Impulsive Attraction

Speaking on the Theology of the Body, St. Pope John Paul II revealed that by means of the body, man and woman are uniquely endowed by the Creator with the particular capacity of expressing love as chosen by eternal love. “Whoever accepts the ethos of Matthew 5:27-28 must know that he is also called to full and mature spontaneity of the relations that spring from the perennial attraction of masculinity and femininity. This spontaneity is the gradual fruit of the discernment of the impulses of one’s own heart.” Christ’s words demand that in this sphere, which seems to belong exclusively to the body and to the senses, that is, to exterior man, he should succeed in being an interior man, a true master of his own deep impulses. “He should draw from all those impulses what is fitting for purity of heart, building with conscience and consistency that personal sense of the nuptial meaning of the body, which opens the interior space of the freedom of the gift.” (General Audience, 12.11.1980)

Scriptures tell us “the two will become one flesh” Gen. 2:24) with regard to the joining of man and woman in marriage. On the other hand, Jesus construed that “Some are born incapable of marriage. Some have been made that way by others. But there are some who have given up the possibility of marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who can accept it, accept it” (Mt. 19:12). This pronouncement gives no reason to assert the inferiority of marriage, nor the superiority of virginity or celibacy. Christ proposed the ideal of continence only for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. This implies a value and beauty that goes beyond the purely physical dimension of sexuality.