OF THE UNITY AND INDISSOLUBILITY OF MARRIAGE

Pope John Paul II from his General Audience on 5 September 1979. Read the text on EWTN

Transcription of commentary.

That was the first of the 133 talks in Professor Waldstein’s edition of the Theology of the Body talks “Man and Women he created them”. I would like to go back over some of the key things we heard from John Paul II, or John Paul the Great as some have called him. This year 2010 is the 90th year since John Paul II was born as Karol Wojtyla, and it’s the 5th year since he died in 2005. 
In this first of the Wednesday Audiences on the Theology of the Body, we see things which are constant throughout the working, the writing, the teaching, the preaching of Karol Wojtyla become John Paul II. More than five (5) times in this one talk he refers to “reason.” He gives reasons, he recognizes reasons, he quotes scripture regarding reason, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother.” This is the ability of the human intelligence, our natural understanding, the ability to know. As a younger man John Paul II had studied philosophy, he had sought natural wisdom allied with supernatural wisdom given by grace, faith, and revelation and he deals with both of these in this first talk and in point of fact the rest of talks as well.
In subsequent presentations the Holy Father made reference to his undertaking, a precise analysis. He’s not just shooting off the cuff here, this has been a considered discourse. He meant what he said and he believes Jesus Christ meant what He said and that God the Father Almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth of all that is seen and unseen meant what He meant when He created the heavens and the Earth as an expression of His good will towards us as a self revelation. A precise analysis looks at all the details and puts them together and so our Holy Father lays the ground work in this first presentation of what he will do. He will give us a precise analysis of what it means to be human – to be male to be female, to be creatures of the Creator. He gives a reason for his study. While the Holy Father only mentions “casuistry” one time it is important for us to point out what this means. The casuists were those who were doing moral reasoning trying to figure out what was permissible and what was not. The Holy Father is not trying to be a casuist but to know and speak about what is the reality of the situation. And in their better days the casuists were too but there was a decadent casuistry. Sometimes abusing the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, the back flips they would do trying to make sense of things. In this context the Holy Father is reminding us that Jesus was not a casuist but was just trying to remind us of the original intention of the creator. #00:13:29.5#
Not only does the Holy Father try to speak to us about reason and precise analization and casuistry, but also he seeks “normative meaning.” What does it mean to speak about “in the beginning.” Part of John Paul II early formation was in philology which is the science of words, the origin of words, and we see the philology coming out here. We also see ethics, part of his strong philosophical background. The normative meaning is the controlling meaning. What is the truth of the matter? The truth about the beginning, the truth about our very being, our being human from the beginning, the beginning of my personal existence, our beginning as a race, male and female.
Some people have said this Theology of the Body, these Wednesday catechesis, given by our Holy Father John Paul II are a “time bomb”, a theological time bomb waiting to go off because the more and more we understand better who we are and Whose we are, in Whose image we are made, to the extent we act well upon this information, then the reign of God will be among us. Not only by the Incarnation, not only by the death and resurrection of the Lord or His presence in His Body and Blood but even in us, made to his image. We have been given “free will”, with the ability to know and to love, powers of our soul, that we not love only with our soul or with our heart, but we incarnate our love. Our love is made manifest by an outstretched hand, by a pat on the back, a shoulder to cry on, tears of joy or tears of sorrow. Normative meaning, what does it mean? We are hardwired to seek the truth. That is part of what it means to be a human being. Jesus reminds us in the Gospel that He “is the way the truth and the life.” Pilate was the one who rejected truth “What is truth?”. Our Holy Father is not a relativist and he invites us not to be relativists but to seek and know the truth who is Christ, who gives meaning to our lives, who gives meaning to our suffering, who gives us a goal. Not only a holy life in the here and now but eternal bliss on high in His mercy, in His justice.
Some people will say that things mean what you want them to mean. Well if somebody tells you “I love you, I love you.’ and they keep giving a black eye or a bloody nose, question their meaning. “Oh, I respect you.” but they steal your property, question their meaning. Actions speak louder than words we are often told and so too our actions. The actions of every human being reveal the dispositions of the heart. 
The Holy Father gives his philological study, or begins his philological study on what “the beginning” means: when was it, how was it. But he also gives us that $5 term so important in the theology, the understanding of, what is holy marriage. “indissoluble”. He only uses it once here, but it is kind of like a bedrock for the reality which is Holy Marriage. That is something also throughout this first talk,” Male and Female He created them.” Holy marriage is between one man and one woman, for life open, to the gift of life. 
