“Redemption of Our Bodies as Male and Female” - 15th Sunday OT (A) – 7.16.23

“Redemption of Our Bodies as Male and Female”

By: Fr. David Schmidt

 St. Mark the Evangelist Parish - St. Kilian Church - Cranberry, PA

Mass Readings- https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071623.cfm

In the 2nd reading St. Paul says, “We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now; and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.”

In a world filled with sin, death, and suffering, each one of us, along with all of creation, groans for the restoration and healing of our world. Specifically, we groan in the depth of heart for the redemption of our bodies.

We live in a culture today that has completely rejected our bodies, and we think that our bodies don’t have any meaning. We treat our bodies as mere instruments, and we believe that who we truly are, has nothing to do with our bodies. We have disconnected our body and soul and it has led to great confusion.

When God created us, He created us as embodied souls. The relationship between body and soul is so intimately connected that we can say that we truly ARE our body.

We recognize that there is something not right when our body and soul are not connected. We have only to watch any scary movie with ghosts and zombies to recognize this. At our death, there is a temporary separation of soul and body. The body dies and the soul “goes to meet God while awaiting its reunion with its glorified body” at the Resurrection of our body at the end of time. (Catechism of the Catholic Church 997)

Not only did God create us as embodied souls, but He created us as male and female. Who we are as men and women reveal something so profound about who we are and the mystery of the Trinitarian God because we are made in His image and likeness. It is amazing to think that the mystery of the man’s body and the mystery of the woman’s body, and how they complement each other, reveals something about God Himself and the mystery of the universe, and the mystery of human love in God’s divine plan.

In St. Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, he addresses the questions of ‘what does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be man and woman? What is the mystery of human love in the Divine plan of God?’ JPII’s thesis statement, which is central to his entire teaching, says “The body, and it alone, is capable of making visible what is invisible, the spiritual and the divine. It was created to transfer into the visible reality of the world, the invisible mystery hidden in God from time immemorial, and thus to be a sign of it.” (TOB 19:4)

We can’t see God. We can’t see the divine. However, God reveals Himself to the world because He desires to make Himself known to us. There are many ways in which God does this such as through the beauty of creation. But the most profound way that He reveals the mystery of all that is invisible, the spiritual and the divine, is through the body.

This means that our bodies are not “meaning-less” but “meaning-full.” Our bodies are filled with meaning, and they are sacred. Our body reveals the invisible mysteries of God in a profound way, so we need to have reverence for our bodies, and reflect on how God is revealing Himself to us through the body. Even more so, how He is revealing Himself to us as male and female.

Again, we see much confusion in our culture today about the meaning and importance of our bodies and what it means to be male and female. There is goodness and greatness found in both men and women, and we are called to complement one another and lift each other up and help each other become the men and women that God has created us to be.

Unfortunately, we have the tendency to define masculinity and femininity by the bad examples that we see. When we do this, it prevents us from discovering the truth of the greatness of both men and women. The greatness and goodness of manhood and womanhood can be found in the ultimate models of Jesus and Mary.

Jesus Christ is the ultimate model for all of us in how to live, but in a particular way, He becomes the model of masculinity for all men.

Jesus is a man of sacrificial love. He is a man of integrity and chastity. He is humble, meek, and gentle. He is a man with a warrior’s heart, ready to fight on the front lines of battle to defeat the enemy that threatens to destroy all He knows and loves. He will do anything to protect His children as any good father would.

He is a man who is unafraid of commitment, who willingly entered into a marital covenant with His Bride, the Church. He is a man who knew how to love His Bride as He would do anything out of love for her, including laying down His life for her. He is a man who knows how to be a Son who trusts in His heavenly Father.

Jesus is a man of great strength and courage. Strength not completely in the physical sense, but strength of character, strength of virtue, strength of love, strength of doing everything possible to protect those that He loves.

There are many great men both past and present who have walked this earth that have lived out masculinity like Christ did. We think of some of the great saints such as St. Pope John Paul II, St. Maximilian Kolbe, St. John Vianney, St. Benedict, St. Joseph, and so many more. There are many men, including many here today, who are seeking to become like Christ in every way, and love as He loves.

Men we must always strive to be like Christ, and to be men of love, peace, virtue, justice, and mercy and offer the gift of ourselves in our masculinity to God and to the entire world.

Women are called in a similar way to follow our Blessed Mother as the model of womanhood. Mary shows us the great dignity and worth that each woman has. We see in Mary how the most exalted human being in the history of mankind, except for Christ Himself, is a woman, as Mary was assumed body and soul into heaven, and is the Queen of Heaven and Earth.

Mary is a woman of great humility. She is a model for each woman on how to surrender her heart completely to God, and trust in His will for her life. She is a woman who knows how to suffer well, specifically the type of suffering that is unique to every mother in love of her children.

We see in Mary every woman’s calling to bring life into this world. Women have the unique gift of carrying a child in their womb, and to bring forth this unique life into the world. The woman not only brings physical life into this world, but she is too bring life at every moment of every day with each step and breath that she takes, as she brings life to the whole world.

Mary is the model of feminine strength. She is the model of motherly protection for her children who will exhibit a fierceness stemmed from her deep love and desire to protect her children.

Finally, Mary is the model of feminine beauty. A beauty that is not limited to physical appearance, but includes the entire person- body, mind, heart, and soul. A beauty that reflects the beauty of God when she strives for holiness and allows the love of God to transform her into a woman of beauty and grace. It is a beauty that contains great power to allow God’s beauty to pour forth onto the entire world, and bring the healing that this world needs.

Again, we point to the saints to reveal to us the greatness of woman that comes in so many unique forms from St. Joan of Arc, who led the French army into battle, to St. Therese, the Little Flower, to St. Catherine of Siena with her holy boldness, and so many more. And we know that there are many great women who are here in this church today striving to live out this model of womanhood that our Blessed Mother gives to us.

There is so much more that we could say about the greatness and glory of both men and women, but for today it is important that we just take a small glimpse behind the veil of God’s plan and destiny for man and woman.

We believe that even in this dark world, we can hear an echo of what God had in store for us at the beginning of time, and we can get a taste at what is too come. We believe that our destiny is the Resurrection of our Body at the end of time. We believe that in the Resurrection of the Body at the Second Coming of Christ we will experience the redemption of our bodies that we are groaning for so desperately in the depth of our hearts.

It is possible that as we await the redemption of our bodies that we can experience true freedom and life here on earth. When we live according to the truth of Jesus Christ, and His divine plan for human love as male and female, we discover who we truly are as God made us, and it is living in this truth that we will experience the deep freedom and healing in our masculinity and femininity that each one of us so greatly desires.