Our bodies tell a divine story, making the invisible visible.
When we don’t have a clear understanding of the whys in life, it is difficult to have answers of conviction to questions such as: Who are we? Where do we come from? Where will we go?
From the beginning, God speaks to us of a solitude, called “original solitude.” St. John Paul II, in his writings on the Theology of the Body, delves into this theme of solitude. He concludes that the body of the first man, Adam, was incomplete and made no sense. Yet Adam’s loneliness was part of a deep awareness of himself. Adam understood his body, and therefore he understood his existence. But he also knew that something was missing; Adam recognized an ache in the depths of his heart. Adam knew that his body expressed a part of God’s plan for humanity. Adam’s identity and personhood were in his body as was the yearning to feel complete. God then created the other part of his plan called Eve, meaning “the first woman.”
Unfortunately, our first parents Adam and Eve decided to disconnect from God through disobedience, eating the fruit from the tree that God asked them not to eat from.
Today, we suffer from the same sin. We want to act and be like God without being in a relationship with Him, deciding who lives and who dies, which gender we want to be, and so on. Consequently, by acting this way we are rejecting the most precious gift that God can give to us, which is our life in union with His. Our life is a gift, the most valuable gift from God.
We are beloved children of God made in His image and likeness. For me, I like to say that I am a mother of three future saints of the Catholic Church, because it is my mission as given by God.
Even with all the daily blessings in our family, new challenges continue to arise as my children grow and come to know who God has made them be, creating great, new opportunities for conversations and learning moments together as a family. In the midst of searching to understand our existence, we can sometimes lose sight of God’s love and the desire that He has for us, for He knows what is best for us. Communication is the key to opening the door for dialogue, the door for a relationship, and should be the main bridge that connects the members of the family.
We tend to forget quickly or even disconnect from the beginning of our story due to our fallen nature bringing great challenges into our families, like a distorted vision or image of ourselves.
During our weekly catechesis at home, I always like to remind my children who they are, where they come from, and where they are going. These precious moments with my children have been one of the biggest blessings in my own life as God’s grace manifests His glory in our lives as a domestic church. It is a beautiful and humbling experience to have.
In my evangelization journey with my children, I never run away from these words: Be in the light of Jesus Who is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”
God is the author of life and, therefore, I honor this in my role as mother and first catechist to my children by speaking on topics such as the sacred worth of all life and the duty to protect it. This involves sharing about the unique miracle that takes place during the development of a baby in the mother’s womb, the importance of caring for the sick and the elderly at the end of their life, as well as the sacredness of the Sacrament of Marriage.
Today more than ever before, our world finds itself in a great conflict with the story of Genesis, lacking knowledge and a true comprehension for what we were made for. God has placed in our hearts the desire to know Him, love Him, and serve Him as the “Catechism of the Catholic Church” tells us. Therefore, in this pursuit for a deeper knowledge of ourselves and what we were created for, we are actually looking for true happiness which can only be found in our relationship with God.
We came from God the Creator, and we will return to Him one day in the hope of seeing His glory face to face. Thus, until then, we are called to sanctity.
We are all called to proclaim the truth about the human person to the world, who is made in image and likeness of God. Helping anyone who needs to connect with the truth about his or her identity is one of the seven works of mercy that we can do today.
“Male and Female, He Created Them” is the title of the letter of exhortation written by the Congregation for Catholic Education, looking for a path of dialogue and truth on the question of gender theory in education. It is also the main topic of this year’s annual Diocese of Fall River Pro-Life summer boot camp which takes place at Stonehill College in Easton, where the teens, ages 14-17, participate in age-appropriate talks focused on respect for the human person, as well as have the privilege of Mass, Confession, Adoration and more. The purpose of the event is to equip teens with the essentials they need to know about how to build a culture of life in today’s broken world.
This year’s theme was inspired by the great need for a deeper understanding of our identity as well as the beauty that it is in the differences between men and women.
To register or find out more information, about this event, contact idlecucca@dioc-fr.org, or Deborah Ledoux at dledoux@dioc-fr.org.
