Theology of the Body by Pope John Paul II

GENERAL AUDIENCE: 17 DECEMBER, 1980
Justification in Christ

 On Wednesday, 17 December, the Holy Father gave the following talk in the course of the weekly audience in the Paul VI Hall.

 "The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh." Today we wish to study further these words of St. Paul in the letter to the Galatians (5:17), with which we ended our reflections last week on the subject of the correct meaning of purity. Paul has in mind the tension existing within man, precisely in his "heart". It is not a question here only of the body (matter) and of the spirit (the soul), as of two essentially different anthropological elements which constitute from the "beginning" the very essence of man. But that disposition of forces formed in man with original sin, in which every "historical" man participates, is presupposed. Jn this disposition, formed within man, the body opposes the spirit and easily prevails over it (1). The Pauline terminology, however, means something more: here the prevalence of the "flesh" seems almost to coincide with what, according to Johannine terminology, is the threefold lust "of the world". The "flesh," in the language of St. Paul's letters (2), indicates not only the "exterior" man, but also the man who is "interiorly" subjected to the "world" (3), closed, in a way, in the area of those values that belong only to the world and of those ends that it is capable of imposing on man: values, therefore, to which man as "flesh" is sensitive. Thus Paul's language seems to link up with the essential contents of John, and the language of both denotes what is defined by various terms of modern ethics and anthropology, such as, for example "humanistic autarky," "secularism" or also, in a general sense, "sensualism." The man who lives "according to the flesh" is the man ready only for what is "of the world": he is the man of the "senses", the man of the threefold lust. His actions confirm this, as we shall say shortly.
What the Spirit wants

 2. This man lives almost at the opposite pole as compared with what "the Spirit wants." The Spirit of God wants a different reality from the one desired by the flesh; he aspires to a different reality from the one to which the flesh aspires, and that already within man, already at the interior source of man's aspirations and actions - "to prevent you from doing what you would" (Gal 5:17).

 Paul expresses that in an even more explicit way, writing elsewhere of the evil he does, though he does not want to do so, and of the impossibility - or rather the limited possibility - of carrying out the good he "wants" (cf. Rom 7:19). Without going into the problems of a detailed exegesis of this text, it could be said that the tension between the "flesh" and the "spirit" is, first, immanent, even if it is not reduced to this level. It is manifested in his heart as a "fight" between good and evil. That desire, of which Christ speaks in the Sermon on the Mount (cf. Mt 5:27-28), although it is an "interior" act, is certainly-according to Pauline language-a manifestation of life "according to the flesh." At the same time, that desire enables us to see how, within man, life "according to the flesh" is opposed to life "according to the Spirit," and how the latter, in man's present state, in view of his hereditary sinfulness, is constantly exposed to the weakness and insufficiency of the former, to which it often yields, if it is not strengthened interiorly to do precisely what "the Spirit wants." We can deduce from this that Paul's words, which deal with life "according to the flesh" and "according to the Spirit," are at the same time a synthesis and a program; and it is necessary to understand them in this key.
St. Paul explains this opposition

 3. We find the same opposition of life "according to the flesh" and life "according to the Spirit" in the Letter to the Romans. Here too (as moreover in the Letter to the Galatians) it is placed in the context of Pauline doctrine on justification by means of faith, that is, by means of the power of Christ himself operating within man by means of the Holy Spirit. In this context Paul takes that opposition to its extreme consequences when he writes: "Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law, indeed it cannot; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Any one who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although your bodies are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness" (Rom 8:5-10).
Final victory over sin and death

 4. The horizons that Paul delineates in this text can clearly be seen: he goes back to the "beginning" - that is, in this case, to the first sin from which life "according to the flesh" originated and which created in man the heritage of a predisposition to live only such a life, together with the legacy of death. At the same time Paul anticipates the final victory over sin and over death, of which the resurrection of Christ is a sign and announcement: "He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you" (Rom 8:11). And in this eschatological perspective, St. Paul stresses justification in Christ, already intended for "historical" man, for every man of "yesterday, today and tomorrow" in the history of the world and also in the history of salvation: a justification which is essential for interior man, and is destined precisely for that "heart" to which Christ appealed, when speaking of "purity" and "impurity" in the moral sense. This "justification" by faith is not just a dimension of the divine plan of man's salvation and sanctification, but is, according to St. Paul, a real power that operates in man and is revealed and asserts itself in his actions.
Works of the flesh

 5. Here again are the words of the Letter to the Galatians: "Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like . . ." (5:19-21). "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control . . ." (5:22-23). In the Pauline doctrine, life "according to the flesh" is opposed to life "according to the Spirit" not only within man, in his "heart," but, as can be seen, it finds an ample and differentiated field to express itself in works. Paul speaks, on the one hand, of the "works" which spring from the "flesh"-it could be said: from the works in which the man who lives a according to the flesh" is manifested-and, on the other hand, he speaks of the "fruit of the Spirit," that is of the actions (4), of the ways of behaving, of the virtues, in which the man who lives a according to the Spirit" is manifested. While in the first case we are dealing with man abandoned to the threefold lust, of which John says that it is "of the world", in the second case we have before us what we have already previously called the ethos of Redemption. Only now are we able to clarify fully the nature and structure of that ethos. It is expressed and affirmed through what in man, in all his "operating", in actions and in behavior, is the fruit of dominion over threefold lust: of the flesh, of the eyes, and of the pride of life (of all that the human heart can rightly be "accused" of, and of which man and his interiority can continually be "suspected").
Fruit of the Spirit

 6. If mastery in the sphere of ethos is manifested and realized as "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control " - as we read in the Letter to the Galatians - then behind each of these realizations, these ways of behaving, these moral virtues, there is a specific choice, that is, an effort of the will, the fruit of the human spirit permeated by the Spirit of God, which is manifested in choosing good. Speaking with the language of Paul: "The desires of the Spirit are against the flesh" (Gal 5:17) and in these "desires" the Spirit shows himself to be stronger than the "flesh" and the desires brought forth by threefold lust. In this struggle between good and evil, man proves himself stronger, thanks to the power of the Holy Spirit, who, operating within man's spirit, causes his desires to bear fruit in good. These, therefore, are not only - and not so much - "works" of man, as "fruit", that is, the effect of the action of the "Spirit" in man. And therefore Paul speaks of the fruit of the "Spirit," intending this word with a capital letter.

 Without penetrating into the structures of human interiority by means of the subtle differentiations furnished to us by systematic theology (especially from Thomas Aquinas), we limit ourselves to a summary exposition of the biblical doctrine, which enables us to understand, in an essential and sufficient way, the distinction and the opposition of the "flesh" and the "Spirit."

 We have pointed out that among the fruits of the Spirit, the Apostle also puts "self-control." This must not be forgotten, because in our further reflections we will take up this subject again to deal with it in a more detailed way.
GENERAL AUDIENCE: 7 JANUARY, 1981
Opposition between the flesh and the Spirit

 On Wednesday, 7 January, the Holy Father resumed his weekly audiences which had been suspended because of she Christmas holidays. Continuing his catechesis on the Christian concept of the world, John Paul II delivered the following message.

 Dearest Brothers in the Episcopate, in the Priesthood, Brothers and Sisters in Religious Life, and all you dearest brothers and sisters:

 After the pause due to the recent feasts we resume today our Wednesday meetings. We still carry in our hearts the serene joy of the mystery of Christ's birth which the Church's liturgy in this period had led us to celebrate and put into effect in our lives. Jesus of Nazareth, the Child cradled in the manger of Bethlehem, is the Eternal Word of God who became Incarnate for love of man (Jn 1:14). This is the great truth to which the Christian adheres with profound faith. With the faith of Mary most holy, who, in the glory of her intact virginity conceived and brought forth the Son of God made man. With the faith of St. Joseph who guarded and protected him with immense dedication of love. With the faith of the shepherds who hastened immediately to the cave of the Nativity. With the faith of the Magi who glimpsed him in the sign of the star, and who, after a long search, were able to contemplate and adore him in the arms of the Virgin Mary.

 May the new year be lived by all under the sign of this great interior joy, the fruit of the certainty that God has so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son, that he who believes in him should not die but should have eternal life.

 That is the wish which I address to all of you present at this first General Audience of 1981, and to all your dear ones.
Pauline theology of justification

 1. What does the statement mean: "The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh"? (Gal 5:17). This question seems important, even fundamental, in the context of our reflections on purity of heart, of which the Gospel speaks. However, the author of the Letter to the Galatians opens up before us, in this regard, even wider horizons. In this contrast between the "flesh" and the Spirit (Spirit of God), and between life "according to the flesh" and life "according to the Spirit", there is contained the Pauline theology about justification, that is, the expression of faith in the anthropological and ethical realism of the redemption carried out by Christ, which Paul, in the context already known to us, also calls "redemption of the body". According to the Letter to the Romans 8:23, the "redemption of the body" has also a "cosmic" dimension (referred to the whole of creation), but at its center there is man: man constituted in the personal unity of spirit and body. It is precisely in t his man, in his "heart", and consequently in all his behavior, that Christ's redemption bears fruit, thanks to those powers of the Spirit which bring about "justification", that is, which enable justice " to abound" in man, as is inculcated in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5:20), that is, "to abound" to the extent that God himself willed and which he expects.
Effects of the lust of the flesh

 2. It is significant that Paul, speaking of the "works of the flesh. (cf. Gal 5:19-21), mentions not only "fornication, impurity, licentiousness . . . drunkenness, carousing" - therefore everything that, according to an objective way of understanding, takes on the character of "carnal sins" and of the sensual enjoyment connected with the flesh - but he names other sins too, to which we would not be inclined to attribute also a "carnal" and "sensual" character: "idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy..." (Gal 5:20-21). According to our anthropological (and ethical) categories we would rather be inclined to call all the "works" listed here "sins of the spirit" of man, rather than sins of the "flesh". Not without reason we might have glimpsed in them the effects of the "lust of the eyes" or of the "pride of life", rather than the effects of the "lust of the flesh". However, Paul describes them all as "works of the flesh". That is intended exclusively against the background of that wider meaning (in a way a metonymical one), which the term "flesh" assumes in: the Pauline letters, opposed not only and not so much to the human "spirit" as to the Holy Spirit who works in man's soul (spirit).
Purity comes from the heart

 3. There exists, therefore, a significant analogy between what Paul defines as "works of the flesh" and the words with which Christ explains to his disciples what he had previously said to the Pharisees about ritual "purity" and "impurity" (cf. Mt 15:2-20). According to Christ's words, real "purity" (as also "impurity") in the moral sense is in the "heart" and comes "from the heart" of man. As "impure works" in the same sense, there are defined not only "adultery" and "fornication", and so the "sins of the flesh" in the strict sense, but also "evil thoughts... theft, false witness, slander". Christ, as we have already been able to note, uses here both the general and the specific meaning of "impurity" (and therefore indirectly also of "purity"). St. Paul expresses himself in a similar way: the works "of the flesh" are understood in the Pauline text both in the general and in the specific sense. All sins are an expression of "life according to the flesh", which is in contrast with "life according to the Spirit". What is considered, in conformity with our linguistic convention (which is, moreover, partially justified), as a "sin of the flesh", is, in Paul's list, one of the many manifestations (or species) of what he calls "works of the flesh", and, in this sense, one of the symptoms, that is, actualization of life "according to the flesh" and not "according to the Spirit".
Two meanings of death

 4. Paul's words written to the Romans: "So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh; for if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live" (Rom 8:12-13) - introduce us again into the rich and differentiated sphere of the meanings which the terms "body" and "spirit" have for him. However, the definitive meaning of that enunciation is advisory, exhortative, and so valid for the evangelical ethos. Paul, when he speaks of the necessity of putting to death the deeds of the body with the help of the Spirit, expresses precisely what Christ spoke about in the Sermon on the Mount, appealing to the human heart and exhorting it to control desires, even those expressed in a man's "look" tat a woman for the purpose of satisfying the lust of the flesh. This mastery, or, as Paul writes, "putting to death the works of the body with the help of the Spirit", is an indispensable condition of "life according to the Spirit", that is, of the "life" which is an antithesis of the "death" spoken about in the same context. Life "according to the flesh" has, in fact, "death" as its fruit, that is, it involves as its effect the "death" of the Spirit.

 So the term "death" does not mean only the death of the body, but also sin, which moral theology will call "mortal". In the Letters to the Romans and to the Galatians the Apostle continually widens the horizon of "sin - death", both towards the "beginning" of man's history, and towards its end. And therefore, after listing the multiform "works of the flesh", he affirms that "those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God" (Gal 5:21). Elsewhere he will write with similar firmness: "Be sure of this, that no fornicator or impure man, or one who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God" (Eph 5:5). In this case, too, the works that exclude "inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God" - that is, the "works of the flesh" - are listed as an example and with general value, although sins against "purity" in the specific sense are at the top of the list here (cf. Eph 5:3-7).
To set us free

 5. To complete the picture of the opposition between the "body" and the "fruit of the Spirit" - it should be observed that in everything that is a manifestation of life and behavior according to the Spirit, Paul sees at once the manifestation of that freedom for which Christ "has set us free" (Gal 5:1). In fact, he writes precisely: "For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Gal 5:13-14). As we already pointed out previously, the opposition "body/Spirit", life "according to the flesh"/life "according to the Spirit", deeply permeates the whole Pauline doctrine on justification. The Apostle of the Gentiles, with exceptional force of conviction, proclaims that man's justification is carried out in Christ and through Christ. Man obtains justification in "faith working through love" (Gal 5:6), and not only by means of the observance of the individual prescriptions of Old Testament Law (in particular, that of circumcision). Justification comes therefore "from the Spirit" (of God) and not "from the flesh". He therefore exhorts the recipients of his Letter to free themselves of the erroneous "carnal" concept of justification, to follow the true one, that is, the "spiritual" one. In this sense he exhorts them to consider themselves free from the Law, and even more to be free with the freedom for which Christ "has set us free".

 In this way, therefore, following the Apostle's thought, we should consider and above all realize evangelical purity, that is, the purity of the heart, according to the measure of that freedom for which Christ "has set us free".
After the Audience:
To the young:

 I address a cordial greeting to all the young people present at this Audience. My wish for you is that you may be able to begin the new year with renewed commitment and with your typical enthusiasm, in order to prepare for the tasks that Divine Providence has in store for you, and to make that contribution of ideas, initiatives and industry, animated and directed by the requirements of the message of Jesus, who, right from the cradle in Bethlehem manifests to us the infinite love and the superabundant mercy of God. With my Apostolic Blessing.
To the sick:

 To you, the sick, most dear to me, on whom the Divine Redeemer has bestowed the mysterious gift of suffering, goes my affectionate greeting and - that of the whole People of God. May Jesus, who became a frail and weak child, give you also the gift of his strength, which is that of donation, dedication, and concealment. I entrust the whole Church to your meritorious suffering, in order that she may always have the constancy and the strength to be open witness to the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. My Apostolic Blessing is intended to be a source of comfort for you and for your dear ones.
GENERAL AUDIENCE: 14 JANUARY, 1981
Life in the Spirit based on true freedom

 Continuing his weekly catechesis, the Holy Father addressed the following mess. age to the numerous pilgrims gathered in the Paul VI Hall.

 1. St. Paul writes in the Letter to the Galatians: "For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Gal 5:13-14). We have already dwelled on this enunciation a week ago; however, we are taking it up again today, in connection with the main argument of our reflections.

 Although the passage quoted refers above all to the subject of justification, here, however, the Apostle aims explicitly at driving home the ethical dimension of the "body-Spirit" opposition, that is, the opposition between life according to the flesh and life according to the Spirit. Precisely here, in fact, he touches the essential point, revealing, as it were, the very anthropological roots of the Gospel ethos. If, in fact, "the whole Law" (moral law of the Old Testament) "is fulfilled" in the commandment of charity, the dimension of the new Gospel ethos is nothing but an appeal to human freedom, an appeal to its fuller implementation and, in a way, to fuller "utilization" of the potential of the human spirit.
Freedom linked with command to love

 2. It might seem that Paul was only contrasting freedom with the Law and the Law with freedom. However a deeper analysis of the text shows that St. Paul in the Letter to the Galatians emphasizes above all the ethical subordination of freedom to that element in which the whole Law is fulfilled, that is, to love, which is the content of the greatest commandment of the Gospel. " Christ set us free in order that we might remain free", precisely in the sense that he manifested to us the ethical (and theological) subordination of freedom to charity, and that he linked freedom with the commandment of love. To understand the vocation to freedom in this way ("You were called to freedom brethren":(Gal 5:13) means giving a form to the ethos in which life "according to the Spirit" is realized. There also exists, in fact, the danger of understanding freedom wrongly, and Paul clearly points this out, writing in the same context: "Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another" (ibid.).
Bad use of freedom

 3. In other words: Paul warns us of the possibility of making a bad use of freedom, a use which is in opposition to the liberation of the human spirit carried out by Christ and which contradicts that freedom with which "Christ set us free". In fact, Christ realized and manifested the freedom that finds its fullness in charity, the freedom thanks to which we are "servants of one another". In other words: me freedom that becomes a source of new "works" and "life" according to the Spirit. The antithesis and, in a way, the negation of this use of freedom takes place when it becomes for man " a pretext to live according to the flesh". Freedom then becomes a source of "works" and of "life" according to the flesh. It stops being the true freedom for which "Christ set us free", and becomes "an opportunity for the flesh", a source (or instrument) of a specific "yoke" on the part of pride of life, the lust of the eyes, and the lust of the flesh. Anyone who in this way lives "according to the flesh", that is, submits- although in a way: that is not quite conscious, but nevertheless actual - to the three forms of lust, and in particular to the lust of the flesh, ceases to be capable of that freedom for which "Christ set us free"; he also ceases to be suitable for the real gift of himself, which is the - fruit and expression of this freedom. He ceases, moreover, to be capable of that gift which is organically connected with the nuptial meaning of the human body, with which we dealt in the preceding analyses of the Book of Genesis (cf. Gen 2: 23-25).
The Law fulfilled

 4. In his way, the Pauline doctrine on purity, a doctrine in which we find the faithful and true echo of the Sermon on the Mount, permits us to see evangelical and Christian "purity of heart" in a wider perspective, and above all permits us to link it with the charity in which "the Law if fulfilled". Paul, in a way similar to Christ, knows a double meaning of "purity" (and of "impurity"): a generic meaning and a specific meaning. In the first case, everything that is morally good is "pure", everything that is morally bad is, on the contrary, "impure". Christ's words according to Matthew 15:18-20, quoted previously, affirm this clearly. In Paul's enunciation about the "works of the flesh", which he contrasts with the "fruit of the Spirit", we find the basis for a similar way of understanding this problem. Among the "works of the flesh" Paul puts what is morally bad, while every moral good is linked with life "according to the Spirit". In this way, one of the manifestations of life "according to the Spirit" is behavior in conform
Called to holiness

 6. But already in the First Letter to the Thessalonians, Paul writes on this subject in an explicit and unambiguous way. We read: "For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from unchastity; that each one of you know how to control his own body (1) in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like heathens who do not know God" (1 Thess 4:3-5). And then: "God has not called us for uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you" (1 Thess 4:7-8). Although in this text too we have before us the generic meaning of "purity", identified in this case with "holiness" (since "uncleanness" is named as the antithesis of "holiness"), nevertheless the whole context indicates clearly what "purity" or "impurity" it is a question of, that is, the content of what Paul calls here "uncleanness". and in what way "purity" contributes to the "holiness" of man.

 And therefore, in the following reflections, it will be useful to take up again the text of the First Letter to the Thessalonians, which has just been quoted.
GENERAL AUDIENCE: 28 JANUARY
St. Paul's teaching on the sanctity and respect of the human body

 After dedicating the previous week's audience to the theme of Christian unity, the Pope resumed his catechesis on the Christian concept of man at the General Audience of 28 January in the Paul VI Hall.

 1. St. Paul writes in the First Letter to the Thessalonians: "...this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from unchastity, that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like heathens who do not know God" (1 Thess 4:3-5). And after some verses, he continues: "God has not called us for uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you" (ibid. 4:7-8). We referred to these sentences of the Apostle during our meeting on last 14 January. We take them up again today, however, because they are particularly important for the subject of our meditations.
Purity a capacity

 2. The purity of which Paul speaks in the First Letter to the Thessalonians (4:3-5, 7-8) is manifested in the fact that man "knows how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust". In this formulation every word has a particular meaning and therefore deserves an adequate comment.

