No, the humor is not lost on me. Non-Catholics may say: You taught a group of teens about not having sex on the day you celebrate the holiest sex ever. But Theology of the Body is 100x deeper than "not having sex" and the Immaculate Conception was much more than holy love-making.
It will take the entire TOB series to cover the depth and completeness of the Theology of the Body, so that's why I'm reporting our goings on here!
Nakedness without Shame
In the beginning, when Adam saw Eve, he experienced the most pure form of sexual desire ever felt. They had not eaten of the fruit of knowledge, so they were "naked without shame." If you can imagine this: shame and embarrassment didn't even exist because there was perfect Love. When Adam saw Eve's body (and vice versa), he saw and experienced his call to love her.
The first parents had no need to cover themselves because there was no fear of being seen as an object to be used.
Unlike today. Thank you, Britney Spears.
Pope John Paul II referred to this call to make a gift of themselves to each other the nuptial meaning of the body. In the physical design of their bodies, Adam and Eve saw that their bodies literally fit together and they saw that their Maker had created them for a sacred communion. They were gifts for one another and in being so, they were able to mirror God in a sacred, albeit relatively small, way.
In the second chapter of Genesis, we read:
"Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh...the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed." -Genesis 2:24-5
Marriage brings us as close to the original "nakedness without shame" as we can reach in any other capacity. Sex in the City would have you believe that having sex with as many people as possible removes your shame and makes you more comfortable with your body in that situation. Those ladies certainly act like they have no shame, as our colloquialisms would have us define, but they are corrupting the original purpose for making love.
As the first married people on Earth, Adam and Eve were able to love as God loves:
*Free- God's Love is given freely to us.
*Total- God's Love is complete and He gives all of Himself to us, withholding nothing.
*Faithful- God never abandons us and never stops loving us.
*Fruitful- God's love brings us life. Jesus died for us so that we could have new life. (Theology of the Body for Teens, pg 42)
A friend and co-teacher shared with us this triangle diagram -->
As a man and a woman work toward God, they're also getting closer to each other. If we seek God, we will also grow closer to each other, with the Love that growing close to God fosters. I love this visual because it is a superb reminder.
So, when Adam and Eve first recognized the God in one another, they were already toward the top of the pyramid. Later came the Fall. Adam and Eve allowed the serpent to tempt them into questioning the gift, as Pope John Paul II called it.
We don't have to wait until the next retreat to transcend worldly things and feel God's presence. Every time we review something in TOB or see something in our day that reminds me how great God is through the teachings of TOB, we can feel that overwhelming presence. Praise God!
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