I know that it has been a while since I last posted a reflection, so in case you forgot, I sometimes do this. Anyway, in honor of summer, I felt that it was important to start the break off with a reminder of the need for purity. While, the topic goes both towards guys and girls, I wanted to focus mainly on the guys perspective one because I am a guy and two because, Jackie Francois, the most amazing woman you will ever meet, does a great job, in an article she wrote for Life Teen, articulating the ladies perspective. Jackie’s article is entitled The Bikini Battle: Sexy vs. Beautiful, and can be found at the following link. If you are a girl at this point I encourage you to click over to Jackie's article but feel free to keep reading as well.
As we continue, the first question that must be asked is “What does it take to be a man?” Often in our highly sexualized culture, the very things that make being a guy so great become twisted and deformed. For example, one of the things that dominates being a man is the pursuit of beauty. Now some of you may be reading that with a confused look on your face but the fact of the matter is, the pursuit of beauty dominates the idea of man. Just think about it, why do you think man is so captivated by the feminine form? It is not just because she looks “hot” and it is not solely hormones. The fact of the matter is that deep down in our hearts there is an echo of pre-lapsarian (before the fall) Adam in each and every one of us.
In the garden, Adam dwelt with God and in that dwelling there was an intimacy with the Lord, and in that intimacy there was pondering and a penetrating of the deepest mysteries of God—Beauty in itself. But what do we mean by Beauty in itself? By the phrase “beauty in itself” we mean the source of all beauty; that by which all beauty has its being. For example, I know that I am beautiful, but while I am incredibly attractive, I am not beauty in itself for if I were, the moment that I died then the rest of the world’s beauty would also stop existing. So there is a distinction between finite beauty and infinite beauty.
In the garden, Adam dwelt with God and in that dwelling there was an intimacy with the Lord, and in that intimacy there was pondering and a penetrating of the deepest mysteries of God—Beauty in itself. But what do we mean by Beauty in itself? By the phrase “beauty in itself” we mean the source of all beauty; that by which all beauty has its being. For example, I know that I am beautiful, but while I am incredibly attractive, I am not beauty in itself for if I were, the moment that I died then the rest of the world’s beauty would also stop existing. So there is a distinction between finite beauty and infinite beauty.
So what does this have to do with women? To be blunt, it has everything to do with women. You see, while the pondering of the mystery of God is awesome, God still said “It is not good that man should be alone"… (Gen. 2:18); man needs someone like himself to be in communion with. So we all know how the story goes…Adam takes a nap, God takes his rib, Eve is created, and Adam responds. You see, it is this response that colors the point that I am trying to make, for at the moment of Eve’s creation, Adam gazed at her with such love and passion that the first recorded biblical emotional response is that of man’s awe and wonder at the beauty of female form.
In man’s pursuit of beauty, the object of that pursuit in our culture has become twisted. Instead of being in awe and wonder about the female form, man is told that true masculinity rests not in the pursuit but in the conquest and use of woman. No longer, is man fascinated by the mystery that is woman; rather, it is when little is left to the imagination that modern man responds. As Jackie pointed out in her article, Jason Everett mentions a study done by Princeton University. In that study, college aged men had their brains scanned as they were shown images of scantily clad women. What is interesting to point out is that while this was happening the part of the brain that is associated with “tool usage” lit up. In other words:
“Men tend to associate bikini-clad women with first-person action verbs such as I
“push,” “handle” and “grab” instead of the third-person forms such as she “pushes,”
“handles” and “grabs.” They associated fully clothed women, on the other hand, with the
third-person forms, indicating these women were perceived as in control of their own
actions.”
“push,” “handle” and “grab” instead of the third-person forms such as she “pushes,”
“handles” and “grabs.” They associated fully clothed women, on the other hand, with the
third-person forms, indicating these women were perceived as in control of their own
actions.”
Now guys, I don’t know about you, but that is not the kind of man that I want to be. I am not saying that chastity is the easiest of virtues to live as a guy, but what I am saying is that as man, God has placed in each and everyone of our hearts the desire to fight the battle and to keep fighting until the fight is won (2 Tim. 4:7). The problem is that our culture has told us that there is no longer a battle and unfortunately, many men have laid down their weapons and given up. As you enter this summer, I pray that all of you will rise to the challenge and live as men of God who are willing to fight for the integrity of our sisters in Christ. Let us remember that it is not in the pursuit of bodies in which our masculinity was created but it is in the pursuit of a person; person whose beauty can captivate us and point us back to that which is beauty in itself.
St. Joseph…Pray For Us.
St. Augustine…Pray For Us.
St. Pio…Pray for Us.
St Louis, King of France…Pray for Us.
Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati…Pray for Us.
Bl. John Paul the Great…Pray for Us.
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