Glorified humanity

Last year the Lord revealed something to me that changed me: Jesus didn’t “deign” to come and serve us, becoming different than His glory. His glory was best expressed as self-giving love.

Your baby

In her great questions for us in the Rectors Forum (which Paul has kindly posted here), Elizabeth Baucum has asked us to reflect on the ways our experiences help us to understand more about God.  On February 19th, she quoted TOBSL page five—“All of our subjective experiences correspond to the objective reality that we are created in God’s image.” So, here’s an experience I had today. What experiences have you had?

In the beginning ...

There is something significant about the beginning of something. Beginnings are full of promise and expectancy. Just think of ordinary things like a new garden, or a new house, or better yet, a new baby. John Paul II starts his whole Theology of the Body by doing just what Jesus did when questioned by skeptical questioners. Jesus went back to the beginning to turn their questions back to God’s original intention with his creation.

You are not orcs

Here’s the dialogue and a clip from Two Towers:

Merry.
We have just agreed.
Yes?
I have told your names to the Entmoot and we have agreed you are not Orcs.
Well, that's good news.
And what about Saruman? Have you come to a decision about him?
Now, don't be hasty, Master Meriadoc.
Hasty?
Our friends are out there. They need our help. They cannot fight this war on their own.
War? Yes. It affects us all. Tree, root and twig.
But you must understand, young Hobbit it takes a long time to say anything in Old Entish and we never say anything unless it is worth taking a long time to say.

Lent is for Baptists too

Lest you think that we are concentrating too much on what our Catholic friends have to say, here is a link, "Lent for Baptists," to an opinion piece in the Associated Baptist Press giving reasons why our Baptist friends might also want to be more serious about Lent. Follow the link to read the article.  It gives a brief history of Lent and then asks "Why is Lent relevant for Baptists?"

Comments on Benedict's Lenten sermon

Thanks Paul for the link to Benedict XVI's sermon  for Lent 2012 and your thoughts and questions about the topic of love-in-communion.  Here’s what I liked from it.

Being brothers and sisters in humanity and, in many cases, also in the faith, should help us to recognize in others a true alter ego, infinitely loved by the Lord. If we cultivate this way of seeing others as our brothers and sisters, solidarity, justice, mercy and compassion will naturally well up in our hearts.

Let us be concerned for each other

One of the things we learn by taking the perspective of the Theology of the Body is that human beings are made to be in communion not only with God but with one another, since God is a trinity of persons-in-communion.  While marriage is held up as a uniquely powerful icon of that love-in-communion, the call-to-communion extends to all of God's people.  Since we are getting ready for Ash Wednesday, I wish to call your attention to Benedict XVI's sermon for Lent 2012.  The reason is because it focuses on this theme through the lens of Hebrews 10:24 "Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works."  

How lovely is thy dwelling place

Remember this song? We used this song in worship in our small church in the mid 80s and I haven’t heard it since then but it always comes back to me as a comfort.  I assume it is from Psalm 84. This song and Psalm 84 speak to me of the Original Man in John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. In his very first talk (p. 131) JP2 teaches on Mt 19:3-8:

Rector's Forum, Feb. 19, 2012

“Sin and Innocence”

Based on pages 5-8 from The Theology of the Body in Simple Language 

Who can speak of these things except in pictures? Pictures after all are not lies; rather they indicate things and enable the underlying meaning to shine through….In complete consistency with the framework of the picture, the story is told how the human being was put into this garden to live in it, and how in the center of the garden stood two trees: one the tree of life and the other the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The destiny of humankind is now to be decided in relation to these two trees. (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Creation and Fall, 81).

What does the tree signify in this Genesis 2-3? What two states of humanity are divided by it?

Discussion questions from the 2/12/12 Rector's Forum

The teaching is taken from pages 1-4 of 

The Theology of the Body in Simple Language (TOB/SL) by John Paul II

1.   The Rabbis’ question to Jesus—i.e., when is it permissible to divorce?—presupposes that divorce is possible.  How does their question reflect a lack of trust in love?  How does Jesus’ answer speak to the solidity of love?

2.    “A man and woman don’t become one flesh on their own, Christ says—God unites them.”  (TOB/SL p. 2).  Some view marriage as something individuals do (such as a contract, a promise, or a covenant).  How might our understanding of marriage be enlarged if we see marriage as something God does?

3.   God joins.  Man puts asunder.  In what other areas of creation has man (humanity) sought to separate those things that God intends to be united? 

Living in communion with one another

This is an email thread among several of us that started Feb. 9.  It considers the implications of being called together to live in communion.  Our study of the Theology of the Body stimulated some thinking about this matter.  A part of the email thread is copied here.

+++++++++++++++ Initial email, Feb. 9, 2012 +++++++++++++++

Dear Friends,

As we continue our explorations of the Theology of the Body, I wish to offer a few thoughts triggered by the readings for this morning.

As Jesus was teaching the mostly skeptical Jews in Jerusalem, we read in John 8:30-32,

As he was saying these things, many believed in him.  Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."

These are familiar words.  The words from v. 32 (the truth will make you free) are inscribed around the compass rose that is the symbol of the worldwide Anglican communion.  Yet there is much that can be learned from these few simple words of Jesus.  

Rector's Forum Schedule 2012

   Part One: Original Man – What are we made for?

Date subject to revision due to unforeseen interruptions	Theme	Pages in   The Theology of the Body in Simple Language
1-28-12	Overview
2-12-12	“In the Beginning”	1-4
2-19-12	Sin and Innocence	5-8
3-4-12	Original Uniqueness	9-15
3-11-12	Original Unity	16-20
3-18-12	Original Purity	21-22
3-25-12	Original Nakedness	23-26
4-22-12	Gift of Life and Love	27-30
4-29-12	Why Love?	31-34
5-6-12	Seeing and Shame	35-38
5-27-12	“He knew his wife”	39-42
6-3-12	Love Cycle	43-47
6-10-13	Exalted Vision of Man	48-50

Welcome

Welcome to the Truro discussion group on John Paul II's Theology of the Body.  You may raise any topic or question that comes within the broader scope of this teaching--namely, what it means to be an embodied human being, living together with others in our families, church, and the broader society as followers of  Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, fully God and fully human.

We will post topics for discussion, to which group members can raise comments and questions.  We will develop some basic guidelines for posting and commenting as this blog develops.  It is not a public blog--the blog is not searchable by web search engines like Google.  But anyone who has the link to the blog site can read the posts through a browser.  In order to comment, you need to log in using your free account on a service like Google or AIM, as instructed on the "Comment as" button.

If you want to ask a private question, send an email to TruroTOB@gmail.com

Introduction

This post contains the handout entitled Word and Fire: the Theology of the Body given out at the Truro Rector's Forum, Nov. 27, 2011.  The purpose of this Forum was to provide some overview of the Theology of the Body in preparation for the January 2012 conference by Christopher West on the topic and for the explorations to follow.  Here is the handout in its original form: