Marital Love and The Holy Trinity

I just thought this article was so cool. Well it's not really an article, it's an answer given to a reader who was struggling with chastity. Carmen Marcoux was on EWTN some months back promoting her book Arms of Love, and her cause that encourages young single Catholics to choose the path of Courtship when God sends a prospective mate their way. Here is part of her answer to the reader that discusses the mystery of marital sex and how it reflects and parallels God's love in the trinity.

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"Sexuality is the very aspect of our nature which images God's love in a unique and profound way. In Genesis we read: "Let us make man in the image and likeness of ourselves . . . " And what was this image and likeness? It goes on to say ". . . male and female he created them." There is something in our being created male and female that images God! How can this be, since God is not sexual?

God is LOVE! In order for love to be complete it must be given and received. God therefore must be a communion of persons — in order for the nature of God to be love. From all eternity, God the Father initiates the gift of love to the Son. The Son, from all eternity, receives that love and returns it to the Father. This exchange of love becomes so real, that it is life-giving — and so comes forth the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the love of the Father and the Son. All three persons of God are equally God — and equally part of the nature of God which is love.

Where do we see humanity most reflected in this eternally, life-giving love that is the inner life of the Trinity? In marriage! The husband initiates the love which the wife receives and returns. And that love is so real that sometimes it becomes a third person (and nine months later you have to give it a name!) Marital love reflects the inner life of God! What a holy and profound mystery. What a noble and beautiful call to love. What a sacred and holy gift from God!!!"

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Now just on a side note, I always wondered why the Orthodox and the Catholics fought over the filioque. (For non-Catholics and non-Orthodox readers, this is the part of our creeds that states "...And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son". The Orthodox don't usually accept the translation of "and from the Son") Part of me wondered if the Orthodox had it right, because how can the Holy Spirit proceed from the Father AND the Son if the Son cannot do anything without the Father? But this completely erases any doubt I had in the Church's teaching...the Spirit must proceed from the Father and the Son because it is essentially the love shared between them, not simply a Spirit being emanated from the essence of the Father (which was what I thought it meant, I never imagined it meant that the Holy Spirit was in fact the love sent from the Father to the Son, and as we all know, the Son will always reciprocate the Father's love!) So Amen to that revelation! Praise the Lord :)

[Next part may be a bit graphic for sensitive readers...deals with comments made by a non-Christian adolescent male...enough said haha]

In respect to Carmen's answer on chastity, I yet again struggled with giving my friends a concrete reason why sex is to be saved for marriage. Before I was a true Christian I was "seeing" this guy who always begged for sex. I knew deep down that was a big NO for God, and not because it was written in the Bible (because I was still an advocate for homosexual rights at this point...God have mercy). I just felt a need to protect my virginity. He would tell me "we are merely mammals, we need and crave sex, we cannot control our natural instinct." First off- EW. I am NOT an animal, I am a human being who has control over her "desires" and her body, thank you very much. When asked for the religious reason why I was withholding sex, I said "Because it's special...God wants sex to only occur between a husband and wife." But why is it special!? If only I had Carmen's answer at the time, how much more powerful would that have been? Maybe he would have really understood where I was coming from and MAYBE it would have given him some food for spiritual thought.

I have read this (and maybe even posted about this...sorry!!!) theory of marital love and the trinity before, but it really hit home this time around. I am seriously trying to pursue my call to be a witness of the Word both through my actions and words. And now that I have ammo in the area of abstinence, and why Christians strive for purity, I think I will be much more useful to the Lord while I am at university, where everyone's favorite topic is, of course, sex.

Peace & blessings always!
RA