [properly] develop tenderness" (LaR 206).
"Tenderness is the ability to feel with and for the whole person, to feel even the most deeply hidden spiritual tremors, and always to have in mind the true good of the person. This is the sort of tenderness which a woman expects from a man. [A woman's] emotional life is generally richer than a man's, and so her need for tenderness is greater. There can be no genuine tenderness without a perfected habit of continence {or chastity}" (LaR 207).
"The true greatness of the human person is manifested in the fact that sexual activity is felt to require such a profound justification. It cannot be otherwise. Man must reconcile himself to his natural greatness. It is especially when he enters so deeply into the natural order, immerses himself so to speak in its elemental processes, that he must not forget that he is a person" (LaR 236).
"We should not suppose that physical virginity or celibacy is the essence of virginity. Physical virginity is a factor favoring spiritual virginity. Spiritual virginity [is] to give oneself entirely and without reservation to God. [This] may develop late, that is to say in a person who is no longer [physically] a virgin. The need to give oneself to and unite with another person is [more than physical.] It is not finally and completely satisfied simply by union with another human being" (LaR 251-253).
COMMENTARY ON AND EXCERPTS FROM HUMANAE VITAE:
"One must view [Humanae Vitae] in the light of the theology of the body" (ToB 396).
"Every believer and especially every theologian should reread and ever more deeply understand the moral doctrine of [Humanae Vitae] in this complete context [of the theology of the body]" (ToB 390).
"[In a case of contraception], the conjugal act, deprived of its interior truth because it is artificially deprived of its procreative capacity, ceases also to be an act of love. The dignity of personal communion demands that the language of the body be expressed in the integral truth of its meaning. If this truth be lacking, one cannot speak either of the truth of self-mastery, or of the truth of the reciprocal gift. Such a violation of [the truth] which is rooted in the very order of the person constitutes the essential evil of the contraceptive act" (ToB 398).
"The theology of the body has its roots in the theology of the family and leads to it at the same time" (ToB 400).
"This self-discipline [of periodic continence] brings to family life abundant fruits of tranquility and peace. It helps in solving difficulties of other kinds" (ToB 403).
"These are the means--infallible and indispensable--for forming the Christian spirituality of married life and family life" (ToB 406).
"[These reflections on] the redemption of the body and the sacramentality of marriage seem to constitute an ample commentary on the doctrine contained in Humanae Vitae. The reflections we made consist in facing the questions raised with regard to Humanae Vitae. The reaction that the encyclical aroused confirms the importance and the difficulty of these questions" (ToB 420).
"Conjugal love [is] of the senses and the spirit at the same time. It is intended to endure and to grow by means of the joys and sorrows of daily life, in such a way that husband and wife become one only heart and one only soul, and together attain their human perfection. This love is total. This love is faithful and exclusive until death. This fidelity can sometimes be difficult, but it is always possible, noble and meritorious, as no one can deny" (ToB-HV 430).
"Children are really the supreme gift of marriage and contribute very substantially to the welfare of their parents" (ToB-HV 430).
"[There is an] inseparable connection, willed by God and unable to be broken by man on his own initiative, between the two meanings of the conjugal act: the unitive meaning and the procreative meaning. The men of our day are particularly capable of seizing the deeply reasonable and human character of this fundamental principle" (ToB-HV 431f.).
"'Human life is sacred,' Pope John XXIII recalled; 'from its very inception it reveals the creating hand of God'" (ToB-HV 432).
"A conjugal act which is deliberately made infecund [is] intrinsically dishonest" (ToB-HV 433).
"There are essential differences between [natural family planning and artificial contraception]. In the former, the married couple make legitimate use of a natural [order]; in the latter, they impede the development of natural processes" (ToB-HV 433f.).
"Upright men can even better convince themselves of the solid grounds on which [this] teaching of the Church is based, if they care to reflect upon the consequences of methods of artificial birth control. Let them consider, first of all, how wide and easy a road would thus be opened up toward conjugal infidelity and the general lowering of morality. It is also to be feared that the man ... may finally lose respect for the woman [and] may come to [consider] her as a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment" (ToB-HV 434).
"One must necessarily recognize unsurmountable limits to the possibility of man's domination over his own body. Such limits cannot be determined otherwise than by the respect due to the integrity of the human organism" (ToB-HV 434).
"To tell truth, the Church is not surprised to be made, like her divine founder, 'a sign of contradiction,' yet she does not because of this cease to proclaim with humble firmness the entire moral law, both natural and evangelical. Of such laws the Church was not the author, nor consequently can she be their arbiter; she is only their depository and their interpreter, without ever being able to declare to be licit that which is not so by reason of its intimate and unchangeable opposition to the true good of man" (ToB-HV 435).
"This discipline [that of periodic continence], which is proper to the purity of married couples, far from harming conjugal love, rather confers on it a higher human value. Husband and wife fully develop their personalities, being enriched [with the] fruits of serenity and peace. [This discipline] helps both parties to drive out selfishness, the enemy of true love" (ToB-HV 436).
"A true contradiction cannot exist between the divine laws pertaining to the transmission of life and those pertaining to the fostering of authentic conjugal love" (ToB-HV 437).
"It is of the utmost importance [that] all should attend to the magisterium of the Church, and all should speak the same language. Hence, with all of our heart we renew to you the heartfelt plea of the great Apostle Paul: 'I appeal to you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no dissensions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment'" (ToB-HV 439).
"Man cannot find true happiness--toward which he aspires with all his being--other than in respect of the laws written by God in his very nature" (ToB-HV 440).
THE GOSPEL OF LIFE:
"The Gospel of life is to be preached as 'good news' to the people of every age and culture" (ToB-GoL 493).
"The joy which accompanies the birth of the Messiah is the foundation and fulfillment of joy at every child born into the world" (ToB-GoL 493).
"I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly" [John
"This Gospel of life has a profound and persuasive echo in the heart of every person--believer and non-believer alike--because it marvelously fulfills all the heart's expectations while infinitely surpassing them" (ToB-GoL 494).
"Every individual is entrusted to the maternal care of the Church. Therefore every threat to human dignity and life must necessarily be felt in the Church's very heart" (ToB-GoL 494).
"Murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia do more harm to those who practice them than to those who suffer from the injury" (ToB-GoL 495).
"[This encyclical is] a pressing appeal, addressed to each and every person, in the name of God: respect, protect, love and serve life, every human life! Only in this direction will you find justice, development, true freedom, peace and happiness!" (ToB-GoL 498f.).
"The Gospel of life [is] the splendor of truth" (ToB-GoL 497).
"God 'put a mark on Cain, lest any who came upon him should kill him.' (Gn 4:15) Not even a murderer loses his personal dignity" (ToB-GoL 500).
"Consider the violence against life done to millions of human beings, especially children, who are forced into poverty, malnutrition and hunger, because of an unjust distribution of resources between peoples and between social classes" (ToB-GoL 500).
"Even more serious [are] those attacks [against life] carried out in the very heart of and with the complicity of the family--the family which by its nature is called to be the 'sanctuary of life'" (ToB-GoL 501).
"'The culture of death' [is] a war of the powerful against the weak" (ToB-GoL 501).
"A 'conspiracy against life' is unleashed" (ToB-GoL 502).
"The pro-abortion culture is especially strong precisely where the Church's teaching on contraception is rejected" (ToB-GoL 502).
"Contraception and abortion are often closely connected, as fruits of the same tree" (ToB-GoL 502).
"[Using] so-called 'spare embryos' [for research] reduces human life to the level of simple 'biological material' to be freely disposed of" (ToB-GoL 503).
"Prenatal diagnosis all too often becomes eugenic abortion" (ToB-GoL 503).
"[There are currently] even more alarming [proposals] to justify even infanticide, following the same arguments used to justify the right to abortion" (ToB-GoL 503).
"We are in fact faced by an objective 'conspiracy against life,' to make contraception, sterilization and abortion widely available" (ToB-GoL 505).
"It is a problem which exists at the cultural, social and political level [in its] sinister and disturbing [tendency to interpret] crimes against life as legitimate expressions of individual freedom, to be acknowledged and protected as actual rights. In this way, and with tragic consequences, a long historical process is reaching a turning point. The process which once led to discovering the idea of 'human rights,' is today marked by a surprising contradiction. The very right to life is being denied or trampled upon, especially at the more significant moments of existence, the moment of birth and the moment of death" (ToB-GoL 505f.).
