TOB Session 1a

Have you ever made something for a specific purpose or used something made for a specific purpose contrary to that purpose and then destroyed it? In excavation construction shovels often suffer such a fate, since they are not pry bars. Every sin committed does this to man, like using fine china as a pry bar, using a natural thing to obtain a supernatural end.

It may be worthwhile and should be discerned with your group whether when a new text from Scripture is mentioned that Lectio is done with it, if not only for recollection and a better understanding of the text accounting for the fact the rest is pretty much Biblical commentary. 

It may also be worthwhile to warm them there will be a lot of rereading the same text to reconnect with the parts of the text referenced by the study.

1. What is meant by “Beginning?” 1-4

The Pope began by saying: "The role of the Christian family," concentrates our attention on this community of human and Christian life, which has been fundamental from the beginning. The Lord Jesus used precisely this expression "from the beginning" in the talk about marriage, reported in the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark. We wish to raise the question what this word "beginning" means. We also wish to clarify why Christ referred to the "beginning" on that occasion and, therefore, we propose a more precise analysis of the relative text of Holy Scripture. 

1. Marriage was made from the moment of man’s creation to be a bond of two persons that is formed by God and not dissolvable by man.

• • Mark 10:1-12; Mt 19:1-10 

• • God made man not just in His image but also in His likeness and chose to make man a (lesser) co-creator. Thereby, the marriage bond reflects the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. Despite the Mosaic exceptions, Christ affirms that whoever “divorces” their spouse and “marries” another commits adultery (cf. Mark 10:11-12). According to dictionary.com, adultery is “voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and someone other than their lawful spouse.”  Christ, thereby, argues that it is not within man’s ability to divorce and that once united to one’s spouse, they are truly bound together, and the bond is dissolved only by death. Christ Jesus made this conclusion explicit when he says, “What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder”(Mark 10:9). We will continue examining these tenets of our faith and their source(s) throughout this study and will likely be rediscovered several times over. 

  • Where does the Church derive the teaching that marriage is indissoluble?

    • • From these passages in Mark, it is clear that what Christ means by marriage is in dissoluble. An annulment is not a divorce but a formal realization and declaration that the supposed marriage did not obtain what Christ meant by marriage. What exactly Christ meant by marriage we shall later see, but if we know as certain as we can that marriage was effected by both parties and was never meant to end notwithstanding death.

2. Man was created with intentionality from the earth, male or female, and in the image and likeness of God, then blessed with a certain lordship over creation (Genesis 2:7).

• • Genesis 1

  • The account demonstrates the masterpiece of God that man is, in the process in which man comes to life. From the elements, God fashioned man and “breathed the breath of life into him”(Genesis 2:7). This specificity reveals something intimate and intentional about creating man. Man was created to be something like a physical reflection of the Most Holy Trinity, being made in God’s “image and likeness”( Genesis 2:7). Their being like God in either their masculinity and femineity makes them equals in dignity and humanness and makeup two dimensions of humanity. The Trinity is of one essential nature; Christ was/is eternally begotten by the Father and the Holy Spirit is the result of the love between the Father and the Son that radiates into a whole other being. Likewise, Eve is made for Adam’s being (and vice versa), and resulting from their love is all creation. Consequently, God made them male and female, and thereby, He gives them dominion over creation and a role in the work of creation. Moreover, contrary to what may be said of how we were made, it is heavily implied that man is good being made like God, in the context of what God Being such a reflection of the Trinity, it is understandable that the bond of marriage is unbreakable to man.

    • What is meant by "in the beginning"?

      • Christ quotes from the text of Genesis before the fall, so it is concludable that what He means refers to the time that the quote was said.

3. Man’s behavior gives a certain subjective knowledge, a perspicacious (insightful) account of which is given by the second and third chapters of Genesis.

• • Genesis 2-3

  • 2: Of sheer love, God created man. Man was loved into existence and richly provided for. Adam was given Eve, a companion equal in dignity and otherwise made to harmonize/be complementary to himself, and all were made for man’s good. God gave man a single commandment to obey i.e. a “tree” to avoid. Man, in his curiosity, considered the exception to his allotted dominion, thereby welcoming evil into dialogue with him. The serpent/evil exaggerated this exception, and despite being made in/for God’s likeness, man was made to believe He did not want them to “be like God”(Genesis 3:5). “Thus an entirely new situation emerges, essentially different from the preceding”. 

