October 10

The dignity of spousal love…

You are here because God is love, and love must be shared.  God quite literally loved you into being — by His hands and His breath, He brought you into existence. And it is this simple and unfathomable truth that is the source of your dignity. What is interesting to note is that your dignity, and the dignity of every other person, is rooted in a decision made by God — not man. There is nothing, nothing, that can delete, deny, or even dilute a person’s dignity.

God created you and set you apart from the rest of creation so that your life may be a sign of His love — this means that your life is sacred. In fact, God wanted you to be such a profound sign of His love that He made you in His image and likeness. I know you have heard this truth dozens of times, but have you ever taken a moment to meditate on it? If not, I suggest pouring yourself a cup of tea (or coffee, whatever is your jam) and spend some quiet time with Jesus to sit with this truth…when you truly understand its implications, it will change everything…

Serious Implications:

You are made in the image and likeness of God — God who is love — which means that you, because of your likeness to God, were made to love.

On the surface, this doesn’t seem too transforming but that is because we have made love cheap. Our culture has created a distortion of love that has left it almost unrecognizable. We have made love about us. We have made it about emotion and public opinion, pleasure, and a blind acceptance of sinner and his sin. We have allowed love to have limitations and conditions; we allow it to fade and end.

The truth is, the love we are called to isn’t cheap. It is not about us. It isn’t an emotion; it never consults public opinion. It rejects sin from an endless, unconditional desire for the good of the other. Love costs everything, demands the best, and never settles. Ever.

Spousal Love

Sacred Scripture is a manual to love. The love God is calling us to unfolds itself to us, exposing the raw strength of both its beauty and sacrifice. The language used throughout the entirety of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation is “spousal” language.  This language gives us a structure by which God wants us to understand what love is and how we are called to participate in this love. Christ is the Bridegroom, and we, the Church, are His bride. Every breath of His earthly life was a humble sacrifice and a perfect desire for our good. He became Man for us, He suffered, died, and was buried, for us — for His bride. His work here on earth was a free choice to give of Himself entirely out of His perfect and faithful love of the Father, and the fruit of His work is our salvation.  Free, total, faithful, and fruitful. This is what love is. Nothing less.

Theology of the Body

The truth of who God is it written into our bodies. Marriage, given to us just moments after the world was created (Gen 1:28), is a visible sign of Christ’s perfect love for His Bride…God reveals Himself to us through His design for spousal love—marriage is sacred. In an effort to explore this sacred mystery,  Pope St. John Paul II presented to the faithful the “Theology of the Body” over 129 lectures given during his Wednesday audiences in Rome from September 5, 1979 to November 28, 1984. His lectures were recorded and shared in a single-volume work.

Our Theology of the Body and Humanae Vitae guides help explain this beautiful truth!