"The body is no longer perceived as a sign and place of relations with others, with God and with the world. It is reduced to pure materiality. Consequently, sexuality is depersonalized and exploited: from being the sign, place and language of love, that is, of the gift of self and acceptance of another, [to increasingly becoming an] instrument for self-assertion and selfish satisfaction" (ToB-GoL 510).
"The Gospel of life is something concrete and personal, for it consists in the proclamation of the very person of Jesus [who] made himself known with the words: 'I am the way and the truth and the life' (Jn 14:6), [and with the words] 'I am the resurrection and the life'" (ToB-GoL 515).
"Sons are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward (Ps 128:3-4)" (ToB-GoL 527).
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you (Jer 1:5)" (ToB-GoL 527).
"The value of the person from the moment of conception is celebrated in the meeting between the Virgin Mary and Elizabeth and between the two children whom they are carrying in the womb. It is precisely the children who reveal the advent of the Messianic age" (ToB-GoL 528).
"They have filled this place with the blood of innocents (Jer 19:4)" (ToB-GoL 531).
"The killing of innocent human creatures, even if carried out to help others, constitutes an absolutely unacceptable act" (ToB-GoL 543).
"We are the people of life and for life, and this is how we present ourselves to everyone. We are the people of life because God, in his unconditional love, has given us the gospel of life, and by this same Gospel we have been transformed and saved" (ToB-GoL 555).
"Together we all sense our duty to preach the Gospel of life, to celebrate it in our whole existence" (ToB-GoL 556).
"To proclaim Jesus is itself to proclaim life" (ToB-GoL 556).
"[This Gospel can] be summed up as follows: human life, as a gift of God, is sacred and inviolable. The meaning of life is found in giving and receiving love, and in this light human sexuality and procreation reach their true and full significance" (ToB-GoL 557).
"In the proclamation of this Gospel, we must not fear hostility or unpopularity. We must be in the world but not of the world (cf. Jn
"Despite its hardships, its hidden mysteries, its suffering and its inevitable frailty, this mortal life is a most beautiful thing, a marvel ever new and moving, an event worthy of being exalted in joy and glory. God has granted to every man a dignity which is near to divine (Ps 8:5-6)" (ToB-GoL 559).
"The underlying causes of attacks on life have to be eliminated, especially by ensuring proper support for families and motherhood. A family policy must be the basis and driving force of all social policies" (ToB-GoL 564).
"Solutions must be sought on the global level by establishing a true economy of communion and sharing of goods. This is the only way to respect the dignity of persons and families" (ToB-GoL 564).
"The family, [the domestic church], is truly 'the sanctuary of life." Human life is a gift received in order then to be given as a gift. It is above all in raising children that the family fulfills its mission to proclaim the Gospel of life" (ToB-GoL 565).
"The celebration which gives meaning to every other form of prayer and worship is found in the family's actual daily life together, if it is a life of love and self-giving" (ToB-GoL 566).
"What is urgently called for is a general mobilization of consciences and a great campaign in support of life. All together, we must build a new culture of life" (ToB-GoL 567).
"In particular there is a need for education [to] help the young to accept and experience sexuality and love and the whole of life according to their true meaning and interconnection" (ToB-GoL 568).
"I would now like to say a special word to women who have had an abortion. The Church does not doubt that in many cases it was a painful and even shattering decision. The wound in our heart may not yet have healed. Certainly what happened was and remains terribly wrong. But do not give in to discouragement and do not lose hope. Try rather to understand what happened and to face it honestly. If you have not already done so, give yourselves over with humility and trust to repentance. The Father of mercies is ready to give you his forgiveness and peace in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. You will come to understand that nothing is definitively lost and you will also be able to ask forgiveness from your child, who is now living with the Lord" (ToB-GoL 571).
"We are inspired and sustained by the confidence that comes from knowing that the Gospel of life, like the Kingdom of God itself, is growing and producing abundant life" (ToB-GoL 571).