 In the first place, purity is a "capacity", that is, in the traditional language of anthropology and ethics, an aptitude. And in this sense it is a virtue. If this ability, that is, virtue, leads to abstaining "from unchastity", that happens because the man who possesses it "knows how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust". It is a question here of a practical capacity which makes man capable of acting in a given way, and at the same time of not acting in the opposite way. For purity to be such a capacity or aptitude, it must obviously be rooted in the will, in the very foundation of man's willing and conscious acting. Thomas Aquinas, in his teaching on virtues, sees in an even more direct way the object of purity in the faculty of sensitive desire, which he calls appetitus concupiscibilis. Precisely this faculty must be particularly mastered", subordinated and made capable of acting in a way that is in conformity with virtue, in order that "purity" may be attributed to . According to this concept, purity consists in the first place in containing the impulse of sensitive desire, which has as its object what is corporeal and sexual in man. Purity is a different form of the virtue of temperance.
Requires mastering

 3. The text of the First Letter to the Thessalonians (4:3-5) shows that the virtue of purity, in Paul's concept, consists also in mastery and overcoming of "the passion of lust"; that means that the capacity of controlling the impulses of sensitive desire, that is, the virtue of temperance, belongs necessarily to its nature. At the same time, however, the same Pauline text turns our attention to another role of the virtue of purity, to another of its dimensions which is, it could be said, more positive than negative. That is, the task of purity, which the author of the letter seems to stress above all, is not only (and not so much) abstention from "unchastity" and from what leads to it, and so abstention from "the passion of lust", but, at the same time, the control of one's own body and, indirectly, also that of others, in "holiness and honor".

 These two functions, "abstention" and "control", are closely connected and dependent on each other. Since, in fact, it is not possible to "control one's body in holiness and honor, if that abstention "from unchastity" and from what leads to it is lacking, it can consequently be admitted that control of one's body (and indirectly that of others) "in holiness and honor, confers adequate meaning and value on that abstention. This in itself calls for the overcoming of something that is in man and that crises spontaneously in him as an inclination, attraction, and also as a value that acts above all in the sphere of the senses, but very often not without repercussions on the other dimensions of human subjectivity, and particularly on the affective-motional dimension.
Manifestation of life

 4. Considering all this, it seems that the Pauline image of the virtue of purity-an image that emerges from the very eloquent comparison of the function of "abstention" (that is of temperance) with that of "control of one's body in holiness and honor-is deeply right, complete and adequate. Perhaps we owe this completeness to nothing else but the fact that Paul considers purity not only as a capacity (that is, an aptitude) of man's subjective faculties, but, at the same time, as a concrete manifestation of life " according to the Spirit", in which human capacity is interiorly made fruitful and enriched by what Paul calls, in the Letter to the Galatians 5:22, the "fruit of the Spirit". The honor, that arises in man for everything that is corporeal and sexual, both in himself and in any other person, male and female, is seen to be the most essential power to control the body "in holiness". To understand the Pauline teaching on purity, it is necessary to penetrate fully the meaning of the term honor, which is obviously understood here as a power of the spiritual order. It is precisely this interior power that confers its full dimension on purity as a virtue, that is, as the capacity of acting in that whole field in which man discovers, within himself, the multiple impulses of "the passion of lust", and sometimes, for various reasons, surrenders to them.
About the human body

 5. To grasp better the thought of the author of the First Letter to the Thessalonians, it will be a good thing to keep in mind also another text, which we find in the First Letter to the Corinthians. Paul sets forth in it his great ecclesiological doctrine, according to which the Church is the Body of Christ; he takes the opportunity to formulate the following argumentation about the human body: ". . . God arranged the organs in the body, each one of them, as he chose" (1 Cor 12: 18); and further on: "On the contrary, the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those parts of the body which we think less honorable we invest with the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving the greater honor, to the inferior part, that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another" (ibid. 12:22-25).
Worthy of honor

 6. Although the specific subject of the text in question is the theology of the Church as the Body of Christ, it can be said, however, in connection with this passage, that Paul, by means of his great ecclesiological analogy (which recurs in other Letters, and which we will take up again in due time), contributes, at the same time, to deepening the theology of the body. While in the First Letter to the Thessalonians he writes about control of the body "in holiness and honor, in the passage now quoted from the First Letter to the Corinthians he wishes to show this human body as, precisely, worthy of honor, it could also be said that he wishes to teach the receivers of his letter the correct concept of the human body.

 Therefore this Pauline description of the human body in the First Letter to the Corinthians seems to be closely connected with the recommendations of the First Letter to the Thessalonians: "that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, (1 Thess 4:4). This is an important thread, perhaps the essential one, of the Pauline doctrine on purity.
GENERAL AUDIENCE: 4 FEBRUARY, 1981
St. Paul's description of the body and teaching on purity

 During the course of the 4 February weekly audience, held as usual in the Paul VI Hall, the Pope continued his catechesis on the theology of the human body, delivering the following address.

 1. In our considerations last Wednesday on purity according to the teaching of St. Paul, we called attention to the text of the First Letter to the Corinthians. In it the Apostle presents the Church as the Body of Christ, and that offers him the opportunity to make the following reasoning about the human body: ". . . God arranged the organs in the body, each one of them, as he chose. . . On the contrary, the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those parts of the body which we think less honorable we invest with the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving the greater honor, to the inferior part, that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another" (1 Cor 12:18, 22-25).
Man "is" that body

 2. The Pauline "description" of the human body corresponds to the reality which constitutes it: so it is a "realistic" description. At the same time, a very fine thread of evaluation is intermingled with the realism of this description, conferring on it a deeply evangelical, Christian value. Certainly, it is possible to "describe" the human body, to express its truth with the objectivity characteristic of the natural sciences; but such a description-with all its precision-cannot be adequate (that is, commensurable with its object), since it is not just a question of the body (intended as an organism, in the "somatic" sense) but of man, who expresses himself through that body and in this sense "is", I would say, that body. And so that thread of evaluation, seeing that it is a question of man as a person, is indispensable in describing the human body. Furthermore it is necessary to say how right this evaluation is. This is one of the tasks and one of the perennial themes of the whole of culture: of literature, sculpture, painting, and also of dancing, of theatrical works, and finally of the culture of everyday life, private or social. A subject that would be worth dealing with separately.
Not "scientific"

 3. The Pauline description in the First Letter to the Corinthians 12: 18-25 certainly does not have a "scientific" meaning: it does not present a biological study on the human organism or on human "somatics"; from this point of view it is a simple "prescientific" description, moreover a concise one, made up of barely a few sentences. It has all the characteristics of common realism and is, unquestionably, sufficiently "realistic". However, what determines its specific character, what particularly justifies its presence in Holy Scripture, is precisely that evaluation intermingled with the description and expressed in its "narrative-realistic" tissue. It can be said with certainty that this description would not be possible without the whole truth of creation and also without the whole truth of the "redemption of the body", which Paul professes and proclaims. It can also be affirmed that the Pauline description of the body corresponds precisely to the spiritual attitude of "respect" for the human body, due because of the "holiness" (cf. 1 Thess 4:3-5, 7-8) which springs from the mysteries of creation and redemption. The Pauline description is equally far from Manichaean contempt for the body and from the various manifestations of a naturalistic "cult of the body".
Echo of innocence

 4. The author of the First Letter to the Corinthians 12:18-25 has before his eyes the human body in all its truth; and so the body permeated in the first place (if it can be expressed in this way) by the whole reality of the person and of his dignity. It is, at the same time, the body of "historical" man, male and female, that is, of that man who, after sin, was conceived, so to speak, within and by the reality of the man who had had the experience of original innocence. In Paul's expressions about the "unpresentable parts" of the human body, as also about the ones "which seem to be weaker" or the ones "which we think less honorable", we seem to find again the testimony of the same shame that the first human beings, male and female, had experienced after original sin. This shame was imprinted on them and on all the generations of "historical" man as the fruit of the three forms of lust (with particular reference to the lust of the flesh). And at the same time there is imprinted on this shame-as has already been highlighted in the preceding analyses-a certain "echo" of man's original innocence itself: a "negative" as it were of the image, whose "positive" had been precisely original innocence.
Respect springs from shame

 5. The Pauline "description" of the human body seems to confirm perfectly our previous analyses. There are, in the human body, "unpresentable parts", not because of their "somatic" nature (since a scientific and physiological description deals with all the parts and organs of the human body in a "neutral" way, with the same objectivity), but only; and exclusively because there exists in man himself that shame which perceives some parts of the body as "unpresentable" and causes them to be considered such. The same shame seems, at the same time, to be at the basis of what the Apostle writes in the First Letter to the Corinthians: "Those parts of the body which we think less honorable we invest with the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty" (1 Cor 12:23). Hence it can be said, therefore, that from shame there springs precisely "respect" for one's own body: respect which Paul, in the First Letter to the Thessalonians (4:4), urges us to keep. Precisely this control of the body "in holiness and honor, is considered essential for the virtue of purity.
Interior harmony

 6. Returning again to the Pauline " description" of the body, in the First Letter to the Corinthians 12:18-25, we wish to draw attention to the fact that, according to the author of the Letter, that particular effort which aims at respecting the human body and especially its "weaker" or "unpresentable" parts, corresponds to the Creator's original plan, that is, to that vision of which the Book of Genesis speaks: "God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good" (Gen 1:31). Paul writes: "God has so composed the body, giving the greater honor, to the inferior parts, that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another" (1 Cor 12:24-25). "Discord in the body", the result of which is that some parts are considered "weaker", "less honorable and so "unpresentable", is a further expression of the vision of man's interior state after original sin, that is, of "historical" man. The man of original innocence, male and female, of whom we read in Genesis 2:25, that they "were naked, and were not ashamed", did not even feel that "discord in the body". To the objective harmony, with which the Creator endowed the body and which Paul specifies as mutual care of the members for one another (cf. 1 Cor 12:25), there corresponded a similar harmony within man: the harmony of the "heart". This harmony, that is precisely "purity of heart", enabled man and woman in the state of original innocence to experience simply (and in a way that originally made them both happy) the uniting power of their bodies, which was, so to speak, the "unsuspected" substratum of their personal union or communio personarum.
In holiness and honor

 7. As can be seen, in the First Letter to the Corinthians (12:18-25) the Apostle links his description of the human body with the state of "historical" man. At the threshold of this man's history there is the experience of shame connected with "discord in the body", with the sense of modesty regarding that body (and particularly those parts of it that somatically determine masculinity and femininity). However, in the same "description", Paul indicates also the way which (precisely on the basis of the sense of shame) leads to the transformation of this state to the point of gradual victory over that "discord in the body", a victory which can and must take place in man's heart. This is precisely the way to purity, that is, "to control one's own body in holiness and honor, Paul connects the First Letter to the Corinthians (12:18-25) with the honor, with which the First Letter to the Thessalonians (4:3-5) deals, using some equivalent expressions, when he speaks of "honor", that is esteem, for the "less honorable "weaker" parts of the body, and when he recommends greater "modesty" with regard to what is considered "unpresentable" in man. These expressions characterize more precisely that honor, especially in the sphere of human relations and behavior with regard to the body; which is important both as regards one's "own" body, and of course also in mutual relations (especially between man and woman, although not limited to them).

