YOUCAT Question n. 403 - How is sexuality related to love?
(Youcat
answer) Sexuality must not be separated
from love; they must go together. The sexual encounter requires the framework
of a true, dependable love.
A deepening through CCC
(CCC 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.
Reflecting and meditating
(Youcat comment) 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.
(CCC Comment)
(CCC 2349)
"People should cultivate [chastity] in the way that is suited to their
state of life. Some profess virginity or consecrated celibacy which enables
them to give themselves to God alone with an undivided heart in a remarkable
manner. Others live in the way prescribed for all by the moral law, whether
they are married or single" (CDF, Persona
humana 11). Married people are called to live conjugal chastity; others
practice chastity in continence: There are three forms of the virtue of
chastity: the first is that of spouses, the second that of widows, and the
third that of virgins. We do not praise any one of them to the exclusion of the
others.... This is what makes for the richness of the discipline of the
Church (St. Ambrose, De viduis 4, 23: PL 16, 255A).
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