Communions of Love

My faith teaches me that it is for love that there is the world. And one of the greatest expressions of this love is when “a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”  I have always seen this union of marriage as a communion of love, a visible and physical expression of God’s creative love. Thus, marriage is first and foremost a communion of love.

And if marriage is a mirror of God’s creative love, then it should also always be open to procreation. Thus, “The Creator made them male and female.”  And the sexual act is the most pleasurable expression and consummation of this communion of love. There are couples who cannot have children because of some physical defects. Theirs is still a communion of love.

There are other communions of love possible. There are those who renounce marriage and live together in communities as communions of love. These are the religious communities who forsake the pleasures of sex but still live in a communion of love with others.

Can two men or two women live together in a communion of love. Yes, and I have seen it happen in real life. I have witnessed more love in homo couples’ families than in some hetero couples’ families I know. But I have a problem calling this communion of love a marriage as it is not procreative. In the same manner, I have a problem calling a marriage the union of a man and a woman but who fully aware make the conscious decision not to have children. This sounds to me denying the very love that is the basis of their marriage.

It is good these things are talked about and discussed. I welcome all communions of love and their myriad expressions, traditional, conventional, unconventional. The union of a man and a woman is one such communion of love and it is called marriage or matrimony. There are those who live as celibates and in communities and build communions of love and these are the priests and the religious orders. Same-sex unions can also be communions of love. But I do not know what or how to call them. And we need to reflect on how the Church can bless and care for such unions.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever.

~ Psalm 136

Some Pharisees approached Jesus, and tested him, saying,
“Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause whatever?”
He said in reply, “Have you not read that from the beginning
the Creator made them male and female and said,
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?
So they are no longer two, but one flesh.
Therefore, what God has joined together, man must not separate.”
They said to him, “Then why did Moses command
that the man give the woman a bill of divorce and dismiss her?”
He said to them, “Because of the hardness of your hearts
Moses allowed you to divorce your wives,
but from the beginning it was not so.
I say to you, whoever divorces his wife
(unless the marriage is unlawful)
and marries another commits adultery.”
His disciples said to him,
“If that is the case of a man with his wife,
it is better not to marry.”
He answered, “Not all can accept this word,
but only those to whom that is granted.
Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so;
some, because they were made so by others;
some, because they have renounced marriage
for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven.
Whoever can accept this ought to accept it.”
Matthew 19:3-12