The Pauline Doctrine of Purity as Life According to the Spririt
by Pope John Paul II from his general audience on 18 March 1981. Read text via EWTN.
Transcription of Commentary:
And with these words our Holy father Pope John Paul II concluded his 57th catechesis Man and Woman He Created a Theology of the Body. To better appreciate and understand this 57th catechesis Man and Woman He Created Them a Theology of the Body of Pope John Paul II we should remember where we’ve been and then look where we’re going. The first part of the Theology of the Body focuses our attention on the words of Christ. These are not the words of Buddha, these are not the words of Krishna, these are not the words of Mohammed, these are the words of Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, the Savior of the universe. The One who reveals to us God,” the Father and I are one;” the One who sends the Spirit, not only over the waters of creation but into our hearts, not only at Pentecost, but even until he returns in glory.
Pope John Paul II focuses the first part of the Theology of the Body on the words of Christ, specifically, Christ’s appeal to the beginning. “In the beginning God created them, male and female” “in the divine image He created them.” “For this reason a man leaves his father and mother it clings to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.” This is Christ’s appeal to the beginning and John Paul makes a lot of straw, spends a lot of energy focusing our attention on all that we can learn from Christ ‘s appeal to the beginning: like original innocence, and original justice, original unity, original sin. But in so far as Pope John Paul II is drawing our attention to the words of Christ and his appeal to the beginning we know in faith that Christ is a new beginning for man by His death and resurrection, by our faith, by His grace in Baptism we have a new beginning in Him.
John Paul II does not only focus our attention only on Christ’s appeal to the beginning but also Christ’s appeal to the human heart. That’s the second chapter of the first part of the Theology of the Body. Christ does not appeal to the kitty cats or the puppy dogs, to the fish of the sea or the birds of the air. He appeals to human beings, people like you or me. He calls us to be saints. He calls us to turn away from sin, to be faithful to the Gospel, to love our God with all our heart and with all our soul of all our strength and our neighbor as ourselves and not to accept a false love, not to sell ourselves short or sell are neighbors short but to be pure of heart. Cor ad cor loquitur the motto of Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman who Pope Benedict XVI beatified in the September of 2010.
The 6th part of chapter 2 of Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, focuses our attention on purity as life according to the Spirit. This is the part we heard today. We are trying to live according to the Spirit of God not the spirit of this age. We are trying to live according to the Holy Spirit, holy purity not only as regards our doctrine or our vocabulary but our desires and our actions. “Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God.” Two parts of this catechesis which we’ve heard today, the 57th of the 133 in the Theology of the Body, focus on purity as a virtue and a gift. A virtue is a stable disposition to do good even in the face of difficulty with joy and ease. The classical term would be chastity I believe, so John Paul II is presenting us with purity or chastity as a gift. We can do all that we can and we should do all that we can, but God can give us the gift. God can strengthen our resolve to be pure. We not only have the natural ability to be chaste but we also have a supernatural motivation: Christ the Lord Himself, is the model, the example of chastity, of purity. The Blessed Virgin Mary, very pure, very chaste. St. Joseph “her most chaste spouse,” we pray in the Divine Praises. When we focus on purity or chastity as a virtue we focus on what we do even though we are only able to do what we are able to do thanks to our existence, which itself is a gift. The root of the word virtue is vir, means man. Virtue is to live according to our nature and God is the one who gave us our nature.
When we focus on the gift aspect of purity we focus on what God does for us, what the Saints do for us interceding with God: “God help these guys with this virtue, they need it, they need your help, they need the virtue.”
In the second part of this 6th section of chapter 2 of the Theology of the Body focuses on purity and wisdom. Wisdom, “the fear of God is the first stage of wisdom,” and purity: a fear to offend God by being sullied in our minds or in our desires, in our deeds, in our conduct. So that’s the brief overview or capsulization; of this 57th catechesis.
We will go in-depth into one or another of the aspects now. Pope John Paul II points out in this 57th catechesis that the mystery of redemption: the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate God, true God and true man, Son of Mary in time, eternal Son of the eternal Father, the mystery of redemption bears fruit in man also in a charismatic way via piety—pietas, a gift of the Holy Spirit. Some people look at the mystery of redemption as a juridic reality only. We have been convicted of our sins: “all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God,” all are saved all are redeemed by Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, applied to us through His sacraments, applied to us through a life of grace lived in his mystical body, the Church. Some people look at the mystery of redemption as a juridic reality: God is the judge, the verdict is in, we are freed by the death and resurrection of the Lord. But here, Pope John Paul II is drawing attention to the fact that the mystery of redemption is greater than just the juridic reality. The mystery of redemption bears fruit in man also in a charismatic way according to the Spirit, according to the gifts of the Spirit.