 We have no doubt that the "description" of the human body in the First Letter to the Corinthians has a fundamental meaning for the Pauline doctrine on purity as a whole.
GENERAL AUDIENCE: 11 FEBRUARY, 1981
The virtue of purity is the expression and fruit of life according to the Spirit

 The Holy Father continued his catechesis on the theology of the body in his talk during the General Audience of 11 February in the Paul VI Hall.

 1. During our recent Wednesday meetings we have analyzed two passages taken from the First Letter to the Thessalonians (4:3-5) and from the First Letter to the Corinthians (12:18-25), with a view to showing what seems to be essential in St. Paul's doctrine on purity, understood in the moral sense, that is, as a virtue. If in the aforementioned text of the First Letter to the Thessalonians we can see that purity consists in temperance, in this text, however, as also in the First Letter to the Corinthians, the element of "respect" is also highlighted. By means of such respect due to the human body (and let us add that, according to the First Letter to the Corinthians, respect is seen precisely in relation to its element of modesty), purity, as a Christian virtue, is revealed in the Pauline Letters as an effective way to become detached from what, in the human heart, is the fruit of the lust of the flesh.

 Abstention "from unchastity", which implies controlling one's body "in holiness and honor", makes it possible to deduce that, according to the Apostle's doctrine, purity is a "capacity" centered on the dignity of the body, that is, on the dignity of the person in relation to his own body, to the femininity or masculinity which is manifested in this body. Purity, understood as "capacity", is precisely the expression and fruit of life "according to the Spirit" in the full meaning of the expression, that is, as a new capacity of the human being, in which the gift of the Holy Spirit bears fruit.

 These two dimensions of purity-the moral dimension, that is virtue, and the charismatic dimension, namely the gift of the Holy Spirit-are present and closely connected in Paul's message. That is emphasized particularly by the Apostle in the First Letter to the Corinthians, in which he calls the body "a temple (therefore, a dwelling and shrine) of the Holy Spirit".
You are not your own

 2. "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own"- Paul says to the Corinthians (1 Cor 6:19), after having first instructed them with great severity about the moral requirements of purity. "Shun immorality. Every other sin which a man commits is outside the body; but the immoral man sins against his own body" (ibid. 6:18). The peculiar characteristic of the sin that the Apostle stigmatizes here lies in the fact that this sin, unlike all others, is "against the body" (while other sins are "outside the body"). In this way, therefore, we find in the Pauline terminology the motivation for the expressions: "the sins of the body" or "carnal sins". Sins which are in opposition precisely to that virtue by force of which man keeps "his body in holiness and honor" (cf. 1 Thess 4:3-5).
Profanation of the temple

 3. Such sins bring with them "profanation" of the body: they deprive the man's or woman's body of the honor due to it because of the dignity of the person. However, the Apostle goes further: according to him, sin against the body is also "profanation of the temple". In Paul's eyes, it is not only the human spirit, thanks to which man is constituted as a personal subject, that decides the dignity of the human body, but even more so the supernatural reality constituted by the indwelling and the continual presence of the Holy Spirit in man-in his soul and in his body-as fruit of the redemption carried out by Christ.

 It follows that man's "body" is no longer just "his own". And not only for the reason that it is the body of the person does it deserve that respect whose manifestation in the mutual conduct of men, males and females, constitutes the virtue of purity. When the Apostle writes: "Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God" (1 Cor 6:19), he intends to indicate yet another source of the dignity of the body, precisely the Holy Spirit, who is also the source of the moral duty deriving from this dignity.
You were bought with a price

 4. It is the reality of redemption, which is also "redemption of the body", that constitutes this source. For Paul, this mystery of faith is a living reality, geared directly to every man. Through redemption, every man has received from God again, as it were, himself and his own body. Christ has imprinted on the human body-on the body of every man and every woman-a new dignity, since, in himself, the human body has been admitted, together with the soul, to union with the Person of the Son-Word. With this new dignity, through the " redemption of the body" there arose at the same time also a new obligation, of which Paul writes concisely, but in an extremely moving way: "You were bought with a price" (ibid. 6:20). The fruit of redemption is, in fact, the Holy Spirit, who dwells in man and in his body as in a temple. In this Gift, which sanctifies every man, the Christian receives himself again as a gift from God. And this new, double gift is binding. The Apostle refers to this binding dimension when he writes to believers, aware of the Gift, to convince them that one must not commit "unchastity", one must not sin against one's own body" (ibid. 6:18). He writes: "The body is not meant for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body" (ibid. 6: 13).

 It is difficult to express more concisely what the mystery of the Incarnation brings with it for every believer. The fact that the human body becomes in Jesus Christ the body of God-Man obtains for this reason, in every man, a-new supernatural elevation, which every Christian must take into account in his behavior with regard to his "own" body and, of course, with regard to the other's body: man with regard to woman and woman with regard to man. The redemption of the body involves the institution, in Christ and through Christ, of a new measure of the holiness of the body. Paul refers precisely to this "holiness" in the First Letter to the Thessalonians (4:3-5), when he writes of "controlling one's own body in holiness and honor."
One with the Lord

 5. In chapter six of the First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul specifies, on the other hand, the truth about the holiness of the body, stigmatizing "unchastity", that is, the sin against the holiness of the body, the sin of impurity, with words that are even drastic: "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, 'The two shall become one flesh' But he who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him" (1 Cor 6:15-17). If purity is, according to the Pauline teaching, an aspect of "life according to the Spirit", that means that the mystery of the redemption of the body as part of the mystery of Christ, started in the Incarnation and already addressed to every man through it, bears fruit in it.

 This mystery bears fruit also in purity, understood as a particular commitment based on ethics. The fact that we were "bought with a price" (1 Cor 6:20), that is, at the price of Christ's redemption, gives rise precisely to a special commitment, that is, the duty of " controlling one's body in holiness and honor. Awareness of the redemption of the body operates in the human will in favor of abstention from "unchastity"; it acts, in fact, for the purpose of causing man to acquire an appropriate ability or capacity, called the virtue of purity.

 What can be seen from the words of the First Letter to the Corinthians (6:15-17) about Paul's teaching on the Christian virtue of purity as the implementation of life "according to the Spirit" is of particular depth and has the power of the supernatural realism of faith. We will have to come back to reflection on this subject more than once.
GENERAL AUDIENCE: 18 MARCH, 1981
The Pauline doctrine of purity as "life according to the Spirit"

 On Wednesday, 18 March, the Holy Father resumed his development of the theme of purity according to the Pauline texts. He addressed the following to the thousands gathered in the Paul VI Hall.

 1. At our meeting some weeks ago, we concentrated our attention on the passage in the First Letter to the Corinthians, in which St. Paul calls the human body "a temple of the Holy Spirit". He writes: "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price" (1 Cor 6:19-20). "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?" (1 Cor 6:15). The Apostle points out the mystery of the "redemption of the body", carried out by Christ, as a source of a special moral duty which commits the Christian to purity, to what Paul himself defines elsewhere as the necessity of "controlling his own body in holiness and honor (1 Thess 4:4).
Piety serves purity

 2. However, we would not completely discover the riches of the thought contained in the Pauline texts, if we did not note that the mystery of redemption bears fruit in man also in a charismatic way. The Holy Spirit who, according to the Apostle's words, enters the human body as his own "temple", dwells there and operates together with his spiritual gifts. Among these gifts, known in the history of spirituality as the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit (cf. Is 11:2 according to the Septuagint and the Vulgate), the one most congenial to the virtue of purity seems to be the gift of "piety" (eusebeia, donum pietatis) (1). If purity prepares man to "control his own body in holiness and honor as we read in the First Letter to the Thessalonians (4:3-5), piety, which is a gift of the Holy Spirit, seems to serve purity in a particular way, making the human subject sensitive to that dignity which is characteristic of the human body by virtue of the mystery of creation and redemption. Thanks to the gift of piety, Paul's words: "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you . . . You are not your own" (1 Cor 6:19), acquire the eloquence of an experience of the nuptial meaning of the body and of the - freedom of the gift connected with it, in which the profound aspect of purity and its organic link with love is revealed.
Fruit of the Spirit's indwelling

 3. Although control of one's body "in holiness and honor is acquired through abstention from "immorality" - and this way is indispensable - yet it always bears fruit in deeper experience of that love, which was inscribed "from the beginning", according to the image and likeness of God himself, in the whole human being and therefore also in his body. Therefore St. Paul ends his argumentation in the First Letter to the Corinthians, chapter six, with a significant exhortation: "So glorify God in your body" (v. 20). Purity, as the virtue, that is, the capacity of "controlling one's body in holiness and honor together with the gift of piety, as the fruit of the dwelling of the Holy Spirit in the "temple" of the body, brings about in the body such a fullness of dignity in interpersonal relations that God himself is thereby glorified. Purity is the glory of the human body before God. It is God's glory in the human body, through which masculinity and femininity are manifested. From purity springs that extraordinary beauty which permeates every sphere of men's mutual common life and makes it possible to express in it simplicity and depth, cordiality and the unrepeatable authenticity of personal trust. (There will perhaps be another opportunity later to deal with this subject more fully. The connection of purity with love and also the connection of purity in love with that gift of the Holy Spirit, piety, is a part of the theology of the body which is little known, but which deserves particular study. That will be possible in the course of the analysis concerning the sacramentality of marriage).
In the Old Testament

 4. And now a brief reference to the Old Testament. The Pauline doctrine about purity, understood as "life according to the Spirit", seems to indicate a certain continuity with regard to the "Wisdom" Books of the Old Testament. We find there, for example, the following prayer to obtain purity in thought, word and deed: "O Lord, Father and God of my life . . . remove from me evil desire, let neither gluttony nor lust overcome me" (Sir 23:4-6). Purity is, in fact, the condition for finding wisdom and following it, as we read in the same Book: " I directed my soul to her (that is, to Wisdom), and through purification I found her" (Sir 51:20). We could also take into consideration in a way the text of the Book of Wisdom (8:21), known by the liturgy in the Vulgate version "Scivi quondam aliter non possum esse continens, nisi Deus det; et hoc ipsum erat sapientiae, scire, cuius esset hoc donum" (2).

 According to this concept, it is not so much purity that is a condition for wisdom, but wisdom that is a condition for purity, as for a special gift of God. It seems that already in the above-mentioned wisdom texts the double meaning of purity takes shape: as a virtue and as a gift. The virtue is in the service of wisdom, and wisdom is a preparation to receive the gift that comes from God. This gift strengthens the virtue and makes it possible to enjoy, in wisdom, the fruits of a behavior and life that are pure.
The sight of God

 5. Just as Christ, in his beatitude in the Sermon on the Mount which refers to the "pure in heart", highlights the "sight of God", the fruit of purity, and in an eschatological perspective, so Paul in his turn sheds light on its diffusion in the dimensions of temporality, when he writes: "To the pure all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure; their very minds and consciences are corrupted. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their deeds . . ." (Tit 1:15 f.). These words can also refer both to the general and to the specific meaning of purity, as to the characteristic note of all moral good. For the Pauline concept of purity, in the sense spoken of in the First Letter to the Thessalonians (4:3-5) and the First Letter to the Corinthians (6:13-20), that is, in the sense of "life according to the Spirit", the anthropology of rebirth in the Holy Spirit (cf. also Jn 3:5 95.) seems to be fundamental - as can be seen from these considerations of ours as a whole. It grows from roots set in the reality of the redemption of the body, carried out by Christ: redemption, whose ultimate expression is the resurrection. There are profound reasons for connecting the whole theme of purity with the words of the Gospel, in which Christ refers to the resurrection (and that will be the subject of the further stage of our considerations). Here we have mainly linked it with the ethos of the redemption of the body.
Appeal to the heart

 6. The way of understanding and presenting purity - inherited from the tradition of the Old Testament and characteristic of the "Wisdom" Books - was certainly an indirect, but nonetheless real, preparation for the Pauline doctrine about purity understood as "life according to the Spirit". That way unquestionably helped many listeners of the Sermon on the Mount to understand Christ's words, when, explaining the commandment "You shall not commit adultery", he appealed to the human "heart". In this way our reflections as a whole have been able to show, at least to a certain extent, how rich and profound the doctrine on purity is in its biblical and evangelical sources themselves.
GENERAL AUDIENCE: 1 APRIL, 1981
Positive function of purity of heart

 On Wednesday, 1 April, the weekly audience again was given in two parts, she first to the young people gathered in St. Peter's Basilica, the second to the thousands of pilgrims in the Paul VI Hall. The following is the text of the Holy Father's address in the Hall.

 1. Before concluding the series of considerations concerning the words uttered by Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount, it is necessary to recall these words once more and briefly retrace the thread of ideas whose basis they constitute. Here is the tenor of Jesus' words: "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery'. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Mt 5:27-28). They are concise words, which call for deep reflection, in the same way as the words in which Christ referred to the "beginning". To the Pharisees who - referring to the law of Moses which admitted the so-called act of repudiation - had asked him: "Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?", he replied: "Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female? . . . For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh . . . What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder" (Mt 19:3-6). These words, too, called for a deep reflection, to derive all the riches contained in them. A reflection of this kind enabled us to outline the true theology of the body.
Truth rooted in man's original innocence

 2. Following the reference made by Christ to the "beginning", we dedicated a series of reflections to the relative texts in the Book of Genesis, which deal precisely with that "beginning". There emerged from the analysis made not only an image of the situation of man - male and female - in the state of original innocence, but also the theological basis of the truth about man and about his particular vocation which springs from the eternal mystery of the person: the image of God, incarnate in the visible and corporeal fact of the masculinity or femininity of the human person. This truth is at the basis of the answer given by Christ with regard to the nature of marriage, and in particular its indissolubility. It is truth about man. truth rooted in the state of original innocence, truth which must therefore be understood in the context of that situation prior to sin, as we tried to do in the preceding series of our reflections.

 3. At the same time, however, it is necessary to consider, understand and interpret the same fundamental truth about man, his being male and female, in the prism of another situation: that is, of the one that was formed through the breaking of the first covenant with the Creator, that is, through original sin. Such truth about man - male and female - should be seen in the context of his hereditary sinfulness. And it is precisely here that we find Christ's enunciation in the Sermon on the Mount. It is obvious that in the Scriptures of the Old and the New Covenant there are many narratives, phrases and words which confirm the same truth, that is, that "historical" man bears within him the inheritance of original sin; nevertheless, Christ's words spoken in the Sermon on the Mount seem to have - with all their concise enunciation - a particularly rich eloquence. This is shown also by the analyses made previously, which gradually revealed what those words contain. To clarify the statements concerning lust, it is necessary to grasp the biblical meaning of lust itself - of the three forms of lust - and principally that of the flesh. Then, little by little, we arrive at understanding why Jesus defines that lust (precisely: "looking at lustfully") as "adultery committed in the heart". Making the relative analyses, we tried, at the same time, to understand what meaning Christ's words had for his immediate listeners, brought up in the tradition of the Old Testament, that is, in the tradition of the legislative texts, as well as the prophetic and "sapiential" ones, and furthermore, what meaning Christ's words can have for the man of every other era, and in particular for modern man, considering his various cultural conditionings. We are convinced, in fact, that these words, in their essential content, refer to the man of every time and every place. Their comprehensive value consists also in this: they proclaim to each one the truth that is valid and substantial for him.
An ethical truth

 4. What is this truth? Unquestionably, it is a truth of an ethical nature and therefore, in a word, a truth of a normative nature, just as the truth contained in the commandment: "You shall not commit adultery", is normative. The interpretation of this commandment, made by Christ, indicates the evil that must be avoided and overcome - precisely the evil of lust of the flesh - and at the same time points out the good for which the way is opened by the overcoming of desire. This good is "purity of heart", of which Christ speaks in the same context of the Sermon on the Mount. From the biblical point of view, "purity of heart" means freedom from every kind of sin or guilt, and not just from sins that concern the "lust of the flesh". However, we are dealing here particularly with one of the aspects of that "purity", which constitutes the opposite - of adultery "committed in the heart". If that "purity of heart", about which we are concerned, is understood according to St. Paul's thought as "life according to the Spirit", then the Pauline context offers us a complete image of the content present in the words spoken by Christ in the Sermon on the Mount. They contain a truth of an ethical nature; they warn us against evil and indicate the moral good of human conduct. In fact, they direct listeners to avoid the evil of lust and acquire purity of heart. These words therefore have a meaning that is both normative and indicative, Directing towards the good of "purity of heart", they indicate, at the same time, the values towards which the human heart can and must aspire.
Christ's words realistic

 5. Hence the question: what truth, valid for every man, is contained in Christ's words? We must answer that not only an ethical truth, but also the essential truth, the anthropological truth, about man is contained in them. It is precisely for this reason that we go back to these words in formulating here the theology of the body, closely related to and, so to speak, in the perspective of the preceding words in which Christ had referred to "the beginning. It can be affirmed that, with their expressive evangelical eloquence, the man of original innocence is, in a way, recalled to the consciousness of the man of lust.

 But Christ's words are realistic. They do not try to make the human heart return to the state of original innocence, which man left behind him at the moment when he committed original sin; on the contrary, they indicate to him the way to a purity of heart which is possible and accessible to him even in the state of hereditary sinfulness. This is the purity of the "man of lust", who is inspired, however, by the word of the Gospel and open to "life according to the Spirit" (in conformity with St. Paul's words), that is, the purity of the man of lust who is entirely enveloped by the "redemption of the body" carried out by Christ. Precisely for this reason we find in the words of the Sermon on the Mount the reference to the "heart", that is, to interior man. Interior man must open himself to life according to the Spirit, in order to participate in evangelical purity of heart: in order to rediscover and realize the value of the body, freed through redemption from the bonds of lust.

 The normative meaning of Christ's words is deeply rooted in their anthropological meaning, in the dimension of human inferiority.
Felt with the heart

 6. According to the evangelical doctrine, developed in such a stupendous way in Paul's Letters, purity is not just abstention from unchastity (cf. 1 Thess 4:3), or temperance, but it also, at the same time, opens the way to a more and more perfect discovery of the dignity of the human body, that body which is organically connected with the freedom of the gift of the person in the complete authenticity of his personal subjectivity, male or female. In this way purity, in the sense of temperance, matures in the heart of the man who cultivates it and tends to reveal and strengthen the nuptial meaning of the body in its integral truth. Precisely this truth must be known interiorly; it must, in a way, be "felt with the heart", in order that the mutual relations of man and of woman - even mere looks - may reacquire that authentically nuptial content of their meanings. And it is precisely this content which is indicated by "purity of heart" in the Gospel.
Enjoying the victory

 7. If in the interior experience of man (that is, the man of lust), " temperance" take shape, so to speak, as a negative function, the analysis of Christ's works spoken in the Sermon on the Mount and connected with the texts of St. Paul enables us to shift this meaning towards the positive function of purity of heart. In mature purity man enjoys the fruits of the victory won over lust, a victory of which St. Paul writes, exhorting man to "control his own body in holiness and honor" (1 Thess 4:4). Precisely in such mature purity, in fact, the efficacy of the gift of the Holy Spirit, whose "temple" the human body is (cf. 1 Cor 6:19), is partly manifested. This gift is above all that of piety (donum pietatis), which restores to the experience of the body - especially when it is a question of the sphere of the mutual relations of man and woman - all its simplicity, its explicitness and also its interior joy. This is, as can be seen, a spiritual climate which is very different from the "passion of lust" of which Paul writes (and which we know, moreover, from the preceding analyses; just remember Sirach 26:13, 15-18). The satisfaction of the passions is, in fact, one thing, and the joy that man finds in mastering himself more fully is another thing, since in this way he can also become more fully a real gift for another person.

 The words spoken by Christ in the Sermon on the Mount direct the human heart precisely towards this joy. We must entrust ourselves, our thoughts and our actions, to them, in order to find joy and give it to others.
GENERAL AUDIENCE: 8 APRIL, 1981
Pronouncements of Magisterium apply Christ's words today

 On Wednesday, 8 April, the weekly audience was held in St. Peter's Square. Concluding the catechetical cycle that has dealt with the theology of the body, the Holy Father delivered the following address to the more than thirty thousand people gathered in the Square.

