An open letter to the man who catcalled me last night.

To the man who yelled at me out of his car window last night . . . I have some thoughts for you. 

I was walking towards my women's small group Bible study. Okay, I was walk-running because I was late (as usual). My steps echoed in the parking garage and you drove by with your friend, rolling the window down to shout at me as I walked by.  

I want you to know that I'm so much more than just my body. 

I just celebrated three months of marriage to an amazing man. 
I write blogs for a living.
My biggest fear is fish. 
I love thrift store shopping.
I'm old fashioned and still write thank you notes and letters. 
I drink way too much coffee.
My goal is to read 52 books this year. 

But you don't know those things. Because you only saw my body. Or maybe you heard my heels clicking on the pavement and turned to notice. And you saw me walking alone, and said something - yelled something, anything to get a response. You shouted 'Hi!' and when I didn't respond you yelled louder, meaner: 

"I said hi!" 

Your biting words tempted me to take a moment and boost my ego. 'Well, someone thinks this outfit looks good.' 'I guess that means I'm attractive, right?' But I don't need those thoughts clouding my vision. You tempted me to think my body was the only good thing about me, the only thing worth noticing. 

I want you to know there's more than catcalls and shouts out a car window. Because you're right - my body is good. Our bodies are good.  God made it, after all, and He said we are very good.

“The body, in fact, and only the body, is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine. It has been created to transfer into the visible reality of the world, the mystery hidden from eternity in God, and thus to be a sign of it” (Saint John Paul II, Theology of the Body 19:4). 

When we can look at each other without a hint of lust, our bodies make the beautiful, divine reality of the love of God visible. 

Our bodies don't make sense by themselves. A man's body doesn't make sense without a woman's body to compliment it. When we look at each other as brothers and sisters in Christ, we are able to see that God stamped our desire for communion and community into our very bodies. Our bodies are a sign to this broken world, pointing to the relationship-loving God who created us for each other. We're created for love, by love Himself. 

I don't want you to stop catcalling me because I'm married. I want you to respect me because I'm created in the image of God. And you are, too. And so is every woman and man on the face of this earth. 

Your heart is wanting more than just a cowardly call from a car driving by. You're striving for something with those catcalls in the parking garage. You're yearning for relationship, it's stamped in your body. You're grasping for goodness but falling short, resorting to shouts instead of investing in conversation and respect. 

You were made for a magnanimous life and sainthood and eternity. I'm praying for you. You were made for more than catcalls.