The Happy Priest: The Unitive and Procreative Dimensions of the Marital Act
By being a total gift of themselves, married spouses, through the marital embrace, make visible the invisible reality of God who is love and God who loves us unconditionally
Sexual intercourse, the marital embrace, is an image of God who is love and gift. The human body makes the invisible reality of God's love visible. God created the human person for the purpose of being loving persons who freely choose to love.
PrintCORPUS CHRISTI, TX (Catholic Online) In his landmark 1968 encyclical where the Church reaffirms its' teaching that contraception is intrinsically evil, Pope Paul VI argues that every marital act must keep together "the inseparable connection , established by God, which man on his own initiative may not break, between the unitive significance and the procreative significance which are both inherent to the marriage act" (Humanae Vitae, 12).
The basis of the Pope's argument is the Church's understanding of natural law, human nature and God's plan for marriage, sexuality and family life. Paul VI writes, ".they must also recognize that an act of mutual love which impairs the capacity to transmit life which God the Creator, through specific laws, has built into it, frustrates His design which constitutes the norm of marriage, and contradicts the will of the Author of life. Hence to use this divine gift while depriving it, even if only partially, of its meaning and purpose, is equally repugnant to the nature of man and of woman, and is consequently in opposition to the plan of God and His holy will."
Why then is it true that the unitive significance and the procreative significance of the marital act cannot be separated?
Pope Paul VI lays out the principles and the reasons. However, it is John Paul II that brings the subject to an entirely new level of understanding.
Father Karol Wojtyla had a profound love for young people. We have all heard about his camping trips with university students when he was a young priest. The long discussions about the nature of God, the meaning of life, the nature of marriage and questions regarding sexuality provided lengthy material for his famous book Love and Responsibility which was published in Polish in 1960.
But, it was as John Paul II, that he used his weekly General Audiences to develop what is now known as Theology of the Body. His discourses, (129 teachings from September 5, 1979 - November 28, 1984), comprise a monumental work which is the most profound and most complete compendium of Catholic teaching on the subject of human nature, marriage and sexuality.
By carefully reading Pope Paul VI's prophetic encyclical, students of John Paul's Theology of the Body will notice familiar language. For John Paul II, Humanae Vitae launches him into its' defense through a more profound development of the principles already contained in Paul VI's work.
Why then is it true that the unitive significance and the procreative significance cannot be separated?
Perhaps most people have never even asked themselves this question. Perhaps our modern conditioning has already reduced the conjugal act to a mere biological act.
The Catholic Church's teaching on marriage reminds us that there is a theological dimension to marriage and sexuality.
This is why we must gain a new vision of sexuality.
For John Paul II, the beginning principle is the spousal dimension of the human body.
What does this mean?
Think of it in this way.
For Christianity, all of existence is immersed in a giant ocean of love. God is defined in the Sacred Scriptures as love. Creation, as described in the beginning of Genesis, is an outpouring of God's love. Man, as a rational being, is the only creature that can correspond to the gift of creation by being a gift to God and a gift to others. Thus, everything is seen through the prism of marriage.
Sexual intercourse, the marital embrace, is an image of God who is love and gift. The human body makes the invisible reality of God's love visible. God created the human person for the purpose of being loving persons who freely choose to love. Through love, they give themselves as a total gift of themselves to each other. Thus, by being a total gift of themselves, married spouses, through the marital embrace, make visible the invisible reality of God who is love and God who loves us unconditionally.
"(Married love) is a love which is total-that very special form of personal friendship in which husband and wife generously share everything, allowing no unreasonable exceptions and not thinking solely of their own convenience. Whoever really loves his partner loves not only for what he receives, but loves that partner for the partner's own sake, content to be able to enrich the other with the gift of himself" (Humanae Vitae, 9).
Interestingly, women instinctively know that all of this is true. Women know that after the conjugal act a couple seems unusually close on an emotional level. Husbands often open up with their wives in a way not usual or even characteristic of them, but in a way that women crave from them all of the time.
The marital act is designed by God to be completely and unreserved sharing of the "I do" and of the "husbands love your wives as Christ loves the Church." The totality of the gift: no reservations and no selfishness at all.
