YOUCAT Lesson 403
YOUCAT the catechism
for Catholic youth
403 How is sexuality related
to love?
Sexuality must not be separated from love; they must go
together. The sexual encounter requires
the framework of a true, dependable love.
[2337]
RoseMarie and Don L.
Bragg, 40th wedding anniversary, 2008. ….. 403
My love for Rose has always been care
and support. However, it seems to have
taken on a greater dimension of guardianship.
I listen to Rose more attentively, I speak to her of family memories, I
notice the flowerbeds and gardens that she tends, I never criticize her
handling of her own money, never do I restrict her visits with friends wherever
she encounters them, I encourage her to drive to Woodruff unaccompanied (23
miles) as often as she wishes. We take
regular Sunday afternoon drives to nearby communities for relaxation. If I have a sudden urge to drive to farther
places, such as the Lake Superior shoreline, Rose is eager to go along. Love evolves, but it is ever rich.
When sexuality is separated from love and is sought only for
the sake of satisfaction, one destroys the meaning of the sexual union of man
and woman. Sexual union is the most
beautiful bodily, sensual expression of love.
People who look for sex without love are lying, because the closeness of
their bodies does not correspond to the closeness of their hearts. Someone who does not take his own body
language at its word does lasting damage to body and soul. Sex then becomes inhuman; it is degraded to a
means of obtaining pleasure and degenerates into a commodity. Only committed, enduring love in marriage
creates a space for sexuality that is experienced in a human way and brings lasting happiness.
“Sexuality, by means of which man and woman give themselves
to one another through the acts which are proper and exclusive to spouses, is
by no means something purely biological, but concerns the innermost being of
the human person as such. It is realized
in a truly human way only if it is an integral part of the love by which a man
and a woman commit themselves totally to one another until death. The total physical self-giving would be a lie
if it were not the sign and fruit of a total personal self-giving.” Pope St. John Paul II, (1920-2005) Apostolic
Exhortation: “Familiaris Consortio” experienced in
a human way and brings lasting happiness.
THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT
You have heard that it
was said, "You shall not commit adultery." But I say to you that
every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with
her in his heart. ( Matthew 5:27-28)114
[2337]
2337 Chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being. Sexuality, in which man's belonging to the bodily and biological world is expressed, becomes personal and truly human when it is integrated into the relationship of one person to another, in the complete and lifelong mutual gift of a man and a woman.
The virtue of chastity therefore involves the integrity of the person and the integrality of the gift.
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