TOB Intro Part II

I hope this week was a little easier to digest especially with all that small group time :) Next week we're talking about what the Church says about Homosexuality. Here's the info from last night!
(modified from Life Teen's "Off the Wall" night)

From last week’s talks, would you say that in this world sexuality is viewed as it should be?
No.

But our God is asking us, just like he asked Peter today, to have faith in Him. Have faith in his incredible plan for our sexuality so that we might marvel at the wonder he shows us when we do.

You, are the hope for this world. You, bearing God’s gifts, vision, and promise. Our generation has already started, there is a revival. Teens and young people are starting to wake up to the truth about their sexuality and are realizing that they shouldn’t settle for the lies about our sexuality.

We need to seek the truth about our sexuality and guard our hearts against the disordered messages we’re getting from everywhere. Oral sex, sex parties, petting, pornography…these are not okay. This is not what God had in mind when he designed you, body and soul. And the fruits of abortion, contraception, suicide, STDs, depression, and despair clearly show this. This is not the happiness God intended for you when he created sex.

I don’t know exactly where each one of you stands with your faith life, I wish I did but I’m not there yet as a youth minister, so let’s level the playing field and make sure we’re all on the same page. I hope and pray that all of you are rooted in the belief that the Catholic Church speaks the truth revealed by Christ, but in case some of you are unsure consider this point when listening tonight because everything that we’re talking about is rooted in scripture and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. So consider this…

Is it possible that a rational, intelligent person could accept the teachings of Christianity, and more specifically the Catholic Faith, as Truth? Yes... The world is full of rational, intelligent people who not only believe them to be true, but have been willing to give their lives for what they believe. So, it must at least be something worth investigating right? So please, keep an open mind while we’re talking about the Theology of the Body because for the next 5 life nights, we may be discussing things you’ve never heard and possibly disagree with. And with that….let’s get onto the truth about ourselves.

Beginning in 1979, about after a year of being Pope, John Paul II began a series of teachings at his weekly Wednesday public audiences about the human body and sexuality. These five weekly teachings lasted FIVE YEARS. This collection is now known as the Theology of the Body, and it is revolutionary and prophetic. John Paul II could see even in the late 70’s how broken our sexuality was starting to become with the “sexual revolution” and where we were heading if it did not change.

So let’s look at where we began. We’ve already discussed Genesis a lot. When God created us in his image and likeness, male and female he created us. So realize this, every bit of you, who you are, how you were made, what you look like, from your fingernails, your eyeballs, even down to your genitals, is made in the image and likeness of God. Our bodies image Him and the functions of our bodies mirror and reveal to us the mysteries of God and His love for us.

So undo the twisted ideas that say that the body is dirty, sinful, or unholy, or that your sexuality is unholy. The Catechism says “the flesh is the hinge of salvation”, but remember that is only true when “the flesh” is in line with the design of the creator. Our bodies are beautiful. We need our bodies for our faith. We believe in the WORD MADE FLESH who came to dwell among us and redeem the flesh. It is through your body that you sense and experience your faith. This is why we have sacraments, those outward and physical signs of inward grace being bestowed upon us by God. Holy water at baptism, sacred Chrism at baptism and confirmation, laying on of hands at confirmation and ordination, eating and drinking the Body and Blood of Christ at Mass, confessing your sins with your lips, anointing the sick, becoming one flesh in marriage; these are the sacraments, without your body you can’t receive them!
It is through our human flesh that we encounter the divine mystery.
To fully understand who we are and what we are we must understand in what image we are made and why.

Pope Benedict XVI has started off his Pontificate explaining it all for us, in his encyclical “God is Love”. God is a union of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God the Father is the lover, Jesus his only Son is the Beloved, and this love is so true and consuming that it is the blessed third person of the Trinity the Holy Spirit. When man and woman come together in a nuptial union, it images the trinity. This image is stamped in our bodies. So we are called also to reflect the love of God and love as he loves.

God loves us in many ways and these types of love are described by the scriptures and in much more detail in Pope Benedict’s encyclical. Some of the loves in the Bible describe God’s love as
-The love of an artist for his work.
-The love of a father for his son or daughter.
But the most used metaphor in scripture to describe how God loves us is that of the love between a Man and a Woman. The Bridegroom for his Bride. Our Church is called the eternal Bride of Christ and heaven is called the Eternal Wedding Feast.

Ephesians 5

Men your calling is to love your wives and all women as Christ loves the Church.

Women your calling is to allow yourselves to be loved as Christ loves you.

Submissive = under the mission

Suboordinate = under the order

Therefore....we are to be under the mission of men loving us as Christ loves us ladies. And men you are called to the difficult mission of loving as Christ loves. Corinthians 13 tells us....

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, is not pompous, it is not inflated,
it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails.

Don't settle for anything less, Christ wouldn't want you to.

Neat video.