West - Fill these hearts: god, sex, and the universal longing

At the Heart of the Gospel:
Reclaiming the Body for the New Evangelization

Heavens Song:
Sexual Love As It Was Meant to Be

The Love That Satisfies:
Reflections on Eros and Agape

Theology of the Body for Beginners:
A Basic Introduction to Pope John Paul IIs
Sexual Revolution

Theology of the Body Explained:
A Commentary on John Paul IIs Man
and Woman He Created Them

Good News About Sex and Marriage:
Answers to Your Honest Questions
About Catholic Teaching

The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, Santa Maria della Vittoria; Rome, Italy

(P HOTOSERVICE E LECTA /G ETTY I MAGES )

Copyright 2012 by Christopher West

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Image, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com

IMAGE is a registered trademark, and the I colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

eISBN: 978-0-307-98714-3

Jacket design by Henning Communications, Inc.
Jacket photography David McLeod Lewis

v3.1_r1

In gratitude to Jason,
Mark, Dave, and Mike

This book is about desire. Not trivial desires. Not superficial wants. This book is about the atomic energy of our soulsthat universal ache and longing we feel as human beings for something. Where does that hungry void in us come from? Why do we have it? What are we supposed to do with it? More important, is there anything that can fill it? Does that something were looking for even exist, and is there any hope of finding it? In short, is there hope that we can satisfy our deepest desire for happiness, for lasting fulfillment?

One can hardly speak of human desire, of course, without speaking about the power and pull of sexual desire. The sexual relationship holds out a seemingly irresistible promise of happiness. For many, sexual love seems to offer the one chance of filling that void inside with something close to satisfaction. What role does sexuality play in our search for happiness? We live in a culture sated with sex, but we remain starved for love. Why is that? How can we integrate spirituality and sexuality so as to learn how to love in and through our bodies as men and women made in Gods image?

This book is about Gods loving design for our happiness as men and women. If God is the author of our humanity, he is also the author of human desire, including sexual desire. Why did he make us as sexual beings? Why did he make sex so pleasurable, so alluring and attractive? Was it only to dangle a carrot in front of our noses and then forbid us the satisfaction of eating it?

What does the very design of our bodies as male and female tell us about Gods plan for our lives? Is the purpose of sex just to continue the species? Or is there something deeper, something grander, something beyond the merely physical at work here? Is there a larger, mysterious interplay between sex and the very meaning of existence? Might the whole reality of sex in the divine design be a foreshadowing of an eternal, heavenly bliss?

This is a book about our eternal destiny. We are created for bliss, for ecstasy, and our hearts know it. According to the Christian faith, the ecstasy we yearn for at the deepest level of our being is precisely what God wants to give useternally. Thats what makes the Gospel good news. But a destiny of bliss is not simply a given.

The Latin destinare is an archers term that means to aim at. Desire has a trajectory. Wherever we aim it, thats where we will ultimately arrive. Thats the tremendous gift and weighty responsibility of freedom. How do we distinguish authentic freedom from its counterfeits? How do we distinguish authentic love from its counterfeits? How do we place our freedom at the service of authentic love so as to arrive at our God-given destiny of heavenly bliss? As we will discover, this is what sexual morality, properly understood, is all about: learning how to aim our desire for heaven toward heaven.

I am a student of both theology and pop culture. Although these two realms are sometimes far apart, I enjoy looking for God as much in a Hollywood movie or a pop song as I do in a theological tome. One has to be discerning when it comes to secular art (and theological tomes, I might add), but I subscribe to what Brother Lawrence taught about seeking God everywhere.

Since my last book (At the Heart of the Gospel) took a more formal theological approach, I felt it was time to take the conversation in a more casual direction. Thats not to say we wont explore some profound mysteries in this book. We will. But my goal is to break them open in a kind of dialogue between sacred and secular sources.

For a few years now Ive been working with a team of seasoned artists and musicians developing a live event that incorporates popular music, movie clips, YouTube videos, and other artistic works into a contemporary exposition of the Gospel. Typically presented in theaters rather than in churches, its an attempt to step out into the main streets, as Jesus said, and invite everyone to the wedding feast (Matt. 22:9). This book is named after that live event and takes the same approach in written form.