Exactly 50 years ago, on December 8, 1974, sitting with the Blessed Sacrament, Karol Wojtyla wrote, “O, Maria, thou art beautiful.” Thus began The Theology of the Body. As many of you know, Karol Wojtyla would go on to become Pope Saint John Paul II and lead the Catholic Church from 1978 to 2005. But so what? There have been a lot of popes haven’t there? What’s so special about this one?
Pope John Paul took a stand against the revolutionary ideas that oppose human nature. Since the Enlightenment, new ideas have sprung forth to challenge how we see ourselves as human beings and how we see our relationship to God. We have become more and more accustomed to a worldview that separates the physical from the spiritual. By the late Twentieth Century, Pope John Paul would say, “man no longer identifies himself… with his own body, because it is deprived of the meaning and dignity that stems from the fact that the body is proper to the person.” (TOB 59:3). He wanted to warn us against seeing our bodies and the bodies of others as objects to be used and discarded. Few people could understand this as deeply as someone who had experienced the reign of Nazism and Communism. He saw how these disembodied ideologies brought disaster upon his home. Through his work, Pope John Paul wanted us to rediscover the beauty and dignity of the body and by extension ourselves. This rediscovery of ourselves would in turn lead to a rediscovery of the very meaning of our lives.
That’s all very high minded and philosophical, but it has real effects on our day-to-day lives. What we believe dictates how we live, and Pope John Paul understood that very clearly. A person who does not know the body matters will not think twice about using someone else’s body for pleasure, work, or money without even knowing their name. A person who does not know the body matters will not see the need to take care of one’s own body or to accept one’s body as God created it. A person who does not know the body matters will not understand why the Church teaches that contraception, homosexuality,and transgenderism harm the human person. Pope John Paul was trying to show us how to seek God and love each other every day in our disembodied modern culture. This message has inspired many.
Exactly 23 years ago, on December 8, 2001, a group of inspired young adults formed an organization dedicated to the proliferation of Pope John Paul’s message. Thus began TOBET. We hope his message inspires you as much as it has inspired us.
Chris Tarantino is the Communications Director for TOBET. He studied History at The University at Texas A&M and has written for the Tennessee Register and Nashville Catholic.
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