"A great prayer for life is urgently needed, a prayer which will rise up throughout the world" (ToB-GoL 571).
"Mary is in fact the mother of the Life by which everyone lives" (ToB-GoL 573).
GENERAL EXCERPTS:
"The laws of knowing correspond to those of being (ToB 32)."
"Self-knowledge develops as knowledge of all the living beings to which man has given a name to affirm his own dissimilarity with regard to them. Man is alone because he is 'different' from the visible world, from the world of living beings" (ToB 37).
"The meaning of man's original unity, though masculinity and femininity, is expressed as an overcoming of the frontier of solitude" (ToB 45).
"Solitude is the first discovery of the characteristic transcendence peculiar to the person" (ToB 46).
"In the mystery of creation man was endowed with a deep unity between what is male in him and what is female in him. On all this, right from the beginning, the blessing of fertility descended. In this way, we find ourselves almost at the heart of the anthropological reality that has the name 'body'" (47).
"Sex permits them, when they become 'one flesh,' to submit their whole humanity to the blessing of fertility" (ToB 49).
"Sex expresses an ever new surpassing of the limit of man's solitude" (ToB 49f.).
"Every conjugal union renews in a way the mystery of creation in all of its depth and vital power. Procreation is rooted in creation, and every time, in a sense, reproduces its mystery" (ToB 50f.).
"'They were not ashamed' can mean only affirming what is 'visibly' female and male" (ToB 57).
"Happiness is being rooted in love" (ToB 67).
"The fact that they were not ashamed means that the woman was not an 'object' for the man nor he for her. Purity of heart made it impossible somehow for one to be reduced by the other to the level of a mere object. They were mutually conscious of the nuptial meaning of their bodies, in which the freedom of the gift is expressed and all the interior riches of the person are manifested. This mutual interpenetration of the 'self' of the man and of the woman seems to exclude reduction to an object" (ToB 75).
"According to Genesis 4:1, the man 'knows' the woman in the act of conjugal union" (ToB 80).
"Man by imposing names, that is, also by 'knowing,' differentiated himself from the whole world of living beings" (ToB 80).
"Genesis 4:1 cannot be a passive acceptance of one's [body and sex], precisely because it is a question of knowledge" (ToB 80).
"Knowledge conditions begetting" (ToB 81).
"The 'knowledge-generation' cycle always returns in human history" (ToB 85).
"Genesis 3:6 speaks explicitly of shame in connection with sin. Shame is almost the first manifestation of what 'is not of the Father, but of the world'" (ToB 111).
"Shame if it reveals the moment of lust can protect from the consequences of lust. Man and woman, through shame, almost remain in the state of original innocence" (ToB 122).
"Manichaeism saw the source of evil in matter" (ToB 161).
"The appeal to master the lust of the flesh springs precisely from the affirmation of the personal dignity of the body and of sex" (ToB 165).
"Freud, Marx and Nietzsche as 'masters of suspicion'" (ToB 165).
"The Nietzchean interpretation [corresponds to] 'the pride of life'; the Marxist interpretation [to] 'the lust of the eyes'; the Freudian interpretation [to] 'the lust of the flesh'" [Relative to the threefold lust of I Jn] (ToB 166).
"Man cannot stop at putting the heart in a state of continual and irreversible suspicion due to the lust of the flesh and libido. Redemption is a truth, a reality in the name of which man must realize the nuptial meaning of the body, that spiritual state and that spiritual power which are derived from mastery of the lust of the flesh" (ToB 167).
"What is worthy of the human heart is that what is erotic should be at the same time ethical" (ToB 171).
"Fullness of eros [means] that what is erotic also becomes true, good and beautiful" (ToB 171).
"Full and mature spontaneity is the gradual fruit of the discernment of the impulses of one's own heart" (ToB 172).
"There cannot be [true] spontaneity in mere carnal lust, devoid as it is of a choice" (ToB 173).
"The ethos of redemption carries in every area--and directly in the sphere of the lust of the flesh--the imperative of self-control" (ToB 175).
"Temperance and continence do not mean suspension in emptiness. The human heart remains bound to the value [of the nuptial meaning of the body] from which, through desire, it would otherwise have moved away, turning toward pure lust deprived of ethical value" (ToB 176).