One of the gifts of the Spirit is piety, pietas. Pope John Paul II cites the prophet Isaiah Chapter 11:2-3 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me a spirit of wisdom, of understanding, of council, of fortitude, of knowledge, of goodliness, of fear of the Lord. His delight shall be the fear of the Lord.” Jesus Christ himself cites this passage of the Gospel when He is in the synagogue and all the eyes were fixed upon Him we read “and He said today “this passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” And now you’re listening to my voice. Will you allow the Spirit to enter your heart? Will you allow the spirit of wisdom and knowledge to give you that spirit of piety, that fear of the Lord, that fear to offend him by unchastity? A fear to offend him by lust? A fear to offend Him by refusing His gift of purity?
Personally, I was very surprised that our Holy Father Pope John Paul II did not mention here that one of the “fruits of the Spirit”, (and the fruits of the Spirit presuppose the gifts, because if you don’t have the gift how are you to bear the fruit), but he had already spoken of the fruits of the Spirit some six catecheses ago: Theology of the Body 51:5. He spoke about life according to the Spirit, specifically the fruits of the Spirit. Not the fruits of the demon, not fruits of the sins of the flesh. One of the fruits of the Spirit, chastity, continence, the Vulgate makes that clear. Purity, Pope John Paul II says, “Is the glory of the human body before God.” This is reminiscent of St. Iraneaus who says,” The glory of God as man fully alive.” Now we have Pope John Paul II, soon to be declared blessed May 1, 2011, the feast of St. Joseph the Worker, writing in a manner akin to St. Iraneaus. John Paul says, “Purity is the glory of the human body before God.” Who has made us? God has made us. How did God make us? God made us bodily, body and soul composites. I am not just my body and I’m not just my soul. And the Lord God calls us to be pure of heart that we might see him not only in the here and now but in the hereinafter. So, if purity is the glory of the human body before God, is impurity shame before God? I think so.
Pope John Paul II, when he focused our attention on the beginning, he spoke about how shame entered the world through sin. We should never be afraid to make a good confession if we have committed any sins: sins of impurity or otherwise, we should just repent. We should have a contrite broken heart and say, “Lord, I’m sorry” and we should go and confess our sins and receive the absolution which imparts to us a new purity, renewing the innocence first given us in baptism.
Pope John Paul II continues in 57th catechesis by saying ,”Purity is the glory of God in the human body.” So, not only is purity the glory of the human body before God but purity is the glory of God in the human body. God is in us, the Spirit of God is within us, so long as we are in a state of grace. If we are impure in our doctrine, in our words, in our desires, in our actions we cast the Holy Spirit out who is only able to return with our repentance. Purity is the glory of God in the human body, walking tabernacles we are, by God’s grace and mercy and not just us, our neighbors too. So we are to safeguard our own bodies “with reverence and holiness” and also those of our neighbors, the other person.
Pope John Paul II continues his 57th catechesis Man and Woman He Created Them a Theology of the Body by saying: “The link of purity with love and the link of the same purity in love with piety as gift of the Holy Spirit is a little-known guiding thread of the theology of the body.” Sounds like he’s giving us a clue how to understand his magnum opus, this great work of his, 133 presentations. “The link of purity with love,” pure love, pure in our desire pure and pure in our acting; “and the link of the same purity in love with piety as the gift of the Holy Spirit is a little known guiding thread of the theology of the body.” If we want to understand the Theology of the Body we need to understand the link between piety as a gift of the Holy Spirit and purity of love, and the link of purity with love. If we don’t understand purity, if we don’t understand love, if we don’t understand piety as a gift of the Holy Spirit, will not understand the Theology of the Body. And the Theology of the Body speaks to us not only about ourselves, it does speak to us about ourselves, but speaks up is also about our Creator. The good God who made us who, made us male and female, whom we have offended by our sins, either the one we have inherited, original sin, or the ones we have committed ourselves: our serious, grave, mortal sins; our venial sins. When we do something serious, we know it’s serious, and we do it anyway, that’s a mortal sin. And that separates us from the love of God. That makes us impure in the sight of God. It is the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ applied to us beginning in Baptism, with faith and grace, which makes us right with God. Because the saving waters of Baptism have their power from that blood and water which poured forth, which coursed from the pierced side of Jesus Christ on Calvary’s cross.
