Be Filled

Welcome to the Be Filled Podcast! We are studying Saint Pope John Paul II’s teaching on the Theology of the Body. This episode we are discussing General Audiences 73-76.  We will take the next three episodes to look at how those who are called to celibacy for the Kingdom of God are actually pointing us to the life we are all destined for in Heaven by abstaining from marriage here on earth. 

Quotes: 

“If this is the condition of man in relation to woman, it is not advantageous to marry. Not all can understand it, but only those to whom it has been granted. For there are eunuchs who were born this way from their mother’s womb; there are some who were made eunuchs by men, and there are others who made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone understand this who can.” (Matthew 19:10-12) 

“The question of continence for the kingdom of heaven is not set in opposition to marriage, nor is it based on a negative judgment about the importance of marriage.” (TOB 73:3) 

“It is not because “it is not advantageous to marry,” nor because of a supposedly negative value of marriage that continence is observed by those who make such a choice “for the kingdom of heaven” in their lives, but in view of the particular value which is connected with this choice and which one must discover and welcome as one’s own vocation.” (TOB 73:3) 

“This way of existing as a human being (male and female) points out the eschatological “virginity of the risen man, in which…the absolute and eternal spousal meaning of the glorified body will be revealed in union with God himself, by seeing him “face to face,” glorified moreover through the union of a perfect intersubjectivity…in the mystery of the communion of saints. Earthly continence “for the kingdom of God” is without doubt a sign that indicates this truth and this reality.” (TOB 75:1) 

“Only little by little did it consciously take root that for “the kingdom of heaven” a special significance attaches to man’s spiritual and supernatural fruitfulness-which comes from the Holy Spirit…” (TOB 75:4) 

“Mary’s desire to remain a virgin “was not a rejection of any of the values of the married state but a courageous choice which she made in order to consecrate herself totally to the love of God.” (Pope Paul VI) 

“Mary’s virginal life was motivated by her “desire for total union with God.” She “wanted to be his faithful bride”. (Pope John Paul II) 

“Virginity is really the whole offering of soul and body to be consumed in the fire of love and changed into the flame of its glory. The virginity of Our Lady is the wholeness of Love through which our own humanity has become the bride of the Spirit of Life.” (Caryll Houselander) 

“The ultimate nuptial union “is between the Word and the flesh and the bridal chamber of the union is the Virgin’s womb.” (St. Augustine) 

“On the background of the words of Christ one can assert not only that marriage helps us to understand continence for the kingdom of heaven, but also that continence itself throws a particular light on marriage viewed in the mystery of creation and redemption.” (TOB 76:6) 

Reflection Questions: 

Resources: 

For Love Alone Video 

John Paul II on the Perpetual Virginity of Mary 

The Virgin Mary and Theology of the Body by Father Donald Calloway 

Theology of the Body and the Marian Mystery Course 

Mary Queen of Apostles Music

Mary Queen of Apostles Interview 

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Welcome to another episode of the Be Filled Podcast! We are continuing our study of Saint Pope John Paul II”s teaching on the Theology of the Body. This episode we are looking at General Audiences 70-72, which is a study of Saint Paul’s writings to the Corinthians regarding Christ’s own resurrection and what that means for us as believers. 

Quotes: 

“If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is in vain and also your faith is in vain…But now Christ has been raised from the dead.” (1 Cor 15:14,20) 

The resurrection of Christ is “the final and fullest word of the self-revelation of the living God as “God not of the dead, but of the living.” (Mk 12:27)...the resurrection is the answer given by the God of life to the historical inevitability of death…that was a consequence of sin.”...The resurrection is the beginning of everything returning to the Father so that “God may be all in all”. (1 Cor 15:28)...The resurrection of Christ means that death is vanquished. “The last enemy to be destroyed will be death.” (1 Cor 15:26) (TOB 70:3) 

“If we are to live according to the full truth of our bodies-to live according to the image in which we are made-we too must have our own encounter with the risen Christ. Indeed, the road to human happiness begins and ends in this meeting.” (Theology of the Body Explained, Pg. 327-328, Christopher West) 

“What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised full of power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus, it is written that the first man, Adam, became a living being, but the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the natural, and then the spiritual.” (1 Corinthians 15:42-46)

“Redemption is the way to the resurrection. The resurrection constitutes the definitive accomplishment of the redemption of the body.” (TOB 70:8) 

 “Just as we have borne the image of the man of earth, we will bear the image of the heavenly man.” (1 Cor 15:49)  

“...fulfillment and confirmation of what corresponds to the thought and plan of the one who created man from the beginning in his image and likeness.” JPII writes that we carry within ourselves “a particular potentiality (capacity and readiness) for receiving what the “second Adam” became..that is, Christ, and what he became in his resurrection.” (TOB 71:3) 

“Brothers and sisters:If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:1-4) 

Reflection Questions: 

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This week we are covering audiences 67-69. We are continuing our conversation about our lives in heaven. In particular, the divinization of our bodies. And let me tell you…this is powerful stuff. You don’t want to miss this! 

Quotes: 

Divinization is “Participation in the divine nature, participation in the inner life of God himself, penetration and permeation of what is essentially human by what is essentially divine, will reach its peak, so that the life of the human spirit will reach a fullness that was absolutely inaccessible to it before.” (TOB 67:3) 

“Eternal life should be understood as the full and perfect experience of the grace of God.” (TOB 67:5) 

“By sending his only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost secret: God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange.” (CCC #221) 

“That perennial meaning of the human body…will then be revealed again and will be revealed at once in such simplicity and splendor that everyone who shares in the “other world” will find in his glorified body the fountain of the freedom of the gift.” (TOB 69:6) 

Reflection Questions: 

Resources: 

Matthew Leonard Study on Prayer 

Surrender Novena

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This episode we are beginning a new chapter of the text entitled “Christ Appeals to the Resurrection”. We get to spend the rest of this season, so 6 episodes on this topic. We will be discussing Audiences 64-66 under the heading “The Synoptics: “He is Not God of the Dead But of the Living”. 

Quotes: 

“Is not this the reason you are wrong, that you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, they take neither wife nor husband, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the story about the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the  God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?’ He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.” (Mark 12:24-27) 

“...mere literal knowledge of Scripture is not enough. Scripture is in fact and above all a means for knowing the power of the living God, who reveals himself in it.” (TOB 65:3) 

“When they rise from the dead, they take neither wife nor husband.” (Mark 12:24)

“In the future resurrection human beings, having regained their bodies in the fullness of the perfection proper to the image and likeness of God-having regained them in their masculinity and femininity-will take neither wife nor husband.” (TOB 66:1) 

“The sons of this age take wife and take husband; but those who are considered worthy of the other world and the resurrection from the dead take neither wife nor husband.” (Luke 20:34-35) 

“In the resurrection, the body will return to perfect unity and harmony with the spirit: man will no longer experience the opposition between what is spiritual and what is bodily in him. “Spiritualization” signifies not only that the spirit will master the body, but, I would say, that it will also fully permeate the body and the powers of the spirit will permeate the energies of the body.” (TOB 67:1) 

“Resurrection means restoration to the true life of human bodiliness, which was subjected to death in its temporal phase.” (TOB 66:5) 

“All that is essentially human in the original experiences of solitude-unity-nakedness will be brought to ultimate fulfillment. Heaven, therefore, will be the experience of a great multitude of solitudes living in perfect unity without any fear of being seen and known by each and by all.” (Christopher West, “Theology of the Body Explained”, pg. 305)

“...man’s ultimate beatitude “must be understood as the definitively and perfectly ‘integrated’ state of man brought about by such a (perfect) union of the soul with the body.” (TOB 66:6) 

Reflection Questions: 

Resources: 

Eternal Rest: The Art of Dying Well

“Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Heaven but didn’t know to ask” Peter Kreeft

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This episode we are discussing audiences 60-63 entitled “The Ethos of the Body in Art and Media”. JPII explores the ethical dimension of both artists who reproduce or depict the human body in art/media as well as those who look at the human body in art and media. He asks the question: is it possible to portray the human body in art and media while also upholding the dignity of the person? 

