The Redemption of the Body is a key to the Theology of the Body. That the body is redeemed and will be redeemed in glory is central to our understanding of John Paul II’s teaching. An important component of this is that the sacrament is efficacious.That is, the sacrament has real effects. Indeed, from the Creation where marriage was the primordial sacrament, marriage has been efficacious. Marriage brings God’s love into the world, even when men were swimming in sin.
In marriage we are challenged and empowered to overcome concupiscence. The eros that is so normally infected with concupiscence is purified and — we might say perfect — by the ethos of the redemption of the body. Of course, marriage does not automatically overcome concupiscence and its sins, but it empowers us to cooperate with its graces to give ourselves more completely in genuine love.
Even though marriage is for this world — in the Resurrection they will neither give nor be given in marriage — only in the perspective of the Resurrection. to we find the ultimate meaning of our lives and our bodies. We live towards the Resurrection and the perfect union with God in eternal love.
Sacrament and Redemption