  • 3: Sin dis-integrates. Love draws together/unites. When we sin, we bring disunity between God and ourselves, others and ourselves, and even between our own faculties. Defining sin the Catechism states, “It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity.”* In the state of original innocence, the first man and woman “were both naked, and were not ashamed”(Genesis 2:25). After the fall, “they knew that they were naked”, and this suggests they did not hitherto “know” it i.e. both predict the experience and compensate for the effects to a degree as we do not hide from each other physically, but we still do in other ways (Genesis 3:7). This speaks to the state of original innocence and original sin, it would seem they had no fear of evil before the fall, but after the fall they were concerned about the implications of their “knowledge” of good and evil.

  • What is meant by anthropology and what does it have to do with this study?

    • Anthropology in Catholic theology explores the essence and destiny of humanity, drawing from Scripture, philosophy, and natural science. It asserts humanity's unique creation in the image of God, endowed with reason, freedom, and moral responsibility (Genesis 1:26-27). The Theology of the Body offers a comprehensive anthropology, emphasizing the unity of body and soul, the significance of sexuality and relationships, and the call to communion with God and others. It presents a holistic vision of human existence, affirming both the material and spiritual aspects of life and pointing toward ultimate fulfillment in union with God.

  • What is sin?

    • Sin (according to CCC 1849): “Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity. It has been defined as "an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to the eternal law.”

4. Original innocence was the “beginning” of which Jesus speaks in Mark 10 and Matthew 19.

• • Psalm 51:5

  • As Christ asserts the indissolubility of marriage, He said, “but from the beginning of creation…”(Mark 10:6). He distinguished between the times after the beginning and the beginning. As we consider what redemption means, we must also consider what life before sin was like. Since we know that now we are prone to sin and disposed to it from our birth and Christ eludes to a time that is different than now in terms of the law, then we may conclude that the time he refers to was the moment when man knew not sin/evil. Thus, we realize the gravity of mentioning knowledge of good and evil, because at that time we did not know what evil was nor its possibilities (unfortunate and underwhelming we later discovered). As Pope John Paul II says, “The laws of knowing correspond to those of being.” Thereby, the state of original sin is defined as it relates to the absence of what was i.e innocence. The greatest of all hopes and promises were given to Adam and Eve in the Proto-Gospel, redemption, and freedom from the state of sin and guilt(cf. Romans 8:23). If redemption is to undo sin, then it, thereby, must reinstate innocence.

    • What is a person?

      • Person one who can freely act, think rationally, and give of self in relation to God and other persons, and therefore is distinct as an individual, substantially unique, in relation to God and others, and is endowed with reason (Summa I, Q. 29, Art. 3, CCC 1701, 1703-1706, 1730).

2. The meaning of Original Solitude 5-7

5 Man’s original solitude arises from his uniqueness amongst the rest of creation and the lack of woman.

• Focus: Genesis 2:7, 18, 21-22 

• Humankind is unique to all of creation. Man was/is given a unique ability to reason, and as such he found himself alone in creation. This demonstrates a central point of theology, man is not just an animal. We are truly different from the rest of creation and thus our desires are not and do not have the same answers as the simple survival-driven desires of animals. Yet, of course, they are not entirely different. Man was alone yet in another sense, he was male and there was not yet female. God made women for this fundamental spiritual, practical, and also biological need. 

• The Pope points out that man discovered his uniqueness when naming the various creatures and it was God’s intention.* This may have been a providential consequence of man being co-creator and acting in his vocation as such. How much more might acting in accord with what were we are created for, help us to discover our own identity? Something of man’s abilities, give him a natural vocation or help him realize the vocation for which he was made. 

  • *Cf. John Paul II, General Audience on _In the Very Definition of Man, the Alternative Between Death and Immortality_  (31 October 1979).

• Further, is our subjectivity the result of our freedom and individuality? Throughout Catholic Social teaching, the principle of individual liberties would seem to be united to man’s essential nature. Namely, if we are free to reason and have dominion over creation, then we should have an equal say in the way creation is managed. Is it our subjectivity that serves as a premise for the need for morality(loving our fellow co-creators)? It would seem that something of our subjectivity is a consequence of our objectivity.