 1. The time has now come to conclude the reflections and analyses based on the words uttered by Christ in the Sermon on the Mount, with which he appealed to the human heart, exhorting it to purity: "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery'. But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Mt 5:27-28). We have said several times that these words, spoken once to the limited number of listeners to that Sermon, refer to man of all times and places, and appeal to the human heart, in which there is inscribed the most interior and, in a way, the most essential design of history. It is the history of good and evil (whose beginning is connected, in the Book of Genesis, with the mysterious tree of the knowledge of good and evil) and, at the same time, it is the history of salvation, whose word is the Gospel, and whose power is the Holy Spirit, given to those who accept the Gospel with a sincere heart.
Christ's words teach

 2. If Christ's appeal to the human "heart" and, still earlier, his reference to the "beginning", enables us to construct or at least to outline an anthropology, which we can call "theology of the body", such theology is, at the same time, pedagogy. Pedagogy aims at educating man, setting before him the requirements, motivating them, and pointing out the ways that lead to their fulfillment. Christ's pronouncements have also this purpose: they are "pedagogical" enunciations. They contain a pedagogy of the body, expressed in a concise and at the same time extremely complete way. Both the answer given to the Pharisees with regard to the indissolubility of marriage, and the words of the Sermon on the Mount concerning the mastery of lust, prove - at least indirectly - that the Creator has assigned as a task to man his body, his masculinity and femininity; and that in masculinity and femininity he, in a way, assigned to him as a task his humanity, the dignity of the person, and also the clear sign of the interpersonal "communion" in which man fulfills himself through the authentic gift of himself. Setting before man the requirements conforming to the tasks entrusted to him, at the same time the Creator points out to man, male and female, the ways that lead to assuming and discharging them.
Self-education of man

 3. Analyzing these key texts of the Bible to their very roots, we discover precisely that anthropology which can be called "theology of the body". And it is this theology of the body which is the basis of the most suitable method of the pedagogy of the body, that is, the education (in fact the self-education) of man. That takes on particular relevance for modern man, whose science in the field of biophysiology and biomedicine has made great progress. However, this science deals with man under a determined "aspect" and so is partial rather than global. We know well the functions of the body as an organism, the functions connected with the masculinity and femininity of the human person. But this science, in itself, does not yet develop the awareness of the body as a sign of the person, as a manifestation of the spirit.

 The whole development of modern science, regarding the - body as an organism, has rather the character of biological knowledge, because it is based on the separation, in man, of that which is corporeal in him from that which is spiritual. Using such a one-sided knowledge of the functions of the body as an organism, it is not difficult to arrive at treating the body, in a more or less systematic way, as an object of manipulations. In this case man ceases, so to speak, to identify himself subjectively with his own body, because it is deprived of the meaning and the dignity deriving from the fact that this body is proper to the person. We here touch upon problems often demanding fundamental solutions, which are impossible without an integral view of man.
Need of adequate spiritual maturity

 4. Precisely here it appears clear that the theology of the body, which we derive from those key texts of Christ's words, becomes the fundamental method of pedagogy, that is, of man's education from the point of view of the body, in full consideration of his masculinity and femininity. That pedagogy can be understood under the aspect of a specific "spirituality of the body''. The body, in fact, in its masculinity or femininity is given as a task to the human spirit (this was expressed in a stupendous way by St. Paul in his own characteristic language), and by means of an adequate maturity of the spirit it too becomes a sign of the person, of which the person is conscious, and authentic "matter" in the communion of the persons. In other words: man, through his spiritual maturity, discovers the nuptial meaning proper to the body.

 Christ's words in the Sermon on the Mount indicate that lust in itself does not reveal that meaning to man, but on the contrary dims and obscures it. Purely 'biological" knowledge of the functions of the body as an organism, connected with the masculinity and femininity of the human person, is capable of helping to discover the true nuptial meaning of the body, only if it is accompanied by an adequate spiritual maturity of the human person. Otherwise, such knowledge can have quite the opposite effect; and this is confirmed by many experiences of our time.

 5. From this point of view it is necessary to consider prudently the pronouncements of the modern Church. Their adequate understanding and interpretation, as well as their practical application (that is, precisely, pedagogy) demands that deep theology of the body which, in a word, we derive mainly from the key words of Christ. As for the pronouncements of the Church in modern times, it is necessary to study the chapter entitled "The dignity of marriage and the family", of the pastoral Constitution of the Second Vatican Council (Gaudium et Spes, part II, chap. I) and, subsequently, Paul VI's encyclical Humanae Vitae. Without any doubt, the words of Christ, which we have analyzed at great length, had no other purpose than to emphasize the dignity of marriage and the family; hence the fundamental convergence between them and the content of both the above mentioned statements of the modern Church. Christ was speaking to the man of all times and places; the pronouncements of the Church aim at applying Christ's words to the here and now, and therefore they must be reread according to the key of that theology and that pedagogy which find roots and support in Christ's words.

 It is difficult here to make a total analysis of the cited pronouncements of the supreme Magisterium of the Church. We will confine ourselves to quoting some passages. Here is how the Second Vatican Council placing among the most urgent problems of the Church in the modern world "the dignity of marriage and the family" - characterizes the situation that exists in this area: "The happy picture of the dignity of these partnerships (that is, marriage and the family) is not reflected everywhere, but is overshadowed by polygamy, the plague of divorce, so-called free love, and similar blemishes; furthermore, married love is too often dishonored by selfishness, hedonism, and unlawful contraceptive practices" (Gaudium et Spes, 47). Paul VI, setting forth this last problem in the encyclical Humanae Vitae, writes among other things: "Another thing that gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection" (Humanae Vitae, 17).

 Are we not here in the sphere of the same concern which once dictated Christ's words on the unity and indissolubility of marriage, as well as those of the Sermon on the Mount, concerning purity of heart and mastery of the lust of the flesh, words that were later developed with so much acuteness by the Apostle Paul?
Demands of Christian morality

 6. In the same spirit the author of the encyclical Humanae Vitae, speaking of the demands of Christian morality, presents, at the same time, the possibility of fulfilling them, when he writes: "The mastery of instinct by one's reason and free will undoubtedly demands an asceticism - Paul VI uses this term - so that the affective manifestations of conjugal life may be in keeping with right order, in particular with regard to the observance of periodic continence. Yet this discipline which is proper to the purity of married couples, far from harming conjugal love, rather confers on it a higher human value. It demands a continual effort (precisely this effort was called above "asceticism"), yet, thanks to its beneficent influence, husband and wife fully develop their personalities, enrich each other with spiritual values . . . It favors attention for one's partner, helps both parties to drive out selfishness, the enemy of true love, and deepens their sense of responsibility . . ." (Humanae Vitae, 21).
Need of Magisterial pronouncements

 7. Let us pause on these few passages. They - particularly the last one - clearly show how indispensable, for an adequate understanding of the pronouncement of the Magisterium of the modern Church, is that theology of the body, whose foundations we sought especially in the words of Christ himself. It is precisely that theology - as we have already said - that becomes the fundamental method of the whole Christian pedagogy of the body. Referring to the words quoted, it can be affirmed that the purpose of the pedagogy of the body lies precisely in ensuring that the "affective manifestations" - particularly those "proper to conjugal life" - be in conformity with the moral order, or, in a word, with the dignity of the persons. In these words there returns the problem of the mutual relationship between "ergs" and "ethos", with which we have already dealt. Theology, understood as a method of the pedagogy of the body, prepares us also for further reflections on the sacramentality of human life and, in particular, of married life.

 The Gospel of purity of heart, yesterday and today: concluding with this phrase this cycle of our considerations - before going on to the next one, in which the basis of analyses will be Christ's words on the resurrection of the body - we still wish to devote some attention to "the need of creating an atmosphere favorable to education in chastity", with which Paul VI's Encyclical deals (cf. Humanae Vitae, 22), and we wish to focus these observations on the problem of the ethos of the body in works of artistic culture, with particular reference to the situations we encounter in modern life.
GENERAL AUDIENCE: 15 APRIL, 1981
The human subject of works of art

 To the thousands of faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square for the Wednesday general audience of 15 April, Pope John Paul delivered the following discourse.

 Today's audience falls in the course of Holy Week, the "great" week of the Liturgical Year, because it makes us relive very closely the paschal mystery, in which "the revelation of God's merciful love reaches its climax" (cf. Encycl. Dives in Misericordia, n. 8).

 While I call on each of you to take part fervently in the liturgical celebrations of these days, I form the hope that everyone will recognize with exultation and gratitude the unique gift of having been saved by the passion and death of Christ. The whole history of humanity is illuminated and guided by this incomparable event: God, infinite goodness, poured it out with inexpressible love by means of Christ's supreme sacrifice. So while we prepare to raise our hymn of glory to Christ, the conqueror of death, we must eliminate from our souls everything that may be in contrast with a meeting with him. To see him through faith, it is necessary, in fact, to be purified by the sacrament of forgiveness and sustained by the persevering commitment of a deep renewal of the spirit and of that interior conversion which is the start in ourselves of the "new creation " (2 Cor 5 :17), of which the Risen Christ is the first fruits and the certain pledge.

 Then Easter will represent for each of us a meeting with Christ. It is what I earnestly wish for everyone.
Control of the body "in holiness and honor"

 1. In our preceding reflections - both in the analysis of Christ's words, in which he refers to the "beginning", and during the Sermon on the Mount, that is, when He refers to the human "heart" - we have tried, systematically, to show how the dimension of man's personal subjectivity is an indispensable element present in theological hermeneutics, which we must discover and presuppose at the basis of the problem of the human body. Therefore not only the objective reality of the body, but far more, as it seems, subjective consciousness and also the subjective "experience" of the body, enter at every step into the structure of the biblical texts, and therefore require to be taken into consideration and find their reflection in theology. Consequently theological hermeneutics. must always take these two aspects into account. We cannot consider the body an objective reality outside the personal subjectivity of man, of human beings: male and female. Nearly all the problems of the "ethos of the body" are bound up at the same time with its ontological identification as the body of the person, and with the content and quality of the subjective experience, that is, of the "life" both of one's own body and in its interhuman relations, and in particular in the perennial "man - woman" relationship. Also the words of the first Letter to the Thessalonians, in which the author exhorts us to "control our own body in holiness and honor" (that is, the whole problem of "purity of heart") indicate, without any doubt, these two dimensions.
Dimensions concerning attitudes of persons

 2. They are dimensions which directly concern concrete, living men, their attitudes and behavior, Works of culture, especially of art, enable those dimensions of "being a body" and "experiencing the body" to extend, in a way, outside these living men. Man meets the "reality of the body" and "experiences the body" even when it becomes a subject of creative activity, a work of art, a content of culture. Although, generally speaking, it must be recognized that this contact takes place on the plane of aesthetic experience, in which it is a question of viewing - the work of art (in Greek aistha nomad: I look, I observe) - and therefore that, in the given ease, it is a question of the objectivized body, outside its ontological identity, in a different way and according to the criteria characteristic of artistic activity - yet the man who is admitted to viewing in this way is a priori too deeply bound up with the meaning of the prototype, or model, which in this case is himself: - the living man and the living human body - to be able to detach and separate completely that act, substantially an aesthetic one, of the work in itself and of its contemplation from those dynamisms or reactions of behavior, and from the evaluations which direct that first experience and that first way of living. This looking, which is, by its very nature, "aesthetic", cannot be completely isolated, in man's subjective conscience, from that "looking" of which Christ speaks in the Sermon on the Mount: warning against lust.
Creating climate favorable to purity

