THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT OUR BODY

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

THEOLOGY is, of course, still a toxin, a foreign body in the minds of most people, including our leaders in the different fields like business, media and politics, even if they profess to be quite religious and have no qualms showing it off.

This is sad, simply because if we realize that we are not just purely material beings, nor simply rational, but that we are also actually spiritual beings with a supernatural goal, then there is no doubt that we need to be guided by faith, that we actually have to do theology in our daily affairs.

It can be granted that many people know this truth in theory. It’s however a very different story in practice. Many are not guided by faith. They simply rely on reason at best, if not, by other lower human faculties and powers, like feelings, emotions, passions, gut feel, etc.

The common phenomenon is that many still cannot make their faith abidingly functional, even if in theory they profess it. There is still no unity of life, no consistency between faith, reason and the other human powers. Many still do not know how to get their act together.

This is one of the big challenges of our time. We have to find ways to overcome the awkwardness, the inability to exercise our faith or to do theology in our human affairs. We have to find ways to neutralize and dominate the antibodies that seem to render us immune and insensitive to the practical consequences of faith.

Pursuing this goal obviously involves a process, a going through of several stages. This is part of our human condition, even if faith, being a supernatural gift, can transcend the usual human requirements. We need to study, but first, we need to have that faith put in human terms also for us to be able to study and hopefully assimilate it.

That is why it is good news that the late Pope, now Blessed, John Paul II developed the theology of the body to give us a clear idea and guideline about a subject that is often taken for granted or considered not as important as studying the dynamics of our spiritual life. This is a new frontier that many of us still have to cross.

Here lies not only the astounding novelty but also the true significance of this part of theology. The theology of the body recovers the original value and role played by our body, and everything else material and earthly, in our life. A quick look at our human history clearly shows how the truth about our body has been awfully distorted.

This theology of the body makes us see that our flesh is organically linked to our spiritual and supernatural character of our life. While distinct, it cannot be separated from our integral human nature and condition, from our beginning and end, and from the plan and purpose God our Father and Creator has for us.

It is mainly based on the undeniable truth that our body also has been created by God, and when it turned sinful, it has been redeemed by no less than God’s Son and Word becoming flesh.

This theology would certainly deepen and broaden our understanding of our life, and would make us more sensitive to the duties and responsibilities we have toward our body. We have so far been neglectful or ignorant of this part of our responsibilities, and of course, we suffer the consequences.

We cannot deny that even among many good people—those who exert great effort to follow Christ—severe problems and difficulties have been gripping them in their concern to rein in the often erring workings of their own flesh.

This sad phenomenon is often made worse because it is a subject that many people find hard to talk about. And so it tends to fester. Many people nowadays, once they know about this theology of the body, welcome it as a true gift from God that was articulated well by Blessed John Paul II.

We should try our best to spread this Good News about our body as widely as possible. We can take advantage of our new technologies to do this. This task, to me, is quite urgent, if only to redress a persevering, if quiet, crisis we are suffering in the whole world.

It’s good to know that powerful institutes have been put up mainly in the States and are precisely preaching this Gospel. We need to have some of these institutes in our country too!