Pope John Paul II gives us a clue in this 57 catechesis how to understand the Theology of the Body, because it speaks to us not only about ourselves but about the God who made us, the God who has redeemed us in Christ, the God who calls us to be holy. If we want to understand the Theology of the Body we have to know, we have to recognize, we have to appreciate the link of purity with love and the link of the same purity in love with piety as a gift of the Holy Spirit. “This is a little-known guiding thread of the theology of the body.”
Pope John Paul II continued his 57th catechesis Man and Woman He Created Them a Theology of the Body by reminding us that purity has an organic link with love. This is not something manufactured. This is the way we are by nature. Pure in our intentions, pure in our desires, pure in our actions. We are to “say the truth in love.” We are to do the truth in love. It’s organic, it’s not an artificial bond these two have. Purity disposes man. Disposes us, to keep our own body “with holiness and reverence” and not only our own bodies but respecting those of others. This is the inspired teaching of Sacred Scripture which we read in St. Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians Chapter 4:3-5 Purity disposes us to keep our own bodies “with holiness and reverence.” And this is the way we show love for ourselves. This the way we show love for other people. This is the way we show love for God who has made us and has redeemed us in Christ, who laid down His pure body on the wood of the Cross for our salvation.
Pope John Paul II continues his 57th catechesis Man and Woman He Created Them a Theology of the Body by giving us two different prayers from sacred Scripture, from the Old Testament, from the wisdom tradition the books of Sirach and the book of Wisdom proper. He uses the Vulgate translation, the ancient Latin for the book of Wisdom. From the book of Sirach Chapter 23:4-6 the prayer Pope John Paul II presents took our attention, that we might grow in purity, that we might better appreciate our bodily-ness. It goes like this:
“Oh Lord, Father and God of my life. let neither sensuality, nor lust
overcome me and do not hand me over to shameful desires. Amen.”
That’s a beautiful prayer and it’s straight from Sacred Scripture. Sensuality and lust: we ask God to help us overcome them, to not let them overwhelm us. The same, regarding shameful desires. There are various sorts of shameful desires: lust among them, anti-chastity among them. But to want to be a bank robber, to want to abuse drugs, alcohol, or the like, these are shameful desires. To be a bearer of false tales, to be a slanderer, or a gossip, these are shameful desires. But it seems to me the inspired author of Sirach is trying to lead us down the road to purity by God’s grace, by God’s power working in us. May it be strong in us, in our society. We need to pray not only for our own renewal, for our own purity of heart, but that of our neighbors. That we might all be found pleasing in the sight of Almighty God. The Lord Jesus Christ who will return in glory to judge the living and the dead, that He might be pleased by our purity and not displeased by sensuality or lust or shameful desires in us.
The second prayer Pope John Paul II presents to us from Sacred Scripture comes from the book of Wisdom itself chapter 8:21. And again he using the ancient Vulgate translation here translated into English.
“I knew that I could only be continent if God granted it and
that this also was part of wisdom to know whose gift this was.”
We could say: ‘God give me the gift of wisdom. Let me appreciate and know your gift and with wisdom give me continence.’ “I knew I could only be continent if God granted it.” There is incontinence regarding our bladder control but there is another continence which has to do with abstaining from sexual gratification. The unmarried are to always be continent and as a way of regulating births within Holy Marriage there is a periodic continence even for those who are married. This teaching is echoed greatly in Pope Paul VI’s encyclical letter on the transmission of human life—Humanae Vitae.
Pope John Paul II’s concludes his 57th catechesis by reminding us that both eschatological and temporal perspectives and dimensions are present in St. Paul’s letter to Titus 1:15-16: “to the pure all things are pure but to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure.” May we be pure by God’s grace. May we not be defiled or unbelieving by being lustful people. Because if we are pure and holy by God’s grace in the here and now, in the temporal sphere, then our eternity, the eschatological sphere, will be very good. God wants us to live according to His grace in the here and now that we can enjoy the hereafter with Him and all the holy ones worshiping with our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies in the Holy Spirit. Until next time God bless you.