Over-sexualizing Theology of the Body: the mystery of human and divine love can get lost

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Bishop Jean Laffitte says the mystery of human and divine love can get lost.

The secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Family said an overemphasis of the sexual aspect of the theology of the body runs the risk of eliminating the depth and “mystery” involved in human and divine love.

Bishop Jean Laffitte said in an Aug. 3 interview, “The problem is: If you focus only on sexuality, you can’t develop beyond that, and you don’t see that this beauty is a gift given by the Creator, but in a much wider context.”

The bishop, in Denver for the Knights of Columbus’ annual convention, said when interpreting Blessed Pope John Paul II’s teachings, it is essential to first understand God’s design in creating man and woman.

Bishop Laffitte said that although it’s normal to be attracted to “the beauty of sexuality and the beauty of the human body,” he doesn’t agree with emphasizing “the sexual phenomenon” without giving the whole perspective of “the mystery of creation and the mystery of God’s calling on human love,” as taught by John Paul II.

He recalled that when God created Adam and Eve from nothing he could have used the same method to create every other person in human history. Yet, instead, God enabled man and woman through their sexuality to participate in creating human life themselves.

‘Mystery of Sexuality’

“The Creator wanted the human being to be his own mediator in the action of creation — that’s extraordinary,” he noted. “From that moment, in his providential intention, the man and woman he created would be the mediators through which he would continue to give life.”

“That’s the mystery of sexuality,” Bishop Laffitte added, “the expression of divine and human love, which is integrated and interpenetrated.”

“It’s impossible,” then, “to isolate sexuality” from this integration and “to isolate the body from this mystery,” since this would ultimately “isolate the creature from the Creator,” he said.

Bishop Laffitte said that the mystery of sex encompasses “not only the unity of the bodies,” but a unity of bodies that “are animated by God and which express a spiritual love.”

“When Pope John Paul II talks about the body, we have to understand this,” he said.

The pontifical secretary also said that the term “theology of the body” is, in fact, an English translation of what is originally called “The Catecheses on Human Love.”

Although the English term is “not incorrect,” he said, it doesn’t necessarily portray “the entirety of the catecheses.” Theology of the body “is not a wrong expression, on the condition that we see the intention of John Paul II,” Bishop Laffitte said.

“He was talking about human love and not only the partial focus we could have only on the body and on sexuality — which is ultimately a bodily expression of love.”

“Certainly the body has a theological dimension, but this dimension is given by God’s design on human love and what, in the nature of man and woman, belongs to the fulfillment of the design.”

Narrowed Vision

Although Bishop Laffitte, former vice president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, praised the intent behind popularizing John Paul II’s teachings on human sexuality, he underscored the “risk” of transmitting an overly narrow approach. He stressed that in today’s world, human love and sexuality have been “disfigured” and Church teachings on the subject need to be spread as a means of evangelization, accessible to all people.

In response to those who say the philosophical and anthropological topics involved in the late Pope’s teachings are too complex for the average person, the bishop suggested that anyone “of good faith can always be sensitive to mystery.”

“Even when a person cannot read and write, when he falls in love with someone, he enters into an extraordinary mystery,” the bishop said.

Regardless of a person’s level of intellectual knowledge, he “has the same experience” when he falls in love as even the most educated person.

Bishop Laffitte also cautioned against taking a casual or “vulgar” approach to discussing human sexuality in the context of Church teachings.

“Man and woman have sinned,” he explained, “and in our bodies, we bear the consequences of this wound in our nature.”
He said it’s ultimately “unrealistic” to think that we can discuss or treat the issue of human sexuality in a casual or indifferent way, ignoring the reality of sin.

He concluded, “There is a dignity” and a “respectful expression of love and design.” National Catholic Register