If the Catholic Church knows this and is so sensitive to the inner nature of marriage and the conjugal act, even of its' emotional content, she can be fully trusted when she affirms and teaches that the unitive significance and the procreative significance of the conjugal act cannot be separated.
-----
Father James Farfaglia, is a contributing writer for Catholic Online and author of Get Serious! - Survival Guide for Serious Catholics. You can visit him on the web at www.fatherjames.org.
The basis of the Pope's argument is the Church's understanding of natural law, human nature and God's plan for marriage, sexuality and family life. Paul VI writes, ".they must also recognize that an act of mutual love which impairs the capacity to transmit life which God the Creator, through specific laws, has built into it, frustrates His design which constitutes the norm of marriage, and contradicts the will of the Author of life. Hence to use this divine gift while depriving it, even if only partially, of its meaning and purpose, is equally repugnant to the nature of man and of woman, and is consequently in opposition to the plan of God and His holy will."
Why then is it true that the unitive significance and the procreative significance of the marital act cannot be separated?
Pope Paul VI lays out the principles and the reasons. However, it is John Paul II that brings the subject to an entirely new level of understanding.
Father Karol Wojtyla had a profound love for young people. We have all heard about his camping trips with university students when he was a young priest. The long discussions about the nature of God, the meaning of life, the nature of marriage and questions regarding sexuality provided lengthy material for his famous book Love and Responsibility which was published in Polish in 1960.
But, it was as John Paul II, that he used his weekly General Audiences to develop what is now known as Theology of the Body. His discourses, (129 teachings from September 5, 1979 - November 28, 1984), comprise a monumental work which is the most profound and most complete compendium of Catholic teaching on the subject of human nature, marriage and sexuality.
By carefully reading Pope Paul VI's prophetic encyclical, students of John Paul's Theology of the Body will notice familiar language. For John Paul II, Humanae Vitae launches him into its' defense through a more profound development of the principles already contained in Paul VI's work.
Why then is it true that the unitive significance and the procreative significance cannot be separated?
Perhaps most people have never even asked themselves this question. Perhaps our modern conditioning has already reduced the conjugal act to a mere biological act.
The Catholic Church's teaching on marriage reminds us that there is a theological dimension to marriage and sexuality.
This is why we must gain a new vision of sexuality.
For John Paul II, the beginning principle is the spousal dimension of the human body.
What does this mean?
Think of it in this way.
For Christianity, all of existence is immersed in a giant ocean of love. God is defined in the Sacred Scriptures as love. Creation, as described in the beginning of Genesis, is an outpouring of God's love. Man, as a rational being, is the only creature that can correspond to the gift of creation by being a gift to God and a gift to others. Thus, everything is seen through the prism of marriage.
Sexual intercourse, the marital embrace, is an image of God who is love and gift. The human body makes the invisible reality of God's love visible. God created the human person for the purpose of being loving persons who freely choose to love. Through love, they give themselves as a total gift of themselves to each other. Thus, by being a total gift of themselves, married spouses, through the marital embrace, make visible the invisible reality of God who is love and God who loves us unconditionally.
"(Married love) is a love which is total-that very special form of personal friendship in which husband and wife generously share everything, allowing no unreasonable exceptions and not thinking solely of their own convenience. Whoever really loves his partner loves not only for what he receives, but loves that partner for the partner's own sake, content to be able to enrich the other with the gift of himself" (Humanae Vitae, 9).
Interestingly, women instinctively know that all of this is true. Women know that after the conjugal act a couple seems unusually close on an emotional level. Husbands often open up with their wives in a way not usual or even characteristic of them, but in a way that women crave from them all of the time.
The marital act is designed by God to be completely and unreserved sharing of the "I do" and of the "husbands love your wives as Christ loves the Church." The totality of the gift: no reservations and no selfishness at all.
If the Catholic Church knows this and is so sensitive to the inner nature of marriage and the conjugal act, even of its' emotional content, she can be fully trusted when she affirms and teaches that the unitive significance and the procreative significance of the conjugal act cannot be separated.
-----
Father James Farfaglia, is a contributing writer for Catholic Online and author of Get Serious! - Survival Guide for Serious Catholics. You can visit him on the web at www.fatherjames.org.
- - -
Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.
Keywords: Father James Farfaglia, Pope Paul VI, John Paul II, Theology of the Body, Humanae Vitae, marriage, family, sexuality, contraception, married love, marriage, matrimony, family lfie, chidlren
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Fr. James: Thank you for your advise/corrections. From your mention of 'Jansenism" I have found it to be based on three core beliefs, Denial of free will to predestination, Human nature is corrupt, Jesus came only for the Elect. None of these is to my beliefs & sure is Heretical. Your opinion seems to be based on "Human nature is corrupt" that which is untrue for by the origin, man was created uncorrupted which means his basic nature called the Human Nature is not to corruptions, However he fell for the desires of the Flesh in the indulgences even more so today to being a slave to it & for this reason flesh is become to corruption, until the Restoration. The sacraments of the alter are indeed Holy, since God is Holy & all that which comes from Him is Holy. Including the Blessed sacrament of Marriage or Matrimony in the Family to its fruits, Holy 'cause it is based on the First Holy Family of God to the fulness of Christ Jesus, as St Paul says in Col 2: 9. In Him(Christ) is all the fulness of the Godhead bodily". Joy is the fruit of Love & by my comment was comparing the Joy of Heaven with that of the world which is no comparison, for that "Joy is standing in the presence of the Lord," even the Holy One speaking unto the angel of The Church of Thyatira, the Catholic Church to its credits & to its discredits(Jezebel) in revelations & I be a witness of Him to the Joy, for that which I witness is that which I speak. Please do correct me where ever found to be mistaken & would greatly appreciate if you could come up with specifics, to this ordinary Catholic who by the continuous generations have been a Christian & Catholic at that from its beginning, even before Heresies crept into the Church. Thank you once again Father. Christ is Faithful.
Abey:
With all due respect and whomever you may be, your comment about marriage is incorrect and not a part of the teaching of the Catholic Faith. Your comment and other comments that you have made about my homilies certainly have a taint of Jansenism. I would be very careful about what you say about the Holy Sacrament of Marriage. The Catholic Church has always affirmed the beauty and the goodness of the sexual relationship of married spouses. I highly recommend that you read and study with an open mind the beautiful teachings of the Catholic Church on the Holy Sacrament of Marriage. Frankly, your comment here is quite bizarre and does not help our cause to promote the truth at all. Jansenism is a very dangerous heresy, just as dangerous as hedonism.
The love of the flesh is fleshy, never true whereas the love of the Spirit is Fruitful, in other words where copulations come in the corruptions of the mind, the Spirit brings it about uncorrupted in the fruit, which is to the Will of God. To this did Jesus says as Angels in heaven there will be no marriage or given in Marriage, meaning there is no sex but the fruits of the Spirit is to the continuation which makes the former to be not eternal & the latter to be eternal. With God all things are Eternal & anything that is not eternal is not to Him, to the definition of the word 'Life".
I spent 8 horrific hours at an abortion mill on Monday and found this blog to be a salve/a balm to my still-sorrowing, still-mourning soul. We are so blessed to have this Church teaching and to have priests who teach it, in-season and out-of-season.
I have found that understanding the "whys" of moral conduct, particularly those involving exceptionless norms such as contraception, rests on very delicate foundations which can easily be denied by rationalizations and confused by the loud din technology shich hides or divides us from nature, even our human nature. There is a difference between reason and rationalizations, though they might at first appearance look the same. Here, the notion that there is a "spousal dimension" of the body which is expressed through the conjugal act between a man and a woman whose unitive and procreative dimensions are, as a matter of nature and God's creation, inextricably intertwined is, while unquestionably true, good, and beautiful, as delicate a fabric as a gossamer. The truth can be manhandled and ripped apart by proud and lustful hearts who wish to self-justify their sin. The spousal meaning of the body, and the union of the procreative and unitive aspect of the conjugal act, is a moral truth that must be lived through a life of purity and chastity (regardless of state), to appreciate its truth, goodness, and beauty. To increase appreciation of the harmony of Christian chastity in a culture as tone deaf as ours is a difficult, though essential, task indeed. At least your voice, Father, is clear and the melody true.
And who says priests can't understand marriage?...right.... His vocation through the sacrament of Holy Orders calls him to the same self-giving, the same " reservations and no selfishness at all". This is short, but very, very sweet. Thank you Fr.