Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World had it right:
“I see friends shaking hands, saying, ‘How do you do?’
They’re really saying, ‘I love you.’”
This is one of the fundamental ideas in the Theology of the Body: the visible reveals the invisible. Friends shaking hands reveals love.
Our bodies, therefore, have a unique dignity. As Pope John Paul II says, “The body, in fact, and it alone is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine.” (TOB 19:4)
In other words, our bodies are not all that we are, as materialists believe. Nor are they merely vehicles for what’s really important—our souls—as some aberrant forms of Christianity have claimed. Our bodies are the visible manifestation of an invisible reality. We are both visible and invisible.
Recognizing the truth of the Theology of the Body can open our lives to far greater joy and wonder. So, let’s shake our friend’s hand and express our love for him. Let’s look into our neighbor’s eyes and recognize that he has a soul of infinite dignity. Let’s enjoy this wonderful world God has created, giving thanks, as Armstrong does, for the “bright blessed days, the dark sacred nights,” and let’s see in this visible world the invisible goodness of its Creator.
Matthew Turner is a Content Creator at TOBET. He earned his Master of Theological Studies specializing in Sacred Scripture at Boston College.
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