Quotes: 

“Artistic objectification of the human body in its male and female nakedness…is always a certain transfer outside of this configuration of interpersonal gift that belongs originally and specifically to the body….the human body loses that deeply subjective meaning of the gift and becomes an object destined for the knowledge of many…” (TOB 61:1) 

“...that of the gift oriented toward the very depths of the personal subject or toward the other person, especially in the man-woman relation according to the perennial order of reciprocal self-giving. (TOB 61:2)

“Herein lies the challenge for artists. If they are to portray the visible structure of the person (i.e., the human body), they must do so in a way that does not obscure but brings to light the interior structure of the person.” (Christopher West, Theology of the Body Explained, pg. 285) 

“...that “element of the gift” is, so to speak suspended in the dimension of an unknown reception and of an unforeseen response, and thereby it is in some way “threatened” in the intentional order in the sense that it can become an anonymous object of “appropriation,” an object of abuse.” (TOB 62:3) 

“Michelangelo’s nudes are not pornographic because he intended to reveal the spousal meaning of the body as a revelation of the trinitarian mystery. It is quite clear, however, that this is not the intention of pornographers, who portray the naked body with the explicit intention of rousing lust and profiting from concupiscence. By doing so, they explicitly violate “the intimate and constant order of the gift and of reciprocal self-giving” inscribed in the human being” (TOB 62:1)” (Christopher West, Theology of the Body Explained, p.288) 

Reflection Questions: 

Resources: 

St. Teresa of Avila’s Ecstasy 

Magdala Ministries (Resource for women) 

Exodus 90 (Resource for men)

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Welcome to the show! We are continuing our study of St. Pope John Paul II”s teaching on the Theology of the Body. Today we discuss audiences 58 and 59 which is a review of what we have discussed so far in the text. We talk about some of the practical applications of what we have learned to our marriages and everyday lives. You won’t want to miss it! 

Quotes: 

“When you decide to lead a clean life, chastity will not be a burden on you: it will be a crown of triumph.” (Saint Josemaria Escriva)  

“The inner man must open himself to life according to the Spirit, in order to share in evangelical purity of heart: in order to find again and realize the value of the body, freed by redemption from the bonds of concupiscence.” (TOB 58:5)

“This is the body’s great dignity: it incarnates God’s mystery, which is love. Man’s vocation is to love as God loves, and it is revealed through the spousal meaning of his body.” (Christopher West, Theology of the Body Explained, p. 278) 

“It is the purity of the “man of concupiscence”, who is nevertheless inspired by the word of the Gospel and open to “life according to the Spirit”, that is the purity of the man of concupiscence who is completely enveloped by the “redemption of the body” achieved by Christ. (TOB 58:5) 

“The satisfaction of the passions is, in fact, one thing, quite another is the JOY a person finds in possessing himself more fully, since in this way he can also become more fully a true gift for another person.” (TOB 58:7)

“It is also to be feared that the man, growing used to the use of contraceptive practices, may finally lose reverence for women and…may come to the point of considering her as a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment, and no longer as his respected and beloved companion.” (Pope Paul VI, Humane Vitae 17) 

Reflection Questions: 

Resources: 

Humanae Vitae (Pope Paul VI) 

Good News About Sex and Marriage, Christopher West

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This episode we continue our conversation about purity of heart. We discuss Audiences 52.4-57. We talk about true freedom that comes when we completely offer ourselves to the Lord out of love and as a response to his love for us. We will look at what gives us both power and motivation to live our lives in accordance with God's plan. 

