THE CATHOLIC CHURCH’S teaching on sexuality has often been criticised for being too strict and too unrealistic. Today, like never before, this teaching seems backward and out of touch with popular opinion. In the past, pastors often relied on authority and tradition to present the Church’s message but the modern mindset is suspicious of anything that is derived solely on tradition and authority.

The Church, wanting to be faithful to the teaching of Vatican II, had to learn to speak the language of modern man in order to talk to his heart. What was needed was a shift from indoctrination to a method that dialogued intensely with human experience. The late Pope John Paul II was certainly the man for the job, and the Theology of the Body was the fruit of his efforts.

The Theology of the Body is a collection of 129 talks by Pope John Paul II between 1979 and 1984 on the human body and sexuality.

Scripture begins with the story of a couple, Adam and Eve, and closes with the Wedding of the Lamb in the Book of Revelation. Love and sex are not just major themes in our everyday lives but form the very backbone of the relationship between God and man.

Pope John Paul II said that to understand the human person correctly we need to look to Jesus, the expert on humanity. Jesus gave us three theological landmarks to show us the proper understanding of marriage. Pope John Paul II examined these three landmarks: firstly, marriage “in the beginning, before Adam and Eve fell”, secondly, in history when man is fallen but redeemed by Christ, and lastly, in the future, our final destiny “in the kingdom”.

Original innocence

“...Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so” (Matthew 19:8). The question is, how were things in the beginning? This “beginning” does not refer to the chronological past but rather the deep desires and experiences that lurk in the hearts of men. These are the experience of solitude, the experience of unity and the experience of nakedness.

The human person is created unique by God and therefore stands apart from his Creator and other creatures. Man experiences this uniqueness in the form of solitude (“It is not good that the man should be alone” – Genesis 2:18). God then continues his creative act by splitting the human into two, a man and a woman.

For the first time, the human exclaims with pleasure: “This is indeed flesh of my flesh and bone of my bones” (Genesis 2:23). Only another human person capable of communion can be a true helper. This companionship is genuine and authentic. Therefore there is no need to hide anything, (“And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed” – Genesis 2:25). Pope John Paul II remarked that the human body speaks of God. Even the sexual urges of our bodies tell us that we were made to be a gift to the other because God Himself is a gift.