Driving the Nails

I’ve been driving the nails firmly in your tree You’ve been talking to your Father on behalf of me Nothing at these check points I care to defend So why do I raise the hammer up and drive the nails again? + Bill Mallonee/Vigilantes of Love, “Driving the Nails” (1995)

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The Meaning of Life Is Inscribed in Our Bodies

Anyone looking for the meaning of life has nowhere else to go. It is revealed in everyone’s body—in masculinity and femininity. There lies the answer to the universal question: “What does it mean to be human?” There we find the law of the gift inscribed in our humanity. This is why misunderstanding and misuse of [...]

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We Are not Purely Spiritual (C.S. Lewis)

There is no good trying to be more spiritual than God. God never meant man to be a purely spiritual creature. That is why He uses material things like bread and wine to put the new life into us. We may think this rather crude and unspiritual. God does not: He invented eating. He likes [...]

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Theology of the Body: The Call to Be Fruitful

Deeply imbedded in the truth of anthropology and ethics is man and woman’s call to “be fruitful and multiply.” This original divine blessing corresponds with their creation in God’s image. As the prologue noted, the capacity to “pro-create” (not as a response to biological instinct but by the free choice proper to persons) enables them [...]

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The Gospel of the Body

Christ—the theological Word made flesh—is the link between the human person and the ultimate reality. Christ himself is ultimate reality. In his body “given up for us,” we come to see the ultimate meaning of our own bodies revealed. In this way, “Christ fully reveals man to himself.” + Christopher West, Theology of the Body [...]

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Created in Freedom or Slave to Concupiscence

Man is a subject because he is free to determine his own actions. He is not bound by instinct like an animal. If he feels that he is, then he does not experience the truth of his own humanity, but the domination of concupiscence that greatly diminishes the truth of his humanity. + Christopher West, [...]

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Theology of the Body: Hope in Resurrection

Christ’s resurrection is a reality “ingrafted” in our humanity. Even though our bodies are sown “in weakness” and are “perishable,” we bear in ourselves at the same time, “the interior desire for glory.” God put it there “in the beginning”—not to frustrate us by dashing our hopes, but to lead us to fulfillment in him. [...]

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The Eschatological Experience of Eternal Communion

From the beginning man was created to be a “partner of the Absolute.” He was called to enter a covenant with God—a relationship of eternal communion analogous to the union of spouses. Man broke the original covenant with God by eating from the forbidden tree. Yet God’s gift of himself to man is irreversible. Christ’s [...]

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Theology of the Body & The Ethos of Redemption

Here are some summary reflections from the portion of Christopher West’s Theology of the Body Explained dealing with “Historical Man”: Christ’s words, which equate “looking lustfully” with “committing adultery in the heart,” announce the ”ethos of redemption”. Fulfilling the law cannot be equated only with meeting the law’s demands. It involves a super-abounding justice in [...]

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Theology of the Body – The Task Given to Us

The Creator has assigned the body and the gift of sexuality to man as a task. It is the task of discovering the truth of our humanity and the dignity of the person. It is the task of embracing our redemption and growing in purity so that we can fulfill ourselves and bring joy to [...]

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