114 Chapter 9
NATURE IS GRACE
we've got. For both, it's only 'reasonable' that the meaning of what
bodies do comes from a time-less 'place.' (And the fudging that
traditional Catholic thought does here is just that -- fudging.)
However, if human reality can not be time-less, not even for an
instant, and we thus remain complete slaves to 'flesh' all our lives,
without respite, then what bodies do is all we've got. Yet in the
Eucharistic 'order' of history this does means that what bodies do is all
we've got -- and of momentous, not to say, sacramental, covenantal,
importance.
Outside of the New Covenant, there is no inherent meaning to
specific acts. 'Flesh' outside of the Eucharistic 'order' of 'flesh,' 'One
Flesh,' 'life,' can -- honestly and sincerely -- draw no other conclusion
than this: specific acts are either Cause or Chance, period. One body
doing something with another body at a particular time has meaning if
and only if "This is My Body, This is My Blood" is the re-presentation
of the One Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Mary,
"one and the same." Period.
The acceptance of the Church's teachings on contraception,
reiterated in Humanae Vitae and also by John Paul II in many places --
if a time-less reality is refused -- can readily be seen as the complete
joyful acceptance of the time-full, sacramental, and covenantal nature
of reality.
What bodies do is all we've got -- and therefore, since Nature (real
Nature, the Nature of the Eucharistic `order' of history) is Grace, what
bodies do is of earth-shattering importance and breathtaking dignity.
On the other hand, since what bodies do is all we've got, if Nature
is not Grace in the Eucharistic 'order' of history, then what a Christian
couple does, in bed or elsewhere, has a meaning far below that which
any 'principle of totality' can discover, below even the trivial, well
below even the pathetic.
If Nature is not Grace, then what a Christian couple does has the
meaning of pure 'flesh,' of nothingness, of the insane, it is Cause and
Chance without remainder. What they do can have meaning, but only
if what they do was actually Caused by forces outside of their control -
- despite any "middle box" they might invent to keep this truth from
themselves. So, everything they do that is meaningful, they do because
they have no real choice in the matter. They can take no credit for it,
assume no responsibility, because -- whatever impression they
entertain -- they were bound whether they liked it or not. Further,
everything they do that is not Caused is arbitrary, the result of a
random set of accidents, and thus meaningless.
Either way, they have no responsibility for their actions and thus
N.B. This is an html-ized copy of a page from the pdf file, The Knucklehead's Guide to Covenantal Theology.