“Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me”(Hebrews 10:5), placing here the body as the supreme offering which God can give to man and vice versa as the absolute offering that man can offer to God, as St. Paul states: “Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship” (Rm.12:1). All the novelty and the originality of Christianity rests on this fundamental principle: The Incarnation.
God now has a body. The body is no longer just a simple materiality, but an authentic reality assumed by God himself. In no other religion does God have a body except the God of Christianity. It is indeed revealing of the value that the body has in the eyes of God. It is not a simple object, it is characteristic of the identity and dignity of those who possess it since it is the supreme gift of God. This is why, as the Catholic creed professes, man will resurrect body and soul.
Indeed, nothing that has not been assumed by the grace of God will be corrupted, Catholic theology tells us. So if even death cannot corrupt our bodies, why does man feel endowed with the power to corrupt it, to mutilate it, to butcher it? What human dignity for tomorrow? The Anthropocene, this new era where man is now the great hero, armed with his formidable knowledge and capacities for destruction and transformation, is frightening. Alas, “the progress of science, techniques and technologies gives Man great power, not only over the cosmos, but over Man himself” [1]. Indeed, “will the Hero of the change of nature, Man, himself change his nature? » [2]If he is capable of changing his body, because his body does not please him, we must expect a change of nature because his human nature will end up annoying him.
The root of sin is, first and foremost, rebellion against God's plan. By refusing his body as a gift from God, man rebels against God and therefore sins. Transgenderism is a sin. And in no case can sin coexist with grace. This is why it is difficult to accept baptism for transgender people.
P. Donald ZAGORE, SMA
[1]Lou BAMBA, « Quelle dignité dans les inégalité », in Propos pour une éthique de la paix, Abidjan, les éditions kamit, p.135
[2] Op. cit . p.136
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