There will be much more of this in subsequent talks, perhaps that is what some people mean when they speak about the explosive force found in this sure and certain teaching of Holy Mother Church. The Pope just did not speak as a jolly old fellow over there in Rome. He was very conscious of being the successor to St. Peter who in his first letter found in the New Testament, 1 Peter 3:15, inspired by the Holy Spirit, “always be ready to give reason to the hope that is in you.” Hope we know is a theological virtue, a longing for Heaven. Not just for sunny weather or a better job. It’s a longing for Heaven and Holy Marriage, life in that communion, in that life and love, is a sure ticket to Heaven. But it is only so when lived out in accord with God’s plan for it. From the begging indissolubility, that it does not dissolve like a bouillon cube in warm water to make soup or alka-seltzer in your medicinal water to cure your tummy. Those dissolve, the bouillon cube or the alka-seltzer, but Holy Marriage rightly entered into between one man and one woman, free to marry without any impediments, exchanged their vows, give their consent, give themselves to each other. The gift of self, this is the normative meaning of Holy Marriage accessible to reason although confirmed likewise in Sacred Scripture and divine revelation. Do we really understand these things? We should. Our Holy Father has gone to great lengths to help us understand the truth about marriage, the truth about our human nature, our very being. And if we work with him in studying these so many texts, we will develop our understanding in a better and better way.
Mirroring more and more the God who made us to know Him and to love Him even to serve Him in this world that we might be happy with Him forever in the next, Pope John Paul II was the Bishop of Rome for 27 years and not only did he know he was “to give reason for the hope that was within” him he also knew that when he said what he said people would listen. Because he did not speak as a private citizen in these Wednesday audience, he spoke as the Bishop of Rome, the successor St. Peter to whom the Lord had addressed those words “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against her. What you bind on earth is bound in Heaven and what you loose on Earth is loosed in Heaven.” Catholics see in those sacred words uttered by our saving Lord the foundation of His Church, Christ’s Church. We love the popes but we love them because they lead us to Christ. And when we act in accordance to our nature, male and female we have been created, then we are pleasing in the sight of God and in His grace in mercy our salvation is well assured. 
Our Holy Father in these so many talks cites Sacred Scripture so frequently. In this first talk he sites two passages from Genesis and one from St. Matthew. We’ll see throughout the subsequent talks how he uses Sacred Scripture  as the soul of his theology. Having been a Father at the Second Vatican Council, where Sacred Scripture was exhorted to be the soul of all reflection on God. Theology is the science of God, what we know about God, either naturally or by revelation. Scripture is to be the soul of all theology. So we can see that Pope John Paul II, like his successor after him Benedict XVI, they are both men of the Sacred Text. Even if they do not limit themselves to being a “religion of the book” for there is only one Word and “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” the Word is Christ Jesus our Lord who became a man in all things but sin to save us from our sins. Jesus Christ who was a man among men with flesh and blood like you and I.  Who grew hungry, who grew tired, who suffered and died. We worship Him however because on the third day he rose and he promises us life on high with Himself even if we anticipate it now by His grace, by holy living in the here and now. As it was in the beginning before the fall, before our first parents disregarded the holy will of God, and acted contrary to reason which is another way to say ‘sinned’, and broke their friendship and relationship with God and damaged their own relationship with each other. 
Our Holy Father will speak to us about that original state, the “original justice”, of man and woman, “original holiness”, the gifts God has given “in the beginning” and how they were lost, how they were forfeited, and how they might have been improved upon and how they have been improved upon thanks to the goodness of God: His generosity, His grace, His love for us. ?
One final note. The Holy Father John Paul II in this first catechesis on the Theology of the Body addresses what is meant by “beginning” in our Lord’s appeal to “the beginning.” He makes reference to the synod of bishops. A synod is a gathering or an assembly. In the early Church before 1054 when there was the schism with the Greeks or the 1500s when the West split up with Henry VIII, Martin Luther, and John Calvin, meetings of bishops would happen primarily by region. There have only been 21 ecumenical synods or councils: Vatican II being the 21st of the them. But there were many local synods. In the United States we have had the provincial synods of Baltimore, which encompassed at the time the whole country United States of America. Certain diocese will have a synod, a meeting of so many of the priests and the lay faithful to discuss topics of the day under the direction of the bishop. 
Pope John Paul II had been present at every synod of bishops since it had been re-instituted by Pope Paul VI, until his death. He had called one which Benedict XVI led, the synod on the Eucharist. But the synod of bishops he refers to in this opening catechesis in the Theology of the Body would prepare the way for post-synodal apostolic exhortation on the family. Familiaris Consortio. Let us always seek to be part of that family of God which we are by grace and Baptism. And let us do all that we can to bring others into that same divine family, children of our heavenly Father who has loved us so much that He sent His only Son to save us. “Born of a woman, born under the law” to save us from ourselves, to give us the grace that we need, to keep the Law, to fulfill the prophets. I speak of Jesus Christ, our Savior and God, may He be praised now and forever even as He has from the beginning.
(Until next time God bless you.)