And if redeemed man still sins, this is not due to an imperfection of Christ’s redemptive act, but to man’s will not to avail himself of the grace which flows from that act. God’s command is of course proportioned to man’s capabilities but to the capabilities of the man to whom the Holy Spirit has been given.” (VS 103) Christ has redeemed us! This means He has given us the possibility of realizing the entire truth of our being He has set our freedom free from the domination of concupiscence. “What are the ‘concrete possibilities of man’? And of which man are we speaking? Of man dominated by lust or of man redeemed by Christ? This is what is at stake: the reality of Christ’s redemption. “Love and life according to the Gospel cannot be thought of first and foremost as a kind of precept, because what they demand is beyond man’s abilities. They are possible only as a result of a gift of God who heals, restores, and transforms the human heart by his grace.” Living the Gospel, then, is “ a possibility opened to man exclusively by grace, by the gift of God, by his love.” (VS 23, 24) You can read the full encyclical here.Ĭhrist’s words about lust are “an invitation to a pure way of looking at others, capable of respecting the spousal meaning of the body.” (VS, 15) The third one is probably my all-time favorite John Paul II quote. Here are five of my favorite quotes from Veritatis Splendor. Having read Veritatis Splendor, I was more than excited to see what this TOB was all about. It was only a month and a half later that someone encouraged me to read his Theology of the Body (TOB). It’s not about a cold life of duty, but about encountering the God who is love and allowing that love to inform and transform the way we live our lives. John Paul II helped me understand that the moral life is not just about “following rules” but about fulfilling the very meaning of life. I didn’t really even know what an encyclical was at the time, but I read it with great interest when it was released. I heard through various Catholic news outlets that a new encyclical was coming out on moral theology. It was the summer of 1993 and I was just starting to pay attention to what John Paul II was doing. Veritatis Splendor is actually the very first document I read from Pope John Paul II.
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