Ad Rationem

And with these words the Holy Father Pope John Paul II concludes his 26th catechesis on Man and Woman He Created Them a Theology of the Body. There are many salient points in this 26th catechesis. The Holy Father addresses concupiscence. This section is actually entitled “The Man of concupiscence”, which is a reference to all of us. Concupere – with desire, to take to oneself, a consequence of original sin. A consequence of the Fall.

Pope John Paul II presents in this catechesis the threefold concupiscence found in 1 John 2:16–17. The concupiscence of the flesh, concupiscence of the eyes and pride of life. Concupiscence of the flesh, refers to sins of the flesh, a tendency to sin with the flesh. Not just gluttony or drunkenness but even sexual sins are included. Concupiscence of the eyes, not to look at another with desire in the reductive way. We heard about that in the 25th catechesis, but even coveting our neighbors goods: our neighbors three story house, or foreign import car, or stellar education. Often before something is stolen it is desired with the eyes, coveted with the eyes. And then, pride of life, “Lord I thank you I am not like these others” we hear in the gospel (Luke 18:11). These are tendencies to sin. And they really cover just about everything.

Our Lord encourages us, exhorts us, as does His vicar on Earth Pope John Paul II, who gave us these conferences but now Benedict XVI encourages us not to be men and women, not to be human beings of concupiscence, but to be saints. Rejoicing in the good, rejoicing in the blessings of the other. Proper stewardship of ourselves, of our bodies, of our where-with-all, and of our eyes. The Holy Father does not use the expression ‘custody of the eyes’ but it is very much a part of the equation. It is one way how we combat concupiscence.

The tendency to sin is a consequence of Original Sin, of the Fall. And since this three-fold concupiscence is found in St. John’s first letter, Pope John Paul II addresses Johannine theology. That theology, the science of God, based on the writings of St. John. So you have the fourth Gospel, the three letters, and the book of Revelation. What was God trying to tell us through these inspired writings of this inspired author, the beloved disciple St. John. whose memory the Church celebrates each year on December 27th just after Christmas? “And the word became flesh and dwelt among us”(John 1:14) this is the high Johannine theology of Christ, the incarnate Word, the Word made flesh. “The Father and I are one” (John 10:30), Johannine Trinitarian theology. “My flesh is true food, My blood is true drink” (John 6:55), Eucharistic Johannine theology.

Our Holy Father Pope John Paul II in his footnotes cites so many of the different authors, the different sources, those who have written about what can be found in the writings attributed to St. John. So much has been written on Johannine theology. And the Holy Father makes his contribution here in this 2nd chapter of Man and Woman He Created Them a Theology of the Body. He does so in light of the Sermon on the Mount, however, which is Matthew 5:27–28, where the Lord is extending the Decalogue. Not only: not to commit adultery, but: not to look with desire, in the reductive sense, upon the other.

And our Holy Father Pope John Paul II asks the question, “Is it legitimate to transfer the typical contents of Johannine theology in 1 John 2:15–16, where we hear of the 3-fold concupiscence, to the terrain of the Sermon on the Mount (St. Matthew)?” That’s his question. And I think it is very important that we answer that question in the affirmative, “Yes of course it is legitimate.” And the Holy Father mentions as one reason why it is legitimate, why it is fine to juxtapose those two passage of Sacred Scripture because of the overall biblical context: 1 John is in the Scripture, and Matthew is in the Scripture.

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The Ethical and Anthropological Content of the Commandment: “You Shall Not Commit Adultery”

by Pope John Paul II from his general audience on 23 April 1980. Read text via EWTN.

With these words our Holy Father Pope John Paul II brings to a conclusion his 25th catechesis Man and Woman He Created Them. We are using the edition translated by professor Michael Waldstein to whom we are so indebted. This 25th catechesis of Pope John Paul II focuses our attention in great part on the Sermon on the Mount. We find the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel, in the New Testament of the Holy Scripture especially Matthew 5: 27-28. Those are the passages Pope John Paul II is focusing on right now in this 25th catechesis on Man and Woman He Created Them a Theology of the Body. It goes like this: You shall not commit adultery but I say to you whoever looks at a woman to desire her – and the Pope adds in a reductive way (or Waldstein does) – has already committed with her in his heart. This reduction by desire is not a wholesome desire. Husbands and wives should a desire for each other. “Be fruitful and multiply”, that is a part of our marching orders from the Garden, from the beginning. But there is a possessive desire which is demeaning which, in the Holy Father’s words (or Waldstein’s) is reductive; makes less than actual. Remember Schmiegel or Golum, I always get those personalities confused from the Lord of the Rings, “My precious. My precious!.” And so we see the materialism and the bad sort of possession, the desire that character had for the ring. When our Lord gives His Sermon on the Mount, three chapters from Matthew really, the Pope just focusing on two verses here, it is like a stump speech. It is His taking the 10 Commandments, the Decalogue, to the next level. If you remember the cook, the chef, Emeril Lagassi he throws those spices and says ,”Bam!” He takes it up a notch. Well our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ takes the Decalogue up a notch and not only makes it more demanding but gives us the grace we need to fulfill it; to be those blessed people who are pure of heart. So now it is not only not to do a sinful act, not to commit adultery, but now, not even to have such a desire in your heart.

“He has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” How? Through the eyes, through the senses. So Pope John Paul II focuses on that one of our senses. So often first we will covet our neighbors wife and then we commit the adultery. Now just because the Scripture or the tradition of the Church or the Pope are saying not to covet your neighbors wife or not to commit adultery doesn’t mean the contra-wise is less true. Thou shall not covet thy neighbors husband. The Spanish has a beautiful expression for the 9th Commandment: Not to covet thy neighbors wife. Not to have impure desires. And for the 6th commandment: Not to commit impure acts. So the Spanish is better, I think, in that regard because when I would teach kids in the school the clever ones would say ,”Well Father I am not married and she is not married, so hey, we can do whatever we want.” “Well no that is fornication.”

The Holy Father does not address fornication in this passage. He is focusing on adultery and he spells it out. He says just what adultery is in his understanding. Adultery is the violation of the unity in which a man and woman can unite as spouses so closely that they are one flesh. And he refers us to Genesis 2:24. So there is no reference in the Holy Father’s lexicon to holy marriage. Adultery is when one or both committing the crime are married. If they are both married but to other people it is adulterous. If only one of them is married it is adultery on that person’s part but it is fornication, it is an impure act, it is to sin with the body against the intention of our Creator who made us male and female, who made us to be fruitful and to multiply, who has given us the sacraments especially holy marriage. In [...]

Knowledge-Generation Cycle and Perspective of Death

by Pope John Paul II from this General Audience on 26 March 1980. Read text via EWTN.

Transcription:

And with these words Pope John Paul II concludes his 22nd catechesis Man and Woman He Created Them a Theology of the Body. There are many salient points that we should consider having heard this 22nd catechesis of our Holy Father.

Again he reminds us of Genesis, the conjugal union defined as “knowledge.” This is part of number 6 of chapter 1 part 1, “The Words of Christ” “Christ Appeals to the Beginning”, “Knowledge and Possession.” Conjugal union is defined as knowledge carrying on this aspect, “Adam knew his wife and she conceived.” The conjugal union the union of husband and wife, to make love, the marital nuptial embrace. Conjgalis – means ‘with the yoke.’ This is part of the teaching of Sacred Scripture.

The Holy Father Pope John Paul II has identified for us that there is in the Sacred Scripture a biblical cycle of knowledge generation. He has this phrase ‘knowledge-generation’ hyphenated to show that it is not just the generative act and not just the unitive act but both together even without saying as much this is what is behind it. So it reminds us back in 1968 Pope Paul VI, the venerable servant of God, he wrote Humane Vitae with assistance from his friend from Krakow, Karol Wojtyla, who became his successor twice removed as the Bishop of Rome.

The Sacred Scripture, the Bible, has a cycle knowledge-generation. This is important enough for Pope John Paul II to include in his catechesis on the Theology of the Body and as a part of the biblical cycle of the knowledge-generation, hybrid as it were.

There is a new being brought into existence, a new being similar to the parents reaching all the way back to “the beginning.” This new being is conceived, is generated. The new being begins to exist in conception at the moment of conception. A DNA that is distinct from the father, which is distinct from the mother. A third DNA. A third being. A third person. Not only is this new being similar, this new being is similar themselves via biblical knowledge. God made us and made us to his own image. God is all knowing. God who is love, God who has given a share, a participation, in creation, called procreation. So they cooperate with God in bringing a new being into existence similar to themselves. This is the biblical knowledge generation cycle. And our Holy Father reminds us that the whole sequence of human conceptions and generations from the beginning, from the very mystery of creation, there is this cycle, there is this sequence. When was I conceived? When was I born? When were my parents conceived? When were they born? And my grandparents and we go back to the beginning. The whole sequence of human conceptions and generations from the beginning, from the very mystery of creation.

