When I first began my conversion, I thought that the greatest thing I could do for Christ was to evangelize by speaking the truth to others. I was wrong.
Don’t get me wrong. Speaking this truth with words is extremely important. How can people know about truth unless it is proclaimed to them? It’s literally my job with TOBET to tell people about Jesus and the Theology of the Body. The entire Church needs to speak of Jesus’s love and mercy and truth.
But even more than the language of words—we need to proclaim the truth with the language of our bodies, to borrow St. John Paul’s term in TOB. Eighty percent of all bodily communication is non-verbal. That means that most of what we communicate to others is with our bodies (not merely our lips), whether we like it or not.
Jesus Himself spent only three years of his entire life in proclaiming the Good News with the language of His words (that’s less than 10% of his historical life). And much of that included miracles, obvious proclamations of bodily actions.
Before His three years of outward evangelization, how did he evangelize?
Although not explicitly Scripture, we can imagine Jesus—whether as a child, teen, or young adult—evangelized not mostly through the language of words but mostly with the language of the body. He, the Word made flesh (Jn. 1:2), evangelized with His Sacred Body. Surely, He communicated respect, reverence, and honor to those around him. Before He ever spoke about the dignity of mankind, He reverenced those around Him with His body. He showed compassion and mercy to the brokenhearted. This was how He “grew in favor with men” (Luke 2:25)—because He reverenced those around Him as being creatures made in the image of the Blessed Trinity. He saw their bodies and responded to their goodness with His own body.
For instance, when Jesus was in the temple “listening to the teachers and asking them questions” (Luke 2:46). You can imagine Jesus reverencing the authority of these teachers both with his questions as well as with his bodily posture.
Then, when Mary and Joseph show up, He says just a bit with the language of His words: “Don’t you know I need to be in my Father’s house?” (Lk. 2: 50). After that, the language of His body spoke much more loudly: “Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them” (Luke 2:51). One can imagine the bow of his head to his father and his mother as he said, “Yes, Abba. Yes, Imma.”
No wonder people followed Him. It wasn’t because Jesus only spoke things that are true. We might say it’s how His body “spoke” things that are true. I have seen people yelling Bible verses on the street with anger in their voices. While I might applaud that boldness and realize we need similar boldness, nevertheless, the body speaks a language of truth much more impactfully with a display of compassion, respect, and understanding. Without this, our words become empty and meaningless—or worse, filled with unjust anger.
No wonder people followed Him. It wasn’t because Jesus only spoke things that are true. We might say it’s how His body “spoke” things that are true. I have seen people yelling Bible verses on the street with anger in their voices. While I might applaud that boldness and realize we need similar boldness, nevertheless, the body speaks a language of truth much more impactfully with a display of compassion, respect, and understanding. Without this, our words become empty and meaningless—or worse, filled with unjust anger.
I’ll never forget a particular time when I went to the Sacrament of Confession. The priest communicated the reason for my sin with his words, but with the language of his body, especially through his tone, he communicated God’s love. I heard with my ear, “Every sin is an offense against God,” but with my heart I heard, “God loves you so much.” Undoubtedly, I encountered Jesus through the bodily actions of the priest.
It was a beautiful experience that I hope to imitate to convict others of sin and communicate with my bodily actions that God loves them How does your body proclaim the truth of the Gospel?
Gabriel Milano has his Master’s degree in Theology in Marriage and Family at the John Paul II Institute and is a content creator and speaker for TOBET. He also writes fantasy novels for children and young adults, under the pen name G. M. Dantes.
