Jeff Jenkins, associate director of New Albany Deanery Catholic Youth Ministries, presented Pope John Paul II’s views on lust, love and the sanctity of marriage in Theology of the Body held in University Center North, room 122, on Sept. 8.
For the 10 students and faculty who attended, Jenkins discussed the path of marriage as making a spiritual connection a reality, separating lust from love and the exchange of unconditional love between a man and woman.
Jenkins said when a person experiences spiritual feelings, that person makes them a reality by passing the feelings on to others.
“It’s like giving someone a high-five after a football touchdown, you feel excited and you pass the excitement through the slap, making it a reality,” Jenkins said.
The football analogy compares to the love a man and woman experience and wanting to make those spiritual feelings a reality through sexual intercourse and bearing children.
Jenkins said we’re created in the likeness of God and we should respect our bodies.
He also said we must separate lust from love to care for our bodies and to achieve unconditional love with someone.
When lusting for another, he said shallow relationships can result and shame could set in.
With shame, a person might feel they are being an objectified and become withdrawn from the other person.
“With marriage a person can redeem themselves from lustful impulses,” Jenkins said, “and follow the path to heaven.”
He discussed the “Four F’s” that are essential in marriage and ultimately lead to heaven.
The “Four F’s” are defined in marriage as a free exchange of love, full complete love, faithfulness to their love void of extramarital affairs or pornography and lead to being fruitful.
Being fruitful or bearing children, stirred debate among attendees.
“Gay marriages cannot result in bearing children naturally, that’s why the Catholic Church cannot condone them,” Jenkins said.
James Kauffman, director and professor of Communication Studies, asked about contraception and infertility in a man or woman.
Jenkins said a person can follow natural family planning, however, an unnatural method, such as a birth control pill or a vasectomy, is condemned.
If infertility developed naturally in a person, he said, then sexual intercourse is condoned because the couple is following the act of conception, even if they cannot actually conceive a child.
Pope John Paul II’s views in the Theology of the Body are presented as a guideline for a person seeking heaven through love, marriage and the Catholic faith.
Jenkins said by following these guidelines, we can experience the greatest taste of love on earth.
By LEAH TATE
Staff Writer
lmtate@ius.edu