August 9, 2012 – Catechism 1699 – 1715


“The divine image is present in every man.” 1702 I am at a conference and they are talking about pornography, specifically child pornography. When you look at the quote and then think about pornography, it causes you to really think about what pornography does and how we should be treating it. I know how damaging pornography can be and the long lasting effects it can have. I don’t think many people see pornography as an offence to “the divine image”. Imagine the next time you see an image that could be considered pornographic or someone who is saying it is victimless, place an image of Christ in its place, use an image of Christ for the same purpose, or expose Christ in the posture or position that is in the image. (There have been images of Christ in all sorts of offensive postures and been accepted by the world as art, but usually with controversy.) That same outraged does not come out in the instance of pornography.

In our world with its moral relativism and normalization of sexual behavior, pornography has become normal literature. Pornography leads to a distorted view of who we are as humans, what our bodies are meant for, and deeply injures our ability to see what our worth in God’s eyes. It changes a man’s view of what a woman is suppose to be, damaging his future relationship with his wife. It causes women to think men only think of sex and teaches men that all other men only think about sex. It inspires sexual acts (mixed with freely available contraception, media’s acceptance of pre-marital sex) and fosters early sexual activity and experimentation. All of this is in contradiction to what the body is suppose to be an image of. Christ came in bodily form to bring us back to Adam and Eve before the fall, when they look on each other naked and with no shame. We have taken the body, the divine image, and caused to be violated and disgraced. Always keep in mind that we, not just our souls, but our very physical bodies, and all those humans around us, are “THE DIVINE IMAGE” of God. Treat it as such.