The Man-Person Becomes a Gift in the Freedom of Loveby Pope John Paul II from this General Audience on 16 January 1980. Read text via EWTN.Thus far Pope John Paul II has been going through: the appeal Christ made to the beginning; the words of Christ; what is meant by the beginning; what is the meaning of original solitude; the meaning of original unity; of original nakedness; and here we are in man in the dimension of gift. The gift of our being, the gift of our bodies, the gift of life, the gift of faith, the freedom of the gift. No one forced God to make us. No one has forced God to redeem us. And similarly, no one should force us to embrace this man or this woman to be our wife, husband and no one should force us to embrace the faith but this strongly, highly recommended. Holy marriage is a gift from God; this man and this woman for life. And the Lord who is the giver of life blesses how many couples with children, God’s greatest gift in marriage? The Holy Father reminds us about the freedom of the gift, not too be coerced. So the freedom to marry is sought we must establish the couples’ freedom to marry. No outside pressures forcing them. No, this is a free gift of self each to the other. Spousal meaning to the body is a key aspect of this fifteenth catechesis. The Spousal meaning of the body in the mystery of creation has a double aspect. The mystery of creation that God the Father almighty has created the Heavens and the Earth and all that is therein, ourselves included. Part of the mystery of creation is this human being man and woman, male and female in the image of God to give to each other to be received by each other. That is part of the original plan of God, that is part of the mystery of creation: the spousal meaning, each for the other. The spousal meaning of the body, our Holy Father reminds us, explains man’s original happiness. How many different original moments, how many different originalities has our Holy Father spoken to us about? Original innocence, original unity, original happiness here even before he will get to Original Sin later. That’s the Fall. Now we are focusing on the beginning, how it was in God’s intention, by God’s design. Not only has the Holy Father spoken to us about the spousal meaning of the body explaining our original happiness, not only the spousal meaning of the body in the mystery of creation. He’s also spoken to us about the spousal meaning of the body in acto. This is Latin for in act. This is very key. Our Holy Father has a whole stand alone volume which he wrote before he was the Pope about The Acting Person. Many people when hearing that, will remember how the Pope was a man of the theater, an actor, a dramatist. He would write and perform plays. But this is not the sort of acting which he refers to when he speaks about the spousal meaning of the body in acto, in act. Philosophically speaking there is a juxtaposition between act and potency, potentiality and action, being and doing of the thing. The spousal meaning of the body in acto is just as being when the husband recognizes his wife as the other self, when she recognizes her husband as the other self, when they love each other. This is the spousal meaning in acto, in the very being and that is how God made us. God who is the eternal being, God who gives Himself in creation, God who gives Himself in redemption, God who has given Himself in the fullness of time in Christ Jesus. God who gives Himself to us in the Eucharist. “This is My body given up for you” these are the most sacred words of the Mass. Repeatedly the Holy Father Pope John Paul II cites two (2) different sources in this 15th catechesis on man and woman he created them the Theology of the Body. One is from Second Vatican Council celebrated in 1962 through 1965, called by Blessed John XXIII, opened by him and concluded by Pope Paul VI. But it was Pope John Paul II who did so much of the implementation of [...]