So often we are caught up in only the here and now. The Holy Father is asking us to have a wider scope, to have a broader visions, and he does this based on the sacred text. The text of Holy Scripture found in the book of Genesis.

The Holy Father also asks us to expand our way of thinking by invoking a biblical and philosophical, specifically Platonic, vision. Pope John Paul II cites Plato in regards to eros. Eros has been reduced, truncated, so as to only refer to sexual matters. It may be good to mention here that Pope Benedict XVI, who has called Pope John Paul II his “beloved predecessor”, in his first encyclical letter Deus Caritas Est – God is Love, likewise addressed: eros, agape, and philia. Three different Greek words for love reminding us that God is love. When Pope John Paul II here invokes eros he reminds us that we have a thirst for a transcendental beauty; a beauty that is beyond us. Here we can well remember Saint Augustine of Hippo, Bishop and Doctor of the Church, who in the Confessions would [...]

Mystery of Woman Revealed in Motherhood

by Pope John Paul II from this General Audience on 12 March 1980. Read text via EWTN.

It’s good for us to situate these words of Pope John Paul II in his 21st catechesis. We are in part I of Man and Woman He Created Them a Theology of the Body, chapter 1 “Christ Appeals to the Beginning”, Number 6 of that chapter “Knowledge and Procreation”. And in this section Pope John Paul II is going over three (3) parts of that number 6 of chapter 1: “Knowledge as Personal Archetype”, “Fatherhood and Motherhood as the Human Meaning of Knowledge”, and “Knowledge and Possession”.

Over ten (10) times Pope John Paul II focuses on “knowledge” in this 21st catechesis. He again analyzes “knowledge.” He went over it in the last catechesis. “Yada”, the Hebrew word “to know”: “Adam knew his wife and she conceived.” Knowledge is not just what we know rationally speaking: 2 + 2 = 4, Washington D.C. is the capital of the United States, Nashville is the capital of Tennessee, George Washington was our first President in the United States of America. These are things we know but there is a different knowledge. The knowledge between husband and wife, heart to heart, and carnal knowledge: the knowledge of husband and wife when they make love.

Knowledge establishes a kind of personal archetype. Pope John Paul II cites Carl Gustav Jung, He is not endorsing all of Jung’s work obviously, but whatever insights he can garner. John Paul II even points out that Freud doesn’t use the archetypical terminology but the reality is there nonetheless even in Freud and so there you have it.

What made man different from the other animals? His ability to know, he is able to differentiate one creature from another: this is a giraffe, this is a lion, this is a trout, this is a salmon, this is an amazon parrot, this is a sparrow. The birds of the air, the beasts of the field, the fish of the sea; they recognize each other perhaps at least as predator or not. But can they classify them as we are able to classify them? Study them as we are able to study them? Heal them or cure them as we are able to in our veterinary sciences? Our ability to abstract, to apply universals and to share knowledge; abstract knowledge makes us different. We are able to not just to build a house or a structure but an igloo, or a sky scraper, or a brick house, or a teepee… All of these are human dwelling places. But sparrows only make sparrow homes and beavers or make beaver homes. You see what I am getting at.

Knowledge is a basis for the original solitude and the Holy Father had treated original solitude earlier and it was based on this ability to know. Adam recognized he was not like all the other creatures and it was then that he discovered his wife Eve. “This one at last bone of my bone” but the two of them together were still unlike any other creature on the face of the Earth. And they are different because they were made in the image of God. Male and Female they were made in the image of God and that is still true for us today.

Pope John Paul II in this 21st catechesis speaks to us about reciprocal knowledge. The reciprocal knowledge of the husband and the wife: the knower and the known. At first he just says “the husband knows the wife and the wife is known” but later he points out that it is also vice versa, there is reciprocity here. Sometimes you meet a couple and they are able to finish each others’ sentences after so many years of Holy Marriage. This is just one aspect of reciprocal knowledge. Pope John Paul II in this 21st catechesis of the Theology of the Body Man and Woman He Created Them speaks of “external” and “internal”, “inside” and “outside”, as sorts of knowledge of the other. This reciprocal knowledge, of husband for wife, and wife for husband, externally or from the outside: the bodily constitution, the [...]