 3. In this way, therefore, the whole sphere of aesthetic experiences is, at the same time, in the area of the ethos of the body. Rightly, therefore, we must think here too of the necessity of creating a climate favorable to purity; this climate can, in fact, be threatened not only in the very way in which the relations and society of living men take place, but also in the area of the objectivizations characteristic of works of culture, in the area of social communications: when it is a question of the spoken or written word; in the area of the image, that is, of representation and vision, both in the traditional meaning of this term and in the modern one. In this way we reach the various fields and products of artistic, plastic and dramatic culture, as also that based on modern audiovisual techniques. In this field, a vast and very differentiated one, we must ask ourselves a question in the light of the ethos of the body, outlined in the analyses made so far, on the human body as an object of culture.
Living human body creates object of art

 4. First of all it must be noted that the human body is a perennial object of culture, in the widest meaning of the term, for the simple reason that man himself is a subject of culture, and in his cultural and creative activity he involves his humanity, including also his body. In these reflections, however, we must restrict the concept of "object of culture", limiting ourselves to the concept understood as the "subject" of works of culture and in particular of works of art. It is a question, in a word, of the thematic nature, that is, of the "objectivation" of the body in these works. Some distinctions must, however, be made here at once, even if by way of example. One thing is the living human body, of man and of woman, which creates in itself the object of art and the work of art (such as, for example, in the theater, in the ballet and, up to a certain point, also in the course of a concert); and another thing is the body as the model of the work of art, as in the plastic arts, sculpture or painting. Is it possible to put also films or the photographic art in a wide sense on the same level? It seems so, although from the point of view of the body as object - theme, a quite essential difference takes place in this case. In painting or sculpture the man - body always remains a model, undergoing specific elaboration on the part of the artist. In the film, and even more in the photographic art, it is not the model that is transfigured, but the living man is reproduced: and in this ease man, the human body, is not a model for the work of art, but the object of a reproduction obtained by means of suitable techniques.
Important distinction

 5. It should be pointed out straight away that the above-mentioned distinction is important from the point of view of the ethos of the body, in works of culture. And it should be added at once that artistic reproduction, when it becomes the content of representation and transmission (on television or in films), loses, in a way, its fundamental contact with the man - body, of which it is a reproduction, and very often becomes an "anonymous" object, just like, for example, an anonymous photographic document published in illustrated magazines, or an image diffused on the screens of the whole world. This anonymity is the effect of the "propagation" of the image - reproduction of the human body, objectivized first with the help of the techniques of reproduction, which - as has been recalled above - seems to be essentially differentiated from the transfiguration of the model typical of the work of art, especially in the plastic arts. Well, this anonymity (which, moreover, is a way of "veiling" or "hiding" the identity of the person reproduced) also constitutes a specific problem from the point of view of the ethos of the human body in works of culture and particularly in the modern works of mass culture, as it is called.

 Let us confine ourselves today to these preliminary considerations, which have a fundamental meaning for the ethos of the human body in works of artistic culture. Subsequently these considerations will make us aware of how closely bound they are to the words which Christ spoke in the sermon on the Mount, comparing "looking lustfully" with adultery committed in the heart". The extension of these words to the area of artistic culture is of particular importance, insofar as it is a question of "creating an atmosphere favorable to chastity", of which Paul VI speaks in his encyclical "Humanae Vitae". Let us try to understand this subject in a very deep and fundamental way.
GENERAL AUDIENCE: 22 APRIL, 1981
Reflections on the ethos of human body in works of artistic culture

 On Wednesday, 22 April, an estimated 25,000 people were present in St. Peter's Square for the general audience at 5:00 p.m. The Holy Father delivered the following address.

 Dear Brothers and Sisters,

 Paschal joy is still alive and present within us during this solemn octave, and the liturgy makes us repeat fervently: "The Lord has risen, as he had foretold; let us all rejoice and exult, because he reigns for ever, alleluia".

 So let us prepare our hearts for grace and joy; let us raise our sacrifice of praise to the paschal victim, because the Lamb has redeemed his flock and the Innocent One has reconciled us sinners with the Father.

 Christ, our Pasch, has risen and we have risen with him, so that we must seek the things of Heaven, where Christ sits at the right hand of God, and we must also enjoy the things that are above, according to the invitation of the Apostle Paul (cf. Col 3: 1-2).

 While God makes us pass, in Christ, from death to life, from darkness to light, preparing us for heavenly goods, we must aim at goals of luminous works, in justice and in truth. The way we have to traverse is a long one, but God strengthens and sustains our unshakable hope of victory: may meditation on the paschal mystery accompany us in a particular way in these days.
A problem with very deep root

 1. Let us now reflect - with regard to Christ's words uttered in the Sermon on the Mount - on the problem of the ethos of the human body in works of artistic culture. This problem has very deep roots. It is opportune to recall here the series of analyses carried out in connection with Christ's reference to the "beginning", and subsequently to the reference he made to the human "heart", in the Sermon on the Mount. The human body - the naked human body in the whole truth of its masculinity and femininity - has the meaning of a gift of the person to the person. The ethos of the body, that is, the ethical norms that govern its nakedness, because of the dignity of the personal subject, is closely connected with that system of reference, understood as the nuptial system, in which the giving of one party meets the appropriate and adequate response of the other party to the gift. This response decides the reciprocity of the gift.

 The artistic objectivation of the human body in its male and female nakedness, in order to make it first of all a model and then the subject of the work of art, is always to a certain extent a going outside of this original and, for the body, its specific configuration of interpersonal donation. That constitutes, in a way, an uprooting of the human body from this configuration and its transfer to the dimension of artistic objectivation: the specific dimension of the work of art or of the reproduction typical of the film and photographic techniques of our time.

 In each of these dimensions - and in a different way in each one - the human body loses that deeply subjective meaning of the gift, and becomes an object destined for the knowledge of many, in such a way that those who look at, assimilate or even, in a way, take possession of, what evidently exists, in fact should exist essentially at the level of a gift, made by the person to the person, not just in the image but in the living man. Actually, that "taking possession" already happens at another level - that is, at the level of the object of the transfiguration or artistic reproduction. However it is impossible not to perceive that from the point of view of the ethos of the body, deeply understood, a problem arises here. A very delicate problem, which has its levels of intensity according to various motives and circumstances both as regards artistic activity, and as regards knowledge of the work of art or of its reproduction. The fact that this problem is raised does not mean that the human body, in its nakedness, cannot become a subject of works of art - but only that this problem is not purely aesthetic, nor morally indifferent.
Original shame a permanent element

 2. In our preceding analyses (especially with regard to Christ's reference to the "beginning"), we devoted a great deal of space to the meaning of shame, trying to understand the difference between the situation - and the state - of original innocence, in which "they were both naked, and were not ashamed" (Gen 2:25) and, subsequently, between the situation - and the state - of sinfulness, in which there arose between man and woman, together with shame, the specific necessity of privacy with regard to their own bodies.

 In the heart of man, subject to lust, this necessity serves, even indirectly, to ensure the gift and the possibility of mutual donation. This necessity also forms man's way of acting as "an object of culture", in the widest meaning of the term. If culture shows an explicit tendency to cover the nakedness of the human body, it certainly does so not only for climatic reasons, but also in relation to the process of growth of man's personal sensitivity. The anonymous nakedness of the man - object contrasts with the progress of the truly human culture of morals. It is probably possible to confirm this also in the life of so-called primitive populations. The process of refining personal human sensitivity is certainly a factor and fruit of culture.

 Beyond the need of shame, that is, of the privacy of one's own body (on which the biblical sources give such precise information in Gen 3), there is a deeper norm: that of the gift, directed towards the very depths of the personal subject or towards the other person - especially in the man - woman relationship according to the perennial norms regulating the mutual donation. In this way, in the processes of human culture, understood in the wide sense, we note - even in man's state of hereditary sinfulness - quite an explicit continuity of the nuptial meaning of the body in its masculinity and femininity. That original shame, known already from the first chapters of the Bible, is a permanent element of culture and morals. It belongs to the genesis of the ethos of the human body.
Personal sensitivity

 3. The man of developed sensitivity overcomes, with difficulty and interior resistance, the limit of that shame. This is seen clearly even in situations which justify the necessity of undressing the body, such as, for example, in the case of medical examinations or operations. Mention should also be made particularly of other circumstances, such as, for example, those of concentration camps or places of extermination, where the violation of bodily shame is a method used deliberately to destroy personal sensitivity and the sense of human dignity.

 The same rule is confirmed everywhere - though in different ways.

 Following personal sensitivity, man does not wish to become an object for others through his own anonymous nakedness, nor does he wish the other to become an object for him in a similar way. Evidently "he does not wish" this to the extent to which he lets himself be guided by the sense of the dignity of the human body. There are, in fact, various motives which can induce, incite and even press man to act in a way contrary to the requirements of the dignity of the human body, a dignity connected with personal sensitivity. It cannot be forgotten that the fundamental interior "situation" of "historical" man is the state of threefold lust (cf. 1 Jn 2:16). This state - and, in particular, the lust of the flesh - makes itself felt in various ways, both in the interior impulses of the human heart and in the whole climate of interhuman relations and social morals.
When deep governing rules are violated

 4. We cannot forget this, not even when it is a question of the broad sphere of artistic culture, particularly that of visual and spectacular character, as also when it is a question of "mass" culture, so significant for our times and connected with the use of the media of audiovisual communication. A question arises: when and in what case is this sphere of man's activity - from the point of view of the ethos of the body - regarded as "pornovision", just as in literature some writings were and are often regarded as "pornography" (this second term is an older one).

 Both take place when the limit of shame, that is, of personal sensitivity with regard to what is connected with the human body, with its nakedness, is overstepped, when in the work of art or by means of the media of audiovisual reproauction the right to the privacy of the body in its masculinity or femininity, is violated - and in the last analysis - when those deep governing rules of the gift and of mutual do nation, which are inscribed in this femininity and masculinity through the whole structure of the human being, are violated. This deep inscription - or rather incision - decides the nuptial meaning of the human body, that is, of the fundamental call it receives to form the "communion of persons" and take part in it.

 Breaking off at this point our consideration which we intend to continue next Wednesday, it should be noted that observance or non-observance of these norms, so deeply connected with man's personal sensitivity, cannot be a matter of indifference for the problem of "creating a climate favorable to chastity" in life and social education.
GENERAL AUDIENCE: 29 APRIL, 1981
Art must not violate the right to privacy

 Thousands gathered in St. Peter's Square in the afternoon of Wednesday, 29 April, for the weekly General Audience. Continuing his treatment of the theology of the human body, the Holy Father delivered the following address.

