Gift and Communion: John Paul II's Theology of the Body

Foreword by Carl A. Anderson

ix Foreword Carl A. Anderson Speaking in 1978 of the newly elected John Paul I, Cardinal Karol Wojtyła once described the pope’s role in post–Vatican II society as shouldering “the cross of contemporary man”—taking up and addressing the dangers, the wrongs that “can be righted only through justice and love.”1 Unknown to him at the time, he was describing the very task that would be laid upon his own shoulders less than a month later when he would be elected to the papacy and would declare “Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors to Christ.”2 Today, millions cherish John Paul II’s invitation to courage and truth. As much as this was an invitation to individuals, as his pontificate progressed it became clear that for him this was an invitation to families and even to entire cultures as well. Paul VI once wrote in Evangelii nuntiandi, “The split between the Gospel and culture is without doubt the drama of our time.”3 John Paul II made this drama a central focus of his pontificate, encouraging the introduction of the Gospel into cultures where the message of Christ was 1. Karol Wojtyła, “Sermon at Mogila for the Triumph of the Cross: September 16, 1978,” in Adam Boniecki, The Making of the Pope of the Millennium: Kalendarium of the Life of Karol Wojtyła (Stockbridge, Mass.: Marian Press, 2000), 830-831. 2. John Paul II, “Homily for the Inauguration of the Pontificate: October 22, 1978.” The text of the homilies of John Paul II as well as of all documents of the Catholic Church (unless otherwise noted) come from the official Vatican website: www.vatican.va. 3. Paul VI, Evangelii nuntiandi, 20. x Foreword unknown, and introducing it anew where it is now ignored or rejected . As he said in the United States, “The Gospel of Jesus Christ is at home in every people. It enriches, uplifts and purifies every culture .”4 It is a transformative gift, which those who have received it cannot withhold from others. For John Paul II, the evangelization of contemporary culture depends upon witness and especially the witness of the Christian family, which he perceived to be the principal place of encounter between the Gospel and culture. Unfortunately, perhaps nowhere was the dichotomy of Gospel and culture more obvious, more imperative , for him than in the area of marriage and family life. And as marriage and family life are themselves dichotomized within secular culture, even pitted against each other and against the freedom of each person by contemporary notions of autonomy and association, the health of our contemporary culture may ultimately depend upon the ability of Christian families to witness in their own lives to the reality of their unique vocation. This evangelization and renewing witness are possible; but for this, John Paul II maintained, married couples require an “adequate awareness of the individual Christian’s vocation” as well as great “spiritual maturity.”5 Even as he was writing these words of his first encyclical, Redemptor hominis, he had already begun providing such a foundation in his general audiences. Beginning with the subject of man being made in the image of God and later exploring the Christian’s vocation with the focus of the married couple , he gave us what is now known as the Wednesday Catecheses on the Theology of the Body. As John Paul II said in 1999, “The truth is that the sexual configuration of bodiliness is an integral part of God’s original plan, in which man and woman are created in the image and likeness of God and are called to enact a faithful 4. John Paul II, “Address to the Native Peoples of the Americas: September 14, 1987.” 5. John Paul II, RH, 21. Foreword xi and free, indissoluble and fruitful communion that is a reflection of the richness of Trinitarian love.”6 The way in which John Paul II introduces this theological approach alone suggests his concern to overcome the split of Gospel and culture identified by Paul VI, as the Wednesday catecheses examine the Gospel message with insights gained from contemporary philosophy and psychology infused with his own dramatic sense of life and faith. In his Wednesday catecheses, John Paul II presents some of the most familiar passages of sacred scripture with a freshness that makes one think of what it must have been like for the early Greek...