Pope Saint John Paul II
October 22, 2025 Pope St. John Paul’s Feast Day
Tomorrow, on the Feast day of our beloved Pope St. John Paul II, we at TOBET continue to trust in his intercession for the Church and for the first organization (TOBET!) established to promulgate the Theology of the Body (TOB), especially geared toward families, children, and youth.
TOB is an overarching Christian anthropology that underscores that we as humans are all gifts (we are made to love), emphasizing our embodiment. We know that we are human because of our human bodies. Boys know they are male because of their male bodies (“boy body” for little ones) and girls because of their female bodies (“girl body”). We know when we are hungry, thirsty, tired, sick because our bodies tell us so; the body is like a good teacher. And the most important lesson it can teach us is: the body matters.
Once children “own” that truth, we can then build on that in recognizing that our bodies are directed toward each other—we are made to be gifts, to love. We hug parents with our arms, take the cup off the table with our hands, paint a picture with our fingers. Thus, we are gifts to others in our embodiment. The body matters.
I gave that simple phrase, “the body matters,” at a recent parent talk. They loved how they could use this phrase immediately in helping their children toward seeing their own embodiment as good. We are all embodied spirits, or ensouled bodies. “The body matters” is simple yet profound, leading children (and ourselves) to a sacramental view of reality. This is why no sacrament is possible without the body – because sacramentally, the body matters.
Pope St. John Paul could see us moving away from the truth of the body—away from the truth that the body matters. He saw us moving toward objectifying the body, whether in concentration camps or nuclear arms proliferation, in the desacralization of atheistic philosophies or in the sexual revolution.
And what was JPII’s solution? The Gospel of the “Word made Flesh” (John 1:14). Focusing on our embodiment does not lead us away from the soul, or God…because matter matters! The physical leads us to Jesus Christ and His Body the Church.
Happy Feast of Pope St. John Paul, who proclaimed that the body matters!
Teach your children this important teaching with The Body Matters books series!
Monica Ashour is co-founder, international speaker, author of 28 books, and President of TOBET.
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