"By means of temperance, [man] bears witness to his own self-mastery, and shows that he is carrying out what is essentially personal in him when the deepest and yet most real possibilities and dispositions of the person are manifested; when the innermost layers of his potentiality acquire a voice, layers which the lust of the flesh would not permit to show themselves. Nor can these layers emerge when the human heart is bound in permanent suspicion" (ToB 176).
"The artist who undertakes that theme [the human body], must be aware of the full truth of the object, of the whole scale of values connected with it. He must not only take them into account but must also live them correctly himself" (ToB 227).
"The reciprocal gift of oneself to God will be the response to God's gift of himself to man. The virginal state of the body will be totally manifested as the eschatological, [or final], fulfillment of the nuptial meaning of the body" (ToB 244).
"[Mary] is truly the Mother of God, because motherhood concerns the whole person, not just the body" (ToB-DVW 447).
"All the baptized share in the one priesthood of Christ, both men and women, inasmuch as they must present their bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God (cf. Rom 12:1)" (ToB-DVW 481).
"[Love and Responsibility] envisages co-authorship; it envisages that those who carry [it] into practice will make a continuing creative contribution to it. This work is an appeal to all to let experience, their own experience, make itself heard, to its full extent. Love and Responsibility fears nothing and need fear nothing which can be legitimized by experience. Experience does not have to be afraid of experience. Truth can only gain from such a confrontation. This book is not an exposition of doctrine. It is [the result] of an incessant confrontation of doctrine with life" (LaR from the introduction pp.10, 15).
"The personalistic order is the only proper plane for all debate on matters of sexual morality" (LaR from the introduction p.18).
"Man's capacity for love depends on his willingness consciously to seek a good together with others, and to subordinate himself to that good for the sake of others, or to others for the sake of that good" (LaR 29).
"When a new human being is conceived, a new spirit is conceived simultaneously" (LaR 55).
"Joy may be bestowed either by the great variety of pleasures connected with the differences of sex, or by the sexual enjoyment which conjugal relations can bring. The creator designed this joy, and linked it with love between man and woman" (LaR 61).
"If the sexual urge is understood as fundamentally a drive for enjoyment [the] inner life of the person is almost totally negated. This conception puts human psychology -- perhaps without realizing it -- on the same level as the psychology of animals" (LaR 62).
"The value of the person is for all humanity the most precious of goods -- more immediate and greater than any economic good" (LaR 65).
"The sexual urge always transcends the limits of 'I', and has as its immediate object some being of the other sex and for its final end the existence of the species. This it is that creates the basis for love" (LaR 65).
"Unrequited love is fraught with pain and suffering. If a love of this kind persists for a very long time, sometimes as it dies it causes the very capacity for love to die together with it" (LaR 85).
"Love is by its very nature something 'between' two persons, something shared. Love creates the immediate basis on which a single 'we' can arise from two 'I's. This throws new light on the whole problem. We have asserted above that goodwill [or selflessness] is naturally part of love, just as much as attraction and yearning (desire). Love as desire and love as goodwill differ, but not so much as to be mutually exclusive --'y' may desire 'x' as a good for himself/herself and at the same time disinterestedly desire what is good for 'x.' A person who desires another as a good desires above all that person's love in return for his or her own love, desires another person above all as co-creator of love, and not merely as the object of appetite. The 'selfishness' of love would seem then to lie only in seeking a response, a response which is love reciprocated. But since reciprocity is in the very nature of love, since the interpersonal character of love depends on it, we can hardly speak of 'selfishness' in this context. Reciprocity brings with it a synthesis ... of love as desire and love as goodwill" (LaR 85f.).
"It is impossible to put your trust in another human being, knowing or feeling that his or her sole aim is utility or pleasure. It is equally impossible to put your trust in a person if you yourself have the same thing as your main object" (LaR 87).
"The practical conclusion, is that people should always carefully 'verify' their love before exchanging declarations, and especially before beginning to build their lives upon it" (LaR 88).
"Sympathy, however, is often intense right from the start, whereas friendship is faint and frail at first" (LaR 92).
"Love is of its very nature creative and constructive, and not merely bent on enjoyment" (LaR 93).