6 Through the experience of his faculties and his body, the man concluded he was alone and indeed he was.

• Genesis 1:26; Genesis 2:5-6, 18

• Man realized he was different than the animals, set above them in fact. This affirms that God did as He said and made man in His likeness. The implications of being an Imago Dei are as numerous as they are important. Not only are the faculties a result of this creation but also man’s responsibilities and worth. The body in which man exists not only contains him but something of God as well.

• How might sexual sin or being a victim of an abuse of sexuality affect one's ability to comprehend the meaning of one's body?

  • In all sorts of ways. An experienced State's attorney or psychologist will tell you that it often leads to further sexual promiscuity, eating disorders, etc. Why is this? Well, let us consider how there is a rational dimension to this problem, i.e. that it has been communicated to them that their body is of no importance, if this is used as a premise, it can affect all sorts of justification of unideal use of too even greater abuse of the body. The beauty and sacredness of one's body is understood by the self in some fashion or another, however, distorted it may be. Since as Psalm 51 realizes we are formal sinners from birth and material sinners in our personal sins, our understanding of our body will not be well-informed and even this study takes much time to soak in.

7 Man is defined by that which is invisible and what is visible, but more of what is invisible than visible.

• Genesis 1:28; Gen 2:5,7,16-17

• Though looking like an animal, man bears greater abilities than other creatures. Consequently, man was made for more than himself in a way that differs from other creatures that were made for man. Yet similar in the aspect of being made male and female in his original solitude which is a constituent part of the person. He is thus made aware of what he should be. The consequences of sin, of which he was made aware, were not then within his original experiential purview and were antithetical to it. 

• What might it mean to consider someone a gift?

  • Their existence makes them a gift from God, bestowed to the community of humanity through the love of parents. A person is a gift another fold in the sense of what they can do, in their goodness and being made in the image and likeness of God. The latter meaning might be felt as an extension of God's plan of salvation for the world.

3. The meaning of Original Unity 8-14

8 ORIGINAL UNITY OF MAN AND WOMAN - Woman is made in the same likeness as man and is thus a second incarnation of the genius “man(kind)”.

• Man was created in the “image and likeness” of God (Genesis 2:7). Since this refers to both sexes, then the feminine image and the masculine image must be valid incarnations of God’s “image and likeness”. “Bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh” refers to the likeness of mind and bodily structure. However, the love man (male) has for a woman comes from more than the physical because there is more to woman than what can be seen.

9 MAN BECOMES THE IMAGE OF GOD BY COMMUNION OF PERSONS

• Genesis 2:18-20, 23

• Man’s being made in the Image of God makes him disposed to a trinitarian-like unity between his masculinity and femininity. In the creation narrative, we notice Adam’s “sigh of relief” or sense of an adequate relationship with another being that is likened to him. This reveals a natural expectation within many for not just accompaniment by way of help but communion. Man participates fully in being made in the “image and likeness” of God not in the double solitude but the singular communion (implying both love and cooperation, a living in harmony). This satisfaction Adam experiences of the desire for communion concerns firstly the bodily experience of man which manifests in him, in all his reality, made in the image an likeness of God. The implication of this innate ordination to become a communion of persons i.e. “becoming one flesh”, has moral implications one to the other, that what is done with the body corresponds to what is to be the case of the remainder of life i.e. being one flesh, a communion of persons. 

• "While the first chapter of Genesis expresses this value in a purely theological form (and indirectly a metaphysical one), the second chapter, on the other hand, reveals, so to speak, the first circle of the experience lived by man as value"

  • Ever feel lonely? Why is that? 

    • It's not just because there is not someone within the nearest mile, we are made for Communion. Our worth is the full gift of self of another (certain in the case of a spouse, and in a non-sexual way with friends and other family members)

10 MARRIAGE ONE AND INDISSOLUBLE IN FIRST CHAPTERS OF GENESIS

Genesis 2:24

Becoming “one flesh” is expressed and realized in the Conjugal act. In this act, man and women rediscover their being made for the other and the moment of the creation of masculinity and femineity. Sex, thus, is not only an instinctual and biological act but a passing of the boundary of the original solitude. All love must be free and it is clear that from the beginning a Husband and Wife, the communion of persons comes from a mutual choice. This chosen self-gift presupposes an awareness of the body in its being made male for female and female for male. This act naturally participates in God’s act of creation, which is what makes the mutual choice and the gift of love so essential. Man was created in love, made to be a communion, and in that same nature, he creates in self-gift. It follows that this communion should not be breached at least in that it concerns the full gift of self and the fact of it being a communion.

Mutual choice and self-gift are key themes here, what are we reminded of when we hear these terms? Have there been times when we have given ourselves to loving someone in a way that is not physical per se?

• • Most of the time, and hopefully if we are not married that it has been the only way in which we have loved others). Christ and His Church, Every Christian, is called to lay down his/her life in an effort to follow Christ which often corresponds to loving others

• What is meant by shame?

  • Shame refers to the instinctive reaction to the loss of innocence and intimacy, stemming from the Original Sin narrative (Genesis 3:7). It reflects a disruption in the harmony between body and spirit, often leading to a sense of vulnerability and concealment (TOB 34:1). The Summa Theologica (I-II, Q. 94, A. 4) also addresses shame as a consequence of sin, hindering the openness and trust necessary for interpersonal communion.

11 MEANING OF ORIGINAL HUMAN EXPERIENCES

• Genesis 2:25, 2:20, 2:23, Genesis 3:11

• The original experiences of Man are what man was made for, and so they are a basic call back to them at every moment. Our corrupt nature skews our perception of them that even people who seek to live purely still can never fully reconstruct them. This is why the concepts of Original Holiness/Justice/Unity and Original solitude (being alone among creation and alone in being made the respective masculinity and felinity) is so fundamental to understanding man’s original nakedness and how they were “unashamed”. The Scripture makes a point to mention this un-ashamedness, and it helps us understand what were the original experiences of man. Moreover, there is a connection here to a pure personal subjectivity with our objective analysis of the Scriptural text. These two elements and indeed the original and post-fall experiences of historical man for the whole of human anthropology: original and corrupted, subjective and objective. The counterpart to the original unashamed nakedness is the post-fall shameful nakedness. This sense of shame is not only concerning the exterior but the interior as we shall later discuss since Christ makes a connection between those two experiences. Shame became a boundary to our participation in and knowledge of the original state man was created in.

• Thomas Aquinas, Summa thelogiae, I-II, Q85, A1

  • "The good of human nature is threefold. First, there are the principles of which nature is constituted, and the properties that flow from them, such as the powers of the soul, and so forth. Secondly, since man has from nature an inclination to virtue, as stated above (I-II:60:1; I-II:63:1), this inclination to virtue is a good of nature. Thirdly, the gift of original justice, conferred on the whole of human nature in the person of the first man, may be called a good of nature. Accordingly, the first-mentioned good of nature is neither destroyed nor diminished by sin. The third good of nature was entirely destroyed through the sin of our first parent. But the second good of nature, viz. the natural inclination to virtue, is diminished by sin. Because human acts produce an inclination to like acts, as stated above (I-II:50:1). Now from the very fact that thing becomes inclined to one of two contraries, its inclination to the other contrary must needs be diminished. Wherefore as sin is opposed to virtue, from the very fact that a man sins, there results a diminution of that good of nature, which is the inclination to virtue."

• How is the term "Historical man" distinct from man or original man?

  • Historical man is man described by history, this is to say man is corrupted by sin and the drama that unfolds. Man's corruption is a real concern in most situations because he is endowed with freedom and tends in the direction of misusing it. You may remember from the Essential story of Scripture Bible Study that as soon as Israel was liberated from Egypt they turned back to paganism and continued to desire to return through the desert up until entrance into the promised land. We should never be shocked or surprised by sin even if it is great in its magnitude because man is tending toward rebellion in concupiscence even after the gift of grace and gift.

12 FULLNESS OF INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION

• Genesis 2:25

• Shame is a difficult experience and makes him to require affirmation and acceptance interiorly and interpersonally. Our experience of this is a fundamental struggle in every relationship, especially the intimate ones. The fall created a rift between man and the proper understanding of his body and therefore himself, which makes shame a “boundary” in seeking this understanding. The question is asked what does the meaning of original nakedness correspond to i.e. what fullness of conscience allows us to understand the body? Man could not understand himself in comparison to other creatures. As is seen in his original solitude he needed a complimentary other who was “bone of his bone” (Genesis 2:25). Nakedness corresponds to the full consciousness of the body deriving from the senses. Essential to answering the question is “One can think of this fullness in categories of truth of being or of reality, and it can be said that man and woman were originally given to each other precisely according to this truth since they were naked.” This understanding does not derive from an authoritative statement but from what God made and thus intended. Yet, there remains something deeper to be known it seems that what the senses provide, is a communication of great meaning and significance to the dignity of each, from within.

• Aquinas on shame (ST, II-II, Q144, A4): 

  • Shame may be lacking in a person in two ways. First, because the things that should make him ashamed are not deemed by him to be disgraceful; and in this way those who are steeped in sin are without shame, for instead of disapproving of their sins, they boast of them. Secondly, because they apprehend disgrace as impossible to themselves, or as easy to avoid. On this way the old and the virtuous are not shamefaced. Yet they are so disposed, that if there were anything disgraceful in them they would be ashamed of it. Wherefore the Philosopher says (Ethic. iv, 9) that "shame is in the virtuous hypothetically."

• Communication, to be effective, requires the encoding process and the decoding process to be effective. one is done by the sender and the other by the receiver of the message. This process requires understanding how the one means and the other would interpret a message. How does sexual intercourse communicate the person fully before the fall and corruptedly now?

  • Since man is a body, sexual intercourse concerns the personal depths of man, before there was a perfect knowledge interiorly and exteriorly and now much misunderstanding

13 CREATION AS A FUNDAMENTAL AND ORIGINAL GIFT

The pure value of the body and sex which is the original experience of nakedness demonstrates a former unity between man and woman and man’s spiritual good and his sensible good. This view precipitates from seeing each other in light of creation gazing at each other interiorly as it were. With a lustful gaze, there is a loss of intimacy in favor of pleasurable gain, i.e. losing the (Spousal) meaning of the body both of one’s own and that of the other. This also influences one’s own and the whole of human anthropology. Man was created in the Image of God “in the beginning”. Christ says as much in the passage from Mark, this means there is an Author and the authored sort of relationship between God and His image. This realization informs the nuptial meaning of the body which the original experiences of the are rediscovered. God’s making things good, man in His own image, and all things from nothing suggests love. Creation is a giving of existence, so man is the recipient of a gift which also establishes a relationship with the Giver/Creator. “Only love gives a beginning to good and delights in good (cf. 1 Cor 13)”. What man receives; he is preceded by it first being given to him.

What is an indissoluble marriage (think as if it were a legal question)?

• An indissoluble marriage, within the context of the Theology of the Body, refers to a sacred union between two baptized individuals, recognized as valid and binding according to Christian doctrine and natural law principles. This marriage, once established through a valid contract and consummated by natural intercourse, is considered inseparable and cannot be dissolved by any human authority, whether it be civil or ecclesiastical. It reflects the divine plan for marital unity and fidelity, emphasizing the lifelong commitment and mutual self-giving inherent in Christian matrimony, as articulated by the teachings of Jesus Christ and affirmed by the Catholic Church's magisterium.

14 REVELATION AND DISCOVERY OF THE NUPTIAL MEANING OF THE BODY

Man was made for more than himself. This is evident in both the words “helper” and “alone”. At the creation of the woman the creation of humanity was complete. The “beginning” Christ refers to in Mark and Matthew is to the time of creation before the fall to what Christ calls man back to perpetually and partially now and fully in Heavenly beatitude. This fact is confirmed in adequate anthropology that arises from doing so. The body reveals the living soul which is has a sex. This is what is made as a gift one for another according to the reciprocity between male and female comes to mean in its original sense. A mutual giftedness directly connects to the conjugal nature of the man-woman community, in a complementary completion. This is evident both in the Yahwist creation narrative Gen 2 and in the words of Christ in Mark, “the two shall become one flesh”.

Which chapter in Genesis contains the Yahwist Creation narrative? Why?

• Gen 2; Audience two says "From the point of view of biblical criticism, it is necessary to mention immediately that the first account of man's creation is chronologically later than the second, whose origin is much more remote. This more ancient text is defined as "Yahwist" because the term "Yahweh" is used to name God. It is difficult not to be struck by the fact that the image of God presented there has quite considerable anthropomorphic traits. Among others, we read that "...the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life" (Gn 2:7)."

• As opposed to?

  • The Elohist narrative i.e. Gen 1