Ecstatic Morality and Sexual Politics: A Catholic and Antitotalitarian Theory of the Body

Chapter 5: The Body as Cross

Chapter Five THE BODY AS CROSS Non evacuata sit crux: And not to preach in terms of philosophy in which the crucifixion of Christ cannot be expressed. —I Cor. , 1 Et ideo amans quodammodo penetrat in amatum, et secundum hoc amor dicitur acutus . . . Et similiter amatum penetrat amantem . . . Et propter hoc dicitur quod amor vulnerat, et quod transfigit jecur. —Sent. III, d. , q. , a. , ad  In previous chapters, Thomas’s conception of the other-directedness of desire has been described. I have shown that this conception allows Thomas to build a philosophical anthropology in which the desires of the human can be placed in a moral hierarchy. That is, we saw how the metaphysical concerns of the Summa contra gentiles (III, c. , para. –) track Thomas’s natural law theory. Summa contra gentiles (III, c. , para. –) describes a four-part movement of human desire. It is clear from these paragraphs that human desire is naturally otherdirected —and in an increasing manner—as one moves through this fourfold hierarchy. As was seen in the previous chapter, this four-part movement of desire also parallels the movement of desire and the goods to be pursued in Thomas’s discussion of the precepts of the natural law (ST I–II, q. , a. ). The natural law of the body, rooted as it is in divine law, the expression of God’s wisdom and love (VS, para.  & ), is directed toward an increasing ecstasy in imitation of God’s own nature (divinus amor facit extasim inquantum scilicet facit PAGE 74  ................. 11244$ $CH5 03-18-05 08:28:01 PS The Body as Cross  appetitum hominis tendere in res amatas [ST II–II, q. , a. ]). The dynamic precepts of the natural law make the human body ecstatic, satisfying psuedo-Dionysius’s dictum bonum diffusivum sui est: the dynamic precepts of the moral law, says John Paul II, ‘‘safeguard the good of the person, the image of God’’ (VS, para. ). As Thomas’s argument unfolds in this chapter it will become more and more apparent that the normative structure of the human body, its appetites and those of the whole person, is Christ’s wounded body on the Cross. That is, in this chapter, I will argue that Thomistic natural law is Christological. Human nature has two possibilities: either sensuality is obedient to reason and the person lives ecstatically in service of the other, or sensuality is unresponsive to reason and the person is reduced to selfconcern . I now want to show that the first possibility relies upon Thomas’s notion that love involves a wounding of the lover. This notion is at the very foundation of Thomas’s thoughts about a lover whose body is truly taken up in an act of love, a lover whose sensuality is lived ecstatically. The wound allows the other into one’s body in a manner wholly different from the non-ecstatic body. In chapter , we saw that the other is converted into the nonecstatic ‘‘lover’’ after the fashion of nutrition, a fundamental transformation of the other into the particularity of the ‘‘lover’s’’ own body. Thus the appropriateness of Thomas’s account of amor concupiscentiae as an inordinate desire to reach into the innermost and secret (ad intima) being of the one ‘‘loved’’ but only so as to use the good of that person to promote one’s own good. With the liquefaction of the body, however, the other literally lives in the wound, the space opened up in the lover’s flesh for the one loved. It is not without significance that there is a remarkable use of the same imagery in Father Malebranche’s  Treatise on Ethics . Bizarrely, however, here the woundedness of the body is a consequence of immorality and the goal of moral life is to seal the wounds. The full significance of this departure from Thomas will be explored in the next chapter. The model in Thomas’s mind for the wounded body is the wounded body of the Cross (ST I–II, q. , a. ). The love of Christ is to be seen in the blood and water leaving His body: the love that wounds usque ad sanguinem. Again, it is worth recalling MerleauPAGE 75 ................. 11244$ $CH5 03-18-05 08:28:01 PS  Ecstatic Morality and Sexual Politics Ponty. He gave us the image of the handshake, but Thomas surely has in mind the figure of Doubting Thomas being invited to insert his...