What I learned in lesson three:
A human person is not just a body or a soul – A person is a body-soul, united together to form a unique person. Our bodies cannot survive without our souls. When the body separates from the soul, in fact, we call this death.
We do not get our value from how beautiful, or talented or capable our bodies are. The human body is sacred because “in its union with the soul, the human person is made known.” (Theology of the Body for Teens, Ascension Press, 2011) The visible body makes known the truth of the invisible soul. It’s kind of like the way that a stained glass window only shows a beautiful picture when sunlight is shining through it.
Original Sin distorted that beautiful image, or took away the light behind the window. Through the Incarnation, God becoming man, He healed our brokenness, and offered us another way. In this act, God made visible His divine love through the actions of His visible human body. When he stretched out His arms on the cross and died for us, the language of His body said, “I love you completely.”
Through the Incarnation, becoming that tiny baby in the manger, and growing up within the Holy Family, Jesus shows us how to be fully human. He lived with many of the emotions and struggles we face, and He did it without sin. The bottom line – He loved perfectly. The more we know and love Jesus, the more fully human we become.
