Theological Tidbits

God’s love is most perfectly present within the mystery of the three Persons in one God. Each divine Person knows the other two and, on the basis of that knowledge, chooses to give Himself to the other two. This choice is total—i.e., it is permanent and limitless. It is permanent because the Trinity was, is, and always will be. The love of each Person in the Trinity is limitless because each Person gives Himself completely—i.e., each Person gives His very Being, His very life, to the other two. Divine love is therefore identified with life. In God, there are not two realities called love and life, but rather only one: love which is the same as life. It could also be put the other way: in God there is only one reality, life, which is the same as love. The love of God the Father is an example of the permanent and limitless character of divine love. God the Father’s love of the Son and the Holy Spirit is an act of His will founded on a perfect knowledge of the truth about the value and dignity of the Son and the Holy Spirit. God the Father never ceases to love the Son and the Holy Spirit. He would never decide to stop loving the Son and the Holy Spirit. Nor would He ever decide to “leave” the Trinity. Further, the Father’s love of the Son and the Holy Spirit is a total gift, a gift of His very Being. If human persons want to be true to their very selves as beings made in the image and likeness of God, they will love as God loves.

In a sense, Adam could not love without receiving the gift of love from another bodied person—i.e., Eve. In addition, Adam could not love without Eve because his love would not have been life-giving.

Made in the image and likeness of God, human persons are called to do what God does. God loves. Clearly, human persons should love as God loves if they are to be true to the kind of beings they are.

There are many who are uncomfortable with the unity and duality of man. Rather than acknowledging the mystery, they try to eliminate it. One very common means of trying to remove the unity-duality mystery is to make the body a thing—almost a machine that a human person inhabits. In this view, the human person is pure spirit—and the body is not part of human life. Given this false opinion, the human body is merely a machine that is necessary here on earth. It is important to note that while this mechanized view separates the body from the person, it does not make the body something evil.

How often do people refer to the human heart as a ticker? Food is many times called fuel as if the body were an engine. Treating the body as a machine has become integrated into our culture. However, our bodies are not machines. If they were, when two people shook hands, hugged or expressed their love for one another, it would not be two persons touching—but rather their two machines. Moreover, if our bodies were machines, then a surgeon operating would be nothing more than a technician working on a defective machine much like a serviceman repairing a malfunctioning computer. Clearly, our bodies are our flesh and blood. They are the means by which our persons are expressed. When we are in pain, most of us do not cry out, “I have damaged my machinery.” Rather, we cry out, “My leg!” or “My arm!” When our bodies are hurt, we are hurt. Thus, the human body is not a machine. Rather, it is created to be the expression of a person.

We received our bodies as part of the gift of life. None of us bought them. They were given to us by God through the cooperation of our parents. Further, when a small part of the body is harmed—e.g., the heart, we—our persons—suffer and can die. Our bodies are part and parcel of human life. They are created to be the expressions of our persons. In other words, there is a fundamental unity in each of us. We are body and soul—but the two are united as one. The unity does not exclude the duality—and the duality does not destroy the unity. In this unity-duality, we confront one of the essential mysteries about man. It should not surprise us that man is a mystery. After all, we are images of the supreme mystery, God Himself.

Since God willed that we love Him—and since He created us to give and to receive love in and through our bodies, He must have willed from “the beginning” to allow us to love Him in and through our bodies and to receive love from Him in and through our bodies.

As enfleshed spirits or spiritualized bodies, human beings are unique. The first man, Adam, discovered the radical differences between himself and the rest of creation. Adam realized that, as an enfleshed person, he was unique. In the account of creation found in the second chapter of Genesis, God creates Adam first and then asks him to name the animals. In the process of naming the animals, Adam experiences an extreme loneliness as he discovers that no other human being exists. Since Adam was made in the image of God, he had a need to act as God acts—i.e., to love as God loves. Since his body was made to express his person, he longed, as we all do, to express love in and through his body. However, love is a mutual self-gift. Since Adam was alone, he could not receive the self-gift of another bodied person. Further, since he was alone, he could not give himself in and through his body to another bodied person. Adam experienced loneliness because there could not be a mutual exchange of love with another bodied person. God permitted Adam to suffer loneliness so that through this experience he would discover that the bodies of the animals were different from his own body. Adam saw that no body other than his own could express a person. In and through his loneliness, Adam discovered himself as an enfleshed spirit, as a person whose body was created to express his person. He discovered that, as a spiritualized body, he was unique.

Living among as many people as we do today, it is almost impossible for us to experience the kind of loneliness Adam felt. However, just as Adam came to realize that he was unique because his body could express his person, so it is important for all of us to appreciate our own uniqueness as enfleshed spirits.

Human beings are not only called to express their own personhood through their bodies, they are also invited to manifest God. As images of God, we are called to act as God acts. In other words, we are called to love as God loves. Since we have bodies, we are called to express love in and through our bodies. When our bodies express love, they not only manifest human personhood, but they also become physical images of God—i.e., signs of God: “The body also participates, in its own way, in the dignity of the ‘image of God,’ just as it participates in the dignity of the person” (John Paul II). As the expression of a human person and a physical image of God, the human body is a unique creation.

Human beings are not only called to express their own personhood through their bodies, they are also invited to manifest God. As images of God, we are called to act as God acts. In other words, we are called to love as God loves. Since we have bodies, we are called to express love in and through our bodies. When our bodies express love, they not only manifest human personhood, but they also become physical images of God—i.e., signs of God: “The body also participates, in its own way, in the dignity of the ‘image of God,’ just as it participates in the dignity of the person” (John Paul II). As the expression of a human person and a physical image of God, the human body is a unique creation.