3 Ways Justin Bieber’s “Holy” Reminds us of the Theology of the Body

In the morning stillness when the sun begins streaming through the windows, the camera lingers on a crucifix hanging on a motel wall. It cuts to two coffee mugs that have a definite “his and her” understanding before drifting to the corresponding couple in bed. The shot savors the prosaic moment of drowsiness, pajamas, and getting ready for work as the music plays, “the way you hold me . . . Feels so holy . . .” Justin Bieber’s song “Holy” (and music video costarring Ryan Destiny) spreads this holiness over every detail of the couple’s lives — even the parts we usually ignore or hide. It’s a beautiful depiction of many of the teachings about human sexuality that Pope John Paul II explored in his Theology of the Body (TOB).

1# Physical Bodies and Physical Intimacy are Sacred

“Holy” isn’t about churches and religious icons. It’s about the singer’s physical love for his wife. The video connects the song to her work with elderly patients that requires her to confront bodily decay and death and his work as an oil miner that covers him in sweat and stains. The refrain is about “the way you hold me” — bodies touching — even when they’re imperfect, dirty, dying, or homeless.

Pope John Paul II wrote that, “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” (TOB 96:6).

Our bodies are physical manifestations of God’s grace and love to the world. As a result, sexual love is holy — set apart. “…this union carries within itself a particular awareness of the meaning of that body in the reciprocal self-gift of the persons” (TOB 10:4). It’s mysterious and encompasses what’s physical, sensual, emotional, and spiritual. As Bieber sings, “But the way that we love in the night gave me life / Baby I can’t explain.” When a man and woman see each other’s bodies as sacraments — a “sign that efficaciously transmits in the visible world the invisible mystery hidden in God from eternity” (TOB 19:4) — they overcome the sense of shame that comes from viewing the body as an object (“I have cellulite,” “I’m too big/small”), the fear of watching bodies fade into decay, and the disgust of “dirty” work.

2# Love and Law are Partners, not Enemies

Thanks to fundamentalist prudishness that tries to hide sexuality in shame, and the opposite extreme of saturating sexuality in pornographic carelessness, there’s a tension between moral rules and “true love.” Love transcends legalism, but to transcend rules isn’t to ignore them. Legalism is when we see only rules and forget their purpose. But to be holy is to be set apart — which requires a boundary.

For the union to be truly holy, Bieber realizes, they must play by the rules and get married (“formalize the union in communion He can trust”) before consummating their love. His desire might have him “Runnin’ to the altar like a track star” but he can’t skip the altar.

Sound too strict for pop star? Bieber has been open about his regrets over his sexual past and his commitment to consummate his relation with his now-wife Hailey only after they married. Although this is a radical break from his past, he knows that repentance — not perfect purity — is what God cares most about. “If you make it to the water He’ll part the clouds” seems like an allusion to Mark 1: 9–11 when God the Son submitted to the Father’s will by being baptized in water, after which God the Holy Spirit revealed Himself through the parted clouds. If we submit to God’s will (in this context, for marriage), we’ll experience the fullness of the sacrament as a revelation of God to us.

3# The Sacrament of Marriage doesn’t Isolate, it Overflows

The emotion flowing through the lyrics is not isolated to the couple’s intimacy. The video flashes back and forth between Bieber and Destiny in their room together and at their jobs — Justin as a blue-collar laborer and Ryan as a palliative care worker. It’s clear that the love that they share when they’re alone together extends into their day-to-day lives. Pope JP II wrote, “…the analogy of spousal love indicates the ‘radical’ character of grace: of the whole order of created grace” (TOB 95b:4). It overflows into how Destiny’s care brings joy and dignity to the dying residents. It stays in the front of Bieber’s mind when his plant closes and he’s laid off. The lyrics and video spread the message that, despite death, eviction, homelessness, we respect each other’s human dignity when we look at the world sacramentally.

When a soldier driving home sees the homeless couple on the side of the road, he brings them home to a hot meal. The line “the way you hold me . . . feels so holy” is repeated when the father hugs his young children — holding them especially close as he imagines them in the same position as the homeless couple. The sacrament of sexual love leads, naturally, to family. As Pope Jon Paul II writes, “Procreation is rooted in creation, and every time it reproduces in some way its mystery” (TOB 10:4). The act of marriage is exclusive, but the sacrament of a loving marriage overflows into the surrounding community. Holiness isn’t just for Sunday morning and altars. Holiness is fully expressed to us in incarnation — in the physical manifestation of God’s love to the world. That happens not just in Christ’s Incarnation, but in each one of our bodies. And just as God is three, we most perfectly reveal God when we are closely connected with others because “Man becomes an image of God not so much in the moment of solitude as in the moment of communion” (TOB 9:3).

“The sacrament of the world, and the sacrament of man in the world, comes forth from the divine source of holiness and is instituted, at the same time, for holiness” (TOB 19:5). It’s this sense of sacrament — physical, transcendent, and communal — expressed in lovers holding each other on a motel floor, a nurse holding a dying man’s hand, a family bringing strangers into the circle of their hands around a table — that Justin Bieber captures.