The document discusses key concepts from the Theology of the Body including: - God created the human body to make visible the invisible spiritual reality of God's love and mystery. - Sexual love between a man and woman is meant to point to God's eternal love and His plan to "marry" humanity. - Jesus reveals that God's plan is for humanity to share in the eternal exchange of love between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

1. Freedom to Love The Theology of the Body Applied to Our Lives Our Lady of Peace Young Adult Group

2. Table of Contents A Brief Overview of the Theology of the Body Sex and the Meaning of Existence Understanding the Body as a “Theology” God’s Mystery & the Spousal Analogy Unmasking the Counterfeits For Freedom Christ Has Set Us Free What is Freedom The Dependence of Freedom on Truth How Do We Know the Truth? The Freedom for Which Christ Set Us Free The Holy Spirit is the Source of Freedom Love as I Have Loved You What is Love? Chastity & the Integration of Love Love & the “Unrepeatability” of the Person Living the Redemption of Sexuality Sex, Lies, & Redemption The “Great Divorce” Integration in Christ Some Practical Points

3. Review of: Sex and the Meaning of Existence Understanding the Body as a “Theology”

4. Theology of the Body “The body, and in fact, it alone, is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and divine. It was created to transfer into the visible reality of the world, the mystery hidden since time immemorial in God, and thus to be a sign of it” (TB, 76).

5. The body alone is capable of making visible what is invisible We must understand the true meaning of sexual love if we are to build a culture of life Our culture lies to us about sex and fertility The right response is more than “Don’t do it” The dignity of the body must be redeemed The body is a theology because God made man in the image of the Trinity Sex and the Meaning of Existence The Pill Commercial Condom Commercial

6. Understanding the Body as Theology We humans encounter the spiritual reality of God through the body The body and the soul should not be separated The human body is the original sign of the ultimate spiritual mystery God chose to show us who He is (His Mystery) through His Body He has destined us to share in that mystery

7. God’s Mystery and the Spousal Analogy

8. God’s Innermost Secret “God has revealed his innermost secret: God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange ” (CCC, n. 221)

9. Every Person is Looking for Love Looking for Love

10. Counterfeit Loves True Love

11. There is Hope There is a banquet that truly satisfies that hunger, that desire, deep in our hearts. It is the love of God. The love that we were destined to share in, from the very beginning. The eternal exchange of love.

12. Sexual Love Points Us to the Banquet God uses human images, human language to help us to understand His perfect love for us. The Song of Songs

13. The Bookends of the Bible Genesis 2:23 “ The man said: ‘This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.’ ” Revelation 22:17 “ The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ … Let the one who thirsts come forward.”

14. God’s Spouse On that day, says the LORD, She shall call me "My husband," … I will espouse you to me forever: I will espouse you in right and in justice, in love and in mercy; I will espouse you in fidelity, and you shall know the LORD. Hosea 2:19, 21-22

15. A Great Mystery “‘ For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This is a real mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the church” (Eph. 5:31-32)

16. God’s Revelation Genesis 2:23 “ The man said: ‘This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.’ ” Revelation 22:17 “ The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ … Let the one who thirsts come forward.” Hosea 2:19 “ On that day, says the LORD, She shall call me "My husband," Ephesians 5:31-32 “… the two shall become one flesh.’ This is a real mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church”

17. God’s Eternal Plan is to “marry” us God wants to be so close to us as to impregnate our humanity with His divine life.

18. Can God Marry us? On that day, says the LORD, She shall call me "My husband," … I will espouse you to me forever: I will espouse you in right and in justice, in love and in mercy; I will espouse you in fidelity, and you shall know the LORD. Hosea 2:19, 21-22

19. We Were Created for Heaven Every woman on the planet, for man, is a sign of Heaven. Every man on the planet, for woman, is a sign of Heaven. What a girl wants

20. He Gave Us a Sign God wanted this eternal plan of love and communion to be so plain and obvious to us that he stamped an image of it right in our very bodies. “‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This is a real mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the church” Ephesians 5:31-32

21. What is Sex? Sex is only sex to the degree that it allows us to participate in the love of Heaven

22. Pope John Paul the Great pray for us