"The discrepancy between the ideal and the reality often results in sentimental love fading or indeed changing into a feeling of hatred" (LaR 113).
"There can be no possibility of psychological completeness in love unless ethical completeness is attained" (LaR 120).
"Every person of the opposite sex possesses a value in the first place as a person, and only secondarily possesses a sexual value" (LaR 122).
"Attaining a higher value demands a greater effort. In order to spare ourselves the effort, to excuse our failure to obtain this value, we minimize its significance.
"This sadness has some value, as a means by which the soul keeps alive some sort of respect for the difficult virtue. Resentment, however, poses a greater danger, because it not only distorts the features of the good, but devalues that which rightly deserves respect, so that man need not struggle to raise himself to the level of the true good. Chastity, more than any other, seems to be the virtue which resentment has tended to outlaw from the soul, the will, and the heart of man. A systematic case has been built up against it, which seeks to show that it is not beneficial, but harmful to human beings. (LaR 144-145).
"The true good in the love of man and woman is first of all the person, and not emotion for its own sake" (LaR 165).
"Love is [complete only] when it possesses an ethical value, when it is a virtue" (LaR 167).
"Sexual modesty is not a flight from love, but on the contrary the opening of a way towards it. The value of the person is closely connected with its inviolability, its status as 'something more than an object of use'. Sexual modesty protects that status and so protects the value of the person" (LaR 179).
"Shame [or modesty], is a natural form of self-defense for the person against the danger of descending or being pushed into the position of an object for sexual use. Love, and the tendency to regard a person as an object for use are mutually exclusive. This is why shame [or modesty] leads so naturally to love" (LaR 183).
"True love ensures that [sexual values] are imbued with affirmation of the person to such an extent that it is impossible to regard the other person as an object for use. In practice, this is where the real strength of love lies -- mere theoretical affirmation of the value of the person is not enough" (LaR 183f.).
[Shame] can be "absorbed only by true love. Only true and genuine shame insists upon a true and fully valid love" (LaR 186).
"Shame is a tendency to conceal sexual values sufficiently to prevent them from obscuring the value of the person as such" (LaR 187).
"The practice of self control and of virtue is accompanied, especially in the early stages, by a feeling of loss. As true love of the person develops, this [feeling of loss] will grow weaker. Thus, the virtue of chastity and love of the person are each conditional upon the other" (LaR 199).
"Sentimental desire is not directed solely towards sensual and carnal enjoyment. It is to a much greater extent a desire to be close to 'a human being of the other sex'" (LaR 199).
"Every man must effectively deploy the energies latent in his sensuality and his sentiments, so that they become allies in his striving for authentic love; for they may, as we know, also be its foes. This ability to make allies of potential foes is [a] decisive characteristic of self-mastery and the virtue of chastity" (LaR 200).
"In the world of persons [as opposed to the animal world] instinct alone decides nothing, and the sexual urge passes, so to speak, through the gates of consciousness and the will, thus furnishing not merely the conditions of fertility but also the raw material of love" (LaR 226).
"The person as co-creator of love disappears and there remains only the 'partner in an erotic experience'" (LaR 234).
"Erogenous zones are considerably more numerous in women than men" (LaR 269).
"Couples who subsequently consider themselves ill-matched very often have a perfect sexual relationship in the initial stage" (LaR 277).
EDITOR'S EXPLANATION FOR HIGHLIGHTS AND EXCERPTS OF
LOVE AND RESPONSIBILITY AND THE THEOLOGY OF THE BODY:
Love and Responsibility is published by and available from Ignatius Press, www.ignatius.com.
The Theology of the Body is published by and available from Pauline Books and Media, www.pauline.org.
LaR is Love and Responsibility. ToB is The Theology of the Body.
GoL is "The Gospel of Life." DVW is "On the Dignity and Vocation of Women." HV is "Humane Vitae."
The purpose of these highlights is to make the teachings Pope John Paul II on human sexuality accessible to as many people as possible. Toward that end, I have erred on the side of greater liberality in editing. These excerpts are as readable as I was able to make them. They are not suitable for academic use or for quoting in print. If you need quotes, please refer directly to the texts themselves.
These excerpts edited and compiled by