Theology of the Body remains a 'sacred gift'

Pope John Paul II: 'Man cannot live without love'

A painting of the late Blessed Pope John Paul II in Santo Spirito in Sassia (Holy Spirit in Saxony), a 12th-century Roman  church. Father Alan Bosclair writes that the truth of our humanity, revealed by Christ as "very good," gives a sense of wonder.

(Alistair Burns / The B.C. Catholic)

Father Alan Boisclair of the Archdiocese of Vancouver's Formation Services Office wrote an article on the importance of the Theology of the Body published in the April 22 issue of The B.C. Catholic:

In Genesis, before sin, before we needed a Redeemer, our dignity was for Adam and Eve, through their "two-in-one-flesh union" to make visible in their bodies, "the sincere gift of self and communion of Persons" within the Trinity. 

We were the primordial sacrament, where human flesh, as sacred sign, efficaciously gave and received the fullness of God (grace) to one another. 

This truth, that modern humanity longs for, whose meaning and purpose are missing without it, is explained in Pope John Paul II's encyclical letter, Redemptor Hominis, The Redeemer of Man: "Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself. His life is senseless if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience love and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately."