Put Out Into the Deep: The New Evangelisation - Talk 8 (Final)

By Jack Chui

I finally get around to writing about the 8th and final talk of the Theology of the Body series hosted each Wednesday night for 8 consecutive weeks. I was late to the last seminar and missed half the video but it seemed to me according to the heading in the notes that it was just going to be about spreading the word on Theology of the Body and the truth about our bodies. So rather than recount the notes which I didn't think were too exciting, I will try and sum up the whole TOB course and what it means to me.

My three key take outs:

1. Lust is a Battle - vs. love is a great counterfeit. It is such a great struggle to combat lust, or the using of another's body for self-seeking pleasure. It can be difficult to see the joy of unconditional love when lust is so tempting. This battle is a constant one and an impossible one to win...
2. We need more of God's help - but we can win the battle if the Holy Spirit helps us. I learn than in marriage, to sustain the love between a man and a woman, it is better to humbly ask God for Him to love my partner more through me than for me to do it from my own will. It reinforces the idea that I continuously need God and that it will be so much harder, likely impossible without Him.
3. The Heavenly Marriage - the early marriage and/or sex is not the be all and end all to life because there is a greater marriage in Heaven that we are called to. If we can look forward to this then its not so important to seek marriage here on earth as much as it appears to be the most happy thing in the world to find love in a partner and get married.

All in all, I wasn't too surprised by or excited by the content of the talks, mostly because I had heard part of it before and in a way I was/am living its message through most of my life. After some shortish relationships which broke my heart I stayed single for 8 years in a way determined to make sure that the person I would choose next would be my last. I was very passive in looking for the right girl, to the point of disinterest. Yes, there was pressure from my parents to find someone because they were concerned for my long term 'loneliness', but I was lucky I moved to Melbourne from Sydney and so don't live with with my parents and so don't face the pressure so much. So, I could say, I have waited patiently for the right girl if there is one.

I wasn't very concerned about not being able to find the right person because I had come to a comfortable stage in life that I would be happy being single and continuing this way for a long foreseeable future. I had ministry, sport and enough friends to keep my faith up. My faith was growing to trust God more and more that He would look after me, and look out for my best interests. I'm lucky perhaps, that I've had such a 'posivite' (can't find a way of saying 'goodie goodie') upbringing, but its a great blessing that I've somehow stuck close to God/Church for quite some time.

Now, things are different because for almost a year, I have been in my most steady relationship in my short life. With TOB, I hope to discern about marriage and live to God's initial plan for His creation to the best of my ability. I have learnt more about this now in TOB, and while I have been living most of it for some time, I pray that my partner can live it too and that together we can help be a model to encourage others to do the same. Its going to be hard, as I/we fight a losing battle against the world's ways, but it is one that I think I can lay my life down for. Please pray for me, that I can remember what I learned, practice and be true to it, and help encourage others to know of God's plan for our bodies, sex and life.