After a long pause, we shall now continue our presentation of Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body.
In Cycle One, The Body in Creation, John Paul II brings us back to God’s original purpose and plan for man created in his image and likeness in the mystery of creation. In Cycle Two, The Body Fallen yet Redeemed, the Holy Father reflects on the fallen nature of the human person, male and female, now saddled by the adverse heritage of sin and concupiscence. However, though man has fallen, he has been redeemed by Christ. We cannot hope to fully understand who man is if we do not understand him in the dimensions of sin and redemption. But there is more to an understanding of man’s true nature: man, fallen but redeemed, is also a being called, in Christ and through Christ, to share in the mystery of the resurrection. In other words, for John Paul II, we can only have a total vision of man if we understand him in the dimensions of creation, sin, redemption and the future resurrection to which he is called by the living God. Cycle Three (nine addresses from November 11 to February 10, 1982) of his reflections deals precisely on the mystery of the resurrection.
It is on this Cycle Three of his reflections that we now turn.
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