Quotes: 

“...if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” (Romans 8:12-13) 

“For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from unchastity; that each one of you knows how to keep his own body with holiness and reverence, not as the object of lustful passions, like the Gentiles who do not know God…For God did not call us to impurity but to sanctification. Therefore whoever rejects these norms rejects not a human being but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.”  (1 Thessalonians 4:3-7) 

…“ceases to be capable of this freedom for which ‘Christ has set us free’; he also ceases to be suitable for the true gift of self, which is the fruit and expression of such freedom. He further ceases to be capable of the gift organically linked with the spousal meaning of the human body” (TOB 53:3) 

“The task of purity is not only a turning away from unchastity…but is also a turning toward the holiness of the body, a holiness that calls for our reverence, admiration, and respect.” (Christopher West, Theology of the Body Explained, p.267) 

“God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he willed…the members of the body that seem weaker are more necessary, and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater reverence, and our unpresentable members are treated with greater modesty; whereas our more presentable members do not need this. But God so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the member that lacked it, so that there may be no disunion within the body, but the members may have care for one another.” (1 Corinthians 12:18; 22-25)

 “...from shame is born “reverence” for one’s own body, a reverence that Paul asks us to keep. Precisely this keeping of the body “with holiness and reverence” is to be considered essential for the virtue of purity.” (TOB 55:5) 

“When a mother and father are concerned about the way their teenage daughter dresses, rather than focusing only on the clothes, they would do better to instill in her a sense of awe and wonder for the divine dignity of her body and the gift of her sexuality.” (Christopher West, Theology of the Body Explained, p.271) 

“Flee from prostitution! Any sin that a man commits is outside of his body;but the one who gives himself to fornication sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you do not belong to yourselves?” (1 Corinthians 6:18-19)

“...has the effect of a new supernatural elevation in every human being, which every Christian must take into account in his behavior toward “his own” body and obviously toward another’s body: man toward woman and woman toward man.” (TOB 56:4) 

“In this Gift, which makes every human being holy, the Christian receives himself anew as a gift from God.” (TOB 56:4) 

The Holy Spirit dwelling within us works and develops the gift of “piety” which, JPII writes, makes “the human subject sensitive to the dignity that belongs to the human body in the mystery of creation and redemption.” (TOB 57:2) 

“This anthropology grows from roots that plunge down into the reality of the redemption of the body achieved by Christ, a redemption whose final expression is the resurrection.” (TOB 57:5) 

Reflection Questions: 

Resources: 

The Spiritual Life with Fr. Ripperger

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Welcome to Season 4!! We are continuing our study of Saint Pope John Paul II’s teaching on the Theology of the Body. This episode we are taking a look at Audiences 50-52.3 where JPII analyzes St. Paul’s view of purity, how it corresponds to Christ's call to purity of heart, and what is meant by “life according to the Spirit”. 

Quotes: 

“But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a man. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.”  (Matthew 15:18-20) 

“In this manner Christ directs an appeal to the human heart: he invites it, he does not accuse it…” (TOB 50.1) 

“I say to you, live by the Spirit and do not satisfy the desires of the flesh; for the flesh has desires contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit has desires contrary to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you want.” (Galation 5:15-16) 

“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit on things of the Spirit.” (Romans 8:5) 

“The desires of the flesh lead to death while the desires of the Spirit lead to life and peace. In fact, the desires of the flesh are in revolt against God because they do not submit to God’s law, nor are they able to. Those who live according to the flesh cannot please God. But you are not under the dominion of the flesh but of the Spirit from the moment that the Spirit of God dwells in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. And if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of justification. The one who raised Jesus from the dead will give life also to your mortal bodies by his Spirit which dwells in you.” (Romans 8:6-11) 

“Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these….The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-mastery.” (Galatians 5:19-23) 

“The “fruit” grows in them as the gift of a life whose only Author is God; man can, at the most, provide for favorable circumstances that the fruit may grown and mature.” (Man and Woman He Created Them, pg. 334, Footnote 62)

Reflection Questions: 

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This episode we discuss Audience 49 of John Paul II’s Theology of the Body entitled “The Ethos of the Redemption of the Body”.  JPII explains how what Christ is proposing to us is a “new” way of living. We discuss how Christ’s words are always through the lens of the Redemption and true power to free us from sin and change our hearts. We end the episode talking about this season as a whole and how God has been working in our lives. 

