Scholars Ponder on Theology of the Body and Christian Anthropology

The CTK Family and Life Ministry held a talk for the Ladies of Charity scholars last March 2 on the topic, ‘The Theology of the Body and Christian Anthropology’. Guest speaker was Bro. Rollie de los Reyes, Adviser for Courage, Philippines, a Catholic apostolate for persons experiencing ‘same sex attraction’. Kuya Rollie is also a licensed teacher and registered guidance counselor working at UP Diliman and a confessed ‘Bosconian youth at heart’.

Rollie started his talk with a quote from Pope Benedict XVI: ‘Look at the face of the other – discover that he has a soul, a history and a life. That he is a person and that God loves the person.’

Any discussion on theology, according to Rollie, starts with Michelangelo’s ‘Creation of Man’, one of the panels on the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican. It illustrated Genesis 1:27, ‘God created man in his image, in the divine image he created him.’ He then went on to enumerate six lessons:

1. Each person is composed of body and spirit. Without spirit, you have a corpse. Without a body, you have a ghost.
2. Body and spirit are intertwined. What you do with the body, you do to the spirit. For example, a parent lays a hand on a child, that child remembers the pain in his heart and soul.
3. The deepest need of every person is love. Unfortunately, a body and spirit that is scarred, abused, and traumaJzed will be like a cup with holes – it will leak and never get full. No maOer how much love is poured, the love never keeps.
4. The opposite of love is use. He quoted St. John Paul II who said that things should be used, but people should be loved. Rollie then asked the audience, ‘do you use or do you love your parents, your siblings, your friends?
5. We all need to know real love from imitaJon or false love.
6. We are created either male or female, both in body and spirit.

From there, Rollie went to Christian anthropology. He explained to the children that God gave man three things – free will to decide, reason to think, and a sense of wholeness. He also argued that only when a boy loves God and a girl loves God and when they love each other, that their love will last. It was St. Catherine of Siena who said, ‘Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.’ He also pointed out that a man and a woman complement one another. The male person is the sword, the one who thrusts, while the female person is the one who bears, like a deep cup or vessel. The male is the leader, the female the receiver, responder, and nurturer; the male is the strength of God, the female is the beauty of God. The male challenges himself, ‘Do I have what it takes?’ while the female challenges herself, ‘Am I beautiful?’

Brother Rollie ended by going through sections of the Catechism of the Catholic Church that dealt with sexuality, chief among them being – ‘sex is sacred’, and ‘there is no unity in man to man relationships nor in woman to woman relationships’.

Over 120 Ladies of Charity scholars attended the event.