Reflection on April 2, 1980

https://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/jp2tb22.htm

Christ is questioned about marriage and divorce, but JPII wants to show us, and I think we have seen in these reflections, that Christ answer in pointing back to the beginning brings us to the answer of many questions, many that would not have occurred to Christ interlocutors. Today, we do have to answer these questions, abortion, contraception, homosexuality, co-habitation, etc are all issues that are brought up and in which the Catholic view deviates strongly against the world’s theology. We have to imagine what Christ’s answers would be to these issues if He were asked today. JPII believes that His answer would be very close to what He gave the Pharisees during their exchange. Why? Because the beginning gets us to the fundamental Truth about what it means to be human and Truth does not change. Regardless if it is the year 30, the year 2014, or the year 3014, when you ask a question about the human body and its relationship to the world around, to the opposite sex, and participation in creation, the answer will always point us back to the beginning when we were not fallen. That is because that is what we are meant for, what we strive for, what Christ came to help us achieve, and that original human nature will be the standard foundation for any answer to the world’s questions.

“This subject decides his own actions in the light of the complete truth about himself”. I was reflecting on this line and thinking about the problem with our actions. It seems to me that you cannot have any confidence in your actions if you do not know who you are. We decide our actions based on the truth we see in ourselves. But can we have any confidence in knowing who we are. We have seen that knowing ourselves requires seeing the world as God wants us to see it and others as God sees them, authentic subjectivity. Until we can see the world this way, we can never have a full understanding of who we are. I liked how JPII said the ideas of the world have partial truths in them, but the world cannot give us a full vision. The same can be said of the many different Christian denominations having partial truths but always missing the fullness of Truth. I think it is a positive thing for them to get some partial truth, but I found myself thinking more about those that actively seek to ignore truth in their views and belief. The former can be somewhat excused, but the latter is where many of the attacks on the Catholic view come from.

I think it is obvious that Genesis is not a biology book. There is nothing about why a heart has 4 main sections or why there are 2 sides to your brain. But it is important to realize that biology is never going to be able to tell you why man is able to reason as opposed to all other animals. Technology is limited on what it is going to be able to explain to us about the fundamental human nature. Genesis, written over 3000 years ago is able to explain this in a way that the most modern biology cannot. Yet many scientist strive to do everything they can to search for answers in the hopes that they can make the Bible irrelevant. But JPII does not discount or deny that science and technology cannot be used or improve life or the following of Christ. I think a very good example of this is the advancements in NFP technology over the last several decades. The science that goes into these techniques, when followed properly, have basically surpassed any type of artificial birth control without the harm those bring to marriages and the temptation they bring to those outside of marriage.

Before I started these reflections, if you had told me that the goal of a married couple was to help each other retrieve each other’s dignity, I would have thought that sounded great, but really have no idea what you were talking about. Now we see that the relationship between how close we are to dignity and how that effects the way we view the world, and specifically our spouse, is completely intertwined. The closer we strive to view each other in dignity, the closer we get to an authentic subjectivity, the better we accept the gift they are, the more open we are to giving ourselves to them, the closer we are to how God planned it, closer to how it was “in the beginning”.