If we live according to the truth of our sexuality, we fulfill the very meaning and being of our existence.
Pope John Paul II



Tuesday, March 8, 2011

fulfilling our "meaning and being"

Pope John Paul II said, "If we live according to the truth of our sexuality, we fulfill the very meaning and being of our existence."

Whoa.


So, what the Great Pope is saying is that if we understand and live our sexuality according to God's plan, we fulfill who we are as persons. This is a huge claim! Not to mention a claim that most would not expect to find in the Catholic Church.

What is the meaning of life? This is the most important question we could ever ask ourselves. It is easy to pass from day to day, year to year, without reflecting on who we are and why we are here in the first place. However, in order to fully understand ourselves and in order to fully be happy we must know why we were created and what we were created for.

We know the answer the Catechism of the Catholic Church gives us to this question: "God made me to know him, love him, and serve him in this world, and to be happy with him forever in the next." And taking into consideration the quote above that the Pope gives us, we know our sexuality also has something to do with it. And not just something, but A LOT.

What the Pope is essentially saying is that if we understand what love really is, why we were create male and female, why God gave us desires for love, why He created sexual union, what chastity really means, why some are called to Celibacy for the Kingdom and how the Catholic Church intimately partakes in this nuptial mystery, we can answer the question of "What is the meaning of my life."

And this is why Satan, the Father of Lies, tries so hard to confuse us about our sexuality. Because if you can confuse people about what love is, about what it means to be created male and female, about the purpose of marriage, sex, celibacy, and (ultimately) the Eucharist, you can confuse them about who God is - because God and our sexuality are so closely linked.

Many people believe that Catholic Church to be "out of touch" when it comes to sexuality. This couldn't be further from the truth! The Church withstands cultural pressure to conform to the "wisdom of the world" and tries to uphold the beauty and purpose of our sexuality precisely because it is so important. So important, in fact, that it can get to to Heaven. To show how in touch the Church is, just look at her buildings. If you have ever been to a large church or Basilica (like St. Peter's in Rome) you will find a 4-poster type canopy over the altar. This canopy is called a Baldacchino and it represents the canopy of a marriage bed. In this case, the altar is our "marriage bed" with Christ - the place where he offers Himself, Body Blood Soul and Divinity, and where we become one with him. Not only that but the Catholic Church calls the marriage bed the "altar of the home."

This is the beauty of the Theology of the Body. It not only reveals the Catholic Church's teaching on love, sexuality, and human relationships in a easy to understand way, but it spells out for us how to live out our sexuality so that we might intimately know God, love God, and serve God in this life, and to be happy with him forever in the next.

So, let us dive deeper into understanding what the meaning of life really is and what our sexuality has to do with it so that we may truly be happy and truly be on our way to a union with God in heaven.

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