Reflective of Christ's Love

Certainly, there may be many good-natured people who decide to live together and to have sex. But, sex is more than something you have. Sexuality is an integral part of you. Human beings are neither robot bodies nor disembodied spirits. We are persons of spirit and flesh with incredible powers and responsibilities. My concern for those who mean well in these relationships is that they might spoil their chances for a good marriage and life together. In the Church, a marriage is blessed by God. Living-together relationships have no such protection and indeed stand convicted of serious sin. In marriages between baptized Christians, marriage takes on the dignity of a sacrament. This means that this relationship is transformed and elevated by the couple's mutual faith in Christ and in the Church. Marriage becomes reflective of Christ's love for his bride, the Church. A couple are to reciprocally see in Christ the love they need to offer one another. To the extent that they love one another, they love Christ. This makes it vitally important that they live a life wherein they walk together as disciples, inviting Christ ever more and more into their lives. Their sexual union then becomes, next to the Eucharist, the greatest act of prayer in their lives and a foretaste of the joys of heaven. They are called to help one another along the road of perfection. Spouses are one another's greatest helps, ideally, in becoming saints.