The manifestation of the "I" and the gift of self - Part 1

I am continuing my journey through Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body and I had never realized how body-focused the 2nd and 3rd chapters of Genesis truly are. 

But then it all makes so much more sense when it was brought to my attention that the body we have been given in a manifestation of me, or to put it another way, the "I". And it goes beyond that still. Not only does it reveal me, but my body also reveals, in no small measure, the image of God. That is not to say that God is made of flesh like me as is depicted in so many Renaissance paintings. The old man in the sky is nothing like the God as revealed in the Bible. However, the love that God is, the holiness that he is, the justice he is, the righteousness that he is...all of it is shown to the world through my body. In a very real way, my body allows for others, and for me, to participate in the mystery (the hiddenness) of the image of God. That is by design; from the beginning. 

If God is revealed in nature (and he is), and if men and women were made in the image and likeness of God (and they are) then what more complete picture of God is there in the natural world than the body itself? And it goes even further still for the beholding of the glory of the Son of God himself (as communicated in John 1:14) could only be accomplished through the incarnation. The enfleshment. Jesus' body. Body to body he revealed the Father to us. Embodied being to embodied being he secured my salvation.

Is it any wonder that our bodies are under attack today? It shouldn't be. But that is a topic for another day.