Quotes: 

“...the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning with labor pains together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” (Romans 8:21-23) 

“…we can never forget that in the teaching of Christ the fundamental reference to the question of marriage and the problem of the relations between man and woman appeals to the beginning. Such an appeal can only be justified by the reality of the redemption.”  (TOB 49:3) 

“As St. Paul says, a man engrossed in sin does not know what sin is without the law. Such a man will avoid lust only begrudgingly at first, out of obedience to the law. If he perseveres, however, lust itself becomes more and more distasteful to him. His subjective desires come more and more in tune with the true, the good, and the beautiful. In this way, the negative and prohibitive ethic of Christ’s words in the Sermon on the Mount become a positive and liberating ethos.” (Christopher West, The Theology of the Body Explained, p. 251) 

“Purity is a requirement of love. It is the dimension of the inner truth of love in man’s “heart”.” (TOB 49:7) 

“In this behavior, the human heart remains bound to the value, from which it would otherwise distance itself through its desire…“The value in question is that of the body’s spousal meaning, the value of a transparent sign by which the Creator…has written into the heart of both the gift of communion, that is, the mysterious reality of his image and likeness.” (TOB 49:5) 

When tempted to devalue someone:  “I affirm that this is a person made in the image and likeness of God. He or she is loved into existence by Him and deserves to be loved and not used. Lord, thank you for this person you have made. Please open my eyes to the gift this person is and how I can be a gift to him/her.” 

Reflection Questions: 

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In this episode we discuss Audiences 44-48 of Saint Pope John Paul II’s teaching on the Theology of the Body. Is Jesus merely accusing the human “heart” of concupiscence or is he calling our “hearts” to something higher?

 Quotes

“The body in its masculinity and femininity has been called “from the beginning” to become the manifestation of the spirit.” (TOB 45:2)

“To gain a true victory over lust, John Paul says that purity must mature from the “negative” turning away to the more “positive” recognition and assertion of the real beauty, dignity, and value of the body and of sex.” (Christopher West, Theology of the Body Explained, p. 234) 

“Man must feel himself called to rediscover, or even better, to realize, the spousal meaning of the body and to express in this way the interior freedom of the gift, that is, the freedom of that spiritual state and power that derive from mastery over the concupiscence of the flesh.” (TOB 46:4) 

“The inheritance of the beginning, the inheritance of his heart, which is deeper than the sinfulness inherited, deeper than the threefold concupiscence. Christ’s words, set in the whole reality of creation and redemption, re-activate that deepest inheritance and give it real power in human life.” (TOB 46:6) 

“Redemption is a truth, a reality, in the name of which man must feel himself called, and “called with effectiveness” (TOB 46:4) 

“According to Plato, “eros” represents the inner power that draws man toward all that is good, true, and beautiful.” (TOB 47:2) 

“People often maintain that ethos takes away spontaneity from what is erotic in human life and behavior…Yet this opinion is mistaken and, at any rate, superficial. If we accept it and obstinately maintain it, we will never reach the full dimensions of eros.” (TOB 48.2) 

“Christ’s words are demanding ... .they demand that man has full and deep consciousness of his/her own acts, and above all his interior acts, and that he is conscious of the inner impulses of his own “heart” so that he can identify and evaluate them in a mature way.” (TOB 48:3) 

“When eros and ethos meet, they bear fruit in purity. Purity leads us in truth. Those with a mature purity of heart simply do not “look with lust”. Even if concupiscence still tugs at them, the pure of heart can recognize it, resist it, and allow grace to “untwist” it.” (Christopher West, Theology of the Body Explained, page 244) 

Reflection Questions

Resources: 

Mary, Undoer of Knots Novena 

TOB Institute Recommended Therapists 

More Therapists! 

https://centerforhealingkc.com/ 

Jana Burns https://inviacounseling.life/jana

Jackie Stone https://www.mendpsychotherapy.com/our-team

Karley Daniels https://www.newdaycounseling.co