We're continuing with part two of a three part series on what John Paul II called the "infallible and indispensable" means for living the theology of our bodies (see TOB 126:5). To live the "theology" of our bodies means to recognize the plan of love that God has written into our bodies as male and female and to live in accord with it. This is what the Christian life is all about - to love as Christ loved: "This is my body given for you."

There's a fundamental problem here, however. Christ asks us to do something we do not have the power to do. No human being, with his or her own strength, can love as God loves. It's impossible. Only when we realize we can't follow God's law on our own are we actually ready for the good news of the Gospel. In a word that "good news" is called grace.

Grace is that mysterious gift of God that empowers us to love as he loves. Grace is God's love poured out on us and in us. Only to the degree that God's love remains alive within us are we capable of sharing that love with others. In other words, only to the degree that we receive God's love are we able to fulfill God's law. As St. Augustine said, "The law was given that grace might be sought; and grace was given, that the law might be fulfilled" (De Spiritu et Littera).

Oh this is good news! What a relief it is to realize that it's not up to me. No matter how hard I try, I simply can't do it on my own, I can't fulfill God's law (no wonder I keep failing...). God's grace alone makes it possible.

The question then becomes, how do I receive this grace? John Paul II's answer is prayer, and the regular reception of the sacraments of Penance and Eucharist. John Paul II's "spousal theology" gives us a fresh, mystical perspective on these three "infallible and indispensable" means for living the Christian life. In the previous column, we looked at the "spousal” nature of prayer. Here we'll look briefly at the "spousal" nature of the Eucharist.

To receive the Eucharist and live it with faith is to receive and live everything John Paul teaches in his theology of the body. The Eucharist, he says, is "the sacrament of the Bridegroom and of the Bride." Christ instituted the Eucharist, John Paul continues, "to express the relationship between man and woman, between what is 'feminine' and what is 'masculine''' (Mulieris Dignitatem 26).

What wealth of truth there is to unfold here! In the Eucharist, Christ the Bridegroom gives up his body for his Bride and we, the Bride, receive his body into our bodies. In this most sacred and holy consummation of love, Christ's Bride is infused, in-filled, "impregnated," so to speak, with all the grace necessary to love as Christ loves. Here we receive all the power necessary to overcome our sins and weaknesses and become the men and women we are created to be. John Paul asks, "Were we to disregard the Eucharist, how could we overcome our own deficiency?" (Ecclesia de Eucharistia 60).

The following story about my in-laws illustrates beautifully the connection between the holy communion of spouses and the Holy Communion of Christ and the Church. At Mass the day after his wedding, my father-in-law was in tears after receiving the Eucharist. When his new bride inquired, thinking of the consummation of their love the night before, he said, "For the first time in my life I understood the meaning of Christ's words, 'This is my body given for you.'"

When all the smoke is cleared and all the confusion is cast out - this is the deepest meaning of the human body and the "one flesh" union. It's all a "great mystery" that's meant to point us to the Holy Communion of Christ and the Church (see Eph 5:31-32). Our bodies "given up" for each other in true marital love are meant to point to Christ's body "given up" for us in the Eucharist.