 Before his main address the Holy Father spoke on St. Catherine of Siena whose feast occurs on this day.

 Dear Brothers and Sisters,

 Today's Audience falls on the feast of St. Catherine of Siena, the Patron Saint of Italy together with St. Francis of Assisi. The memory of the humble and wise Dominican Virgin fills the hearts of us all with spiritual exultation and makes us thrill with joy in the Holy Spirit, because the Lord of heaven and earth has revealed his secrets to the simple (cf. Lk 10:21). Catherine's message, animated by pure faith, fervent love and tireless dedication to the Church, concerns each of us and sweeps us along sweetly to generous imitation. I am glad, therefore, to address a special greeting to the Italians present at this: meeting and to the whole dear Italian people.

 Listen, dear faithful, to these words of St. Catherine: "In the light of faith I acquire wisdom, in the: light of faith I am strong, constant and persevering; in the light of faith I hope: I do not let myself stop along the road. This light teaches me the way" (Dialogue, chap. CLXVII).

 Let us implore through her intercession an ever deeper and more ardent faith, so that Christ may be the light of our way, of that of our families and of the whole of society, thus ensuring beloved Italy true peace, founded on justice and above all - on respect of divine law, for which the great Saint of Siena yearned.

 1. We have already dedicated a series of reflections to the meaning of the words spoken by Christ in the Sermon on the Mount, in which he exhorts to purity of heart, calling attention even to the "lustful looks". We cannot forget these words of Christ even when it is a question of the vast sphere of artistic culture, particularly that of a visual and spectacular character, as also when it is a question of the sphere of "mass. Culture - so significant for our times - connected with the use of the audiovisual communications media. We said recently that the above-mentioned sphere of man's activity is sometimes accused of "porno-vision", just as the accusation of "pornography" is made with regard to literature. Both facts take place by going beyond the limit of shame, that is, of personal sensitivity with regard to what is connected with the human body, with its nakedness, when in the artistic work by means of the media of audiovisual production the right to the privacy of the body in its masculinity or femininity is violated, and - in the last analysis - when that intimate and constant destination to the gift and to mutual donation, which is inscribed in that femininity and masculinity through the whole structure of the being - man is violated. That deep inscription, or rather incision, decides the nuptial meaning of the body, that is, the' fundamental call it receives to form a "communion of persons" and to participate in it.
The human body as model or subject

 2. It is obvious that in works of art, or in the products of audiovisual artistic reproduction, the above mentioned constant destination to the gift, that is, that deep inscription of the meaning of the human body, can be violated only in the intentional order of the reproduction and the representation; it is a question, in fact - as has already been previously said - of the human body as model or subject. However, if the sense of shame and personal sensitivity are offended in these cases, that happens because of their transfer to the dimension of "social communication", therefore owing to the fact that what, in man's rightful feeling, belongs and must belong strictly to the interpersonal relationship - which is linked, as has already been pointed out, with the "communion of persons itself", and in its sphere corresponds to the interior truth of man, and so also to the complete truth about man - becomes, so to speak, public property.

 At this point it is not possible to agree with the representatives of so-called naturalism, who demand the right to "everything that is human" in works of art and in the products of artistic reproduction, affirming that they act in this way in the name of the realistic truth about man. It is precisely this truth about man - the whole truth about man - that makes it necessary to take into consideration both the sense of the privacy of the body and the consistence of the gift connected with the masculinity and femininity of the body itself, in which the mystery of man, peculiar to the interior structure of the person, is reflected. This truth about man must be taken into consideration also in the artistic order, if we want to speak of a full realism.
Value of body in interpersonal communion

 3. In this case, therefore, it is evident that the deep governing rule related to the "communion of persons" is in profound agreement with the vast and differentiated area of "communication". The human body in its nakedness - as we stated in the preceding analyses (in which we referred to Gen 2:25) - understood as a manifestation of the person and as his gift, that is, a sign of trust and donation to the other person, who is conscious of the gift, and who is chosen and resolved to respond to it in an equally personal way, becomes the source of a particular - interpersonal "communist action" .

 As has already been said, this is a particular communication in humanity itself. That interpersonal communication penetrates deeply into the system of communion (communio personarum), and at the same time grows from it and develops correctly within it. Precisely because of the great value of the body in this system of interpersonal "communion", to make of the body in its nakedness - which expresses precisely "the element" of the gift - the object - subject of the work of art or of the audiovisual reproduction, is a problem which is not only aesthetic, but at the same time also ethical. In fact, that "element of the gift" is, so to speak, suspended in the dimension of an unknown reception and an unforeseen response, and thereby it is in a way " threatened" in the order of intention, in the sense that it may become an anonymous object of "appropriation", an object of abuse. Precisely for this reason the integral truth about man constitutes, in this case, the foundation of the norm according to which the good or evil of determined actions, of behavior, of morals and situations, is modeled. The truth about man, about what is particularly personal and interior in him - precisely because of his body and his sex (femininity-masculinity) - creates here precise limits which it is unlawful to exceed.
Recognizing limits

 4. These limits must be recognized and observed by the artist who makes the human body the object, model or subject of the work of art or of the audiovisual reproduction. Neither he nor others who are responsible in this field have the right to demand, propose or bring it about that other men, invited, exhorted or admitted to see, to contemplate the image, should violate those limits together with them, or because of them. It is a question of the image, in which that which in itself constitutes the content and the deeply personal value, that which belongs to the order of the gift and of the mutual donation of person to person, is, as a subject, uprooted from its own authentic substratum, to become, through "social communication", an object and what is more, in a way, an anonymous object.

 5. The whole problem of "porno-vision" and "pornography", as can be seen from what is said above, is not the effect of a puritanical mentality or of a narrow moralism, just as it is not the product of a thought imbued with Manichaeism. It is a question of an extremely important, fundamental sphere of values, before which man cannot remain indifferent because of the dignity of humanity, the personal character and the eloquence of the human body. All those contents and values, by means of works of art and the activity of the audiovisual media, can be modeled. and studied, but also can be distorted and destroyed "in the heart" of man. As can be seen, we find ourselves continually within the orbit of the words spoken by Christ in the Sermon on the Mount. Also the problems which we are dealing with here must be examined in the light of those words, which consider a look that springs from lust as "adultery committed in the heart".

 It seems, therefore, that reflection on these problems, which are important to "create a climate favorable to education to chastity", constitutes an indispensable appendage to all the preceding analyses which we have dedicated to this subject in the course of the numerous Wednesday meetings.
GENERAL AUDIENCE: 6 MAY, 1981
Ethical responsibilities in art

 On Wednesday, 6 May, at the General Audience held in St. Peter's Square, the Holy Father concluded his reflections on the theology of the body based on the words of the Sermon on the Mount. The next chapter of his reflections will be based on Christ's words concerning future resurrection.

 Pope John Paul delivered the following address.

 1. In the Sermon on the Mount Christ spoke the words to which we have devoted a series of reflections in the course of almost a year. Explaining to his listeners the specific meaning of the commandment: "You shall not commit adultery", Christ expressed himself as follows: "But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Mt 5:28). The above-mentioned words seem to refer also to the vast spheres of human culture, especially those of artistic activity, with which we have already recently dealt in the course of some of the Wednesday meetings. Today it is opportune for us to dedicate the final part of these reflections to the problem of the relationship between the ethos of the image-or of the description-and the ethos of the viewing and listening, reading or other forms of cognitive reception with which one meets the content of the work of art or of audiovision understood in the broad sense.
The body in art

 2. And here we return once more to the problem already previously mentioned: if and to what extent can the human body, in the whole visible truth of its masculinity and femininity, be a subject of works of art and thereby a subject of that specific social "communication" for which these works are intended. This question refers even more to modern "mass" culture, connected with the audiovisual media. Can the human body be such a model-subject, since we know that with this is connected that objectivity "without choice" which we first called anonymity, and which seems to bring with it a serious potential threat to the whole sphere of meanings, peculiar to the body of man and woman because of the personal character of the human subject and the character of "communion" of interpersonal relations?

 One can add at this point that the expressions "pornography" or "pornovision" despite their ancient etymology-appeared in language relatively late. The traditional Latin terminology used the word obscacna, indicating in this way everything that should not appear before the eyes of spectators, what should be surrounded with opportune discretion, what cannot be presented to human view without any choice.
Body a model-subject

 3. Asking the preceding question, we realize that, de facto, in the course of whole periods of human culture and artistic activity, the human body has been and is such a model-subject of visual works of art, just as the whole sphere of love between man and woman, and, connected with it, also the "mutual donation" of masculinity and femininity in their corporeal expression, has been, is and will be a subject of literary narrative. Such narration found its place even in the Bible, especially in the text of the "Song of Songs", which it will be opportune to take up again on another occasion. In fact, it should be noted that in the history of literature or art, in the history of human culture, this subject seems particularly frequent and is particularly important.

 In fact, it concerns a problem which in itself is great and important. We showed this right from the beginning of our reflections, following the tracks of the scriptural texts, which reveal to us the proper dimension of this problem: that is, the dignity of man in his masculine and feminine corporeity, and the nuptial meaning of femininity and masculinity, inscribed in the whole interior - and at the same time visible - structure of the human person.
Special ethical responsibility

 4. Our preceding reflections did not intend to question the right to this subject. They aim merely at proving that its treatment is connected with a special responsibility which is not only artistic, but also ethical in nature. The artist, who undertakes that theme in any sphere of art or through audiovisual media, must be aware of the full truth of the object, of the whole scale of values connected with it; he must not only take them into account it' abstracto, but also live them correctly himself. This corresponds also to that principle of "purity of heart", which, in determined cases, must be transferred from the existential sphere of attitudes and ways of behavior to the intentional sphere of creation or artistic reproduction.

 It seems that the process of this creation aims not only at making the model concrete (and in a way at a new "materializing"), but, at the same time, at expressing in such concretizing what can be called the creative idea of the artist, in which his interior world of values, and so also his living the truth of his object, is precisely manifested. In this process there takes place a characteristic transfiguration of the model or of the material and, in particular, of what is man, the human body in the whole truth of its masculinity or femininity. (From this point of view, as we have already mentioned, there is a very important difference, for example, between the painting or sculpture and the photograph or film). The viewer, invited by the artist to look at his work, communicates not only with the concretizing, and so, in a sense, with a new "materializing" of the model or of the material, but at the s