The best definition of love was the one, which was expressed by Saint Paul, where he tells us how love is always patient and kind, never boastful, never jealous, never rude or selfish and how it hopes to endure whatever comes, and how love does not come to an end.
An important part of marriage, which, can be abused, though, is sex. According to the teaching of the Catholic Church “Sex is an integral part of human nature which is a gift from God that should be used in a loving and respectful way, as through the sexual act a man and a woman express their total love for and commitment to each other” but on a lot of occasions this does not happen. Some people have sex and sometimes do not think of the consequences, which may occur i.e. getting pregnant or catching an STD (Sexually Transmitted Disease). Some people may be pressured into having sex. The reasons may be natural, cultural or social.
If a woman becomes pregnant and she is not married, then she and her partner have to make a choice about what they are going to do! The main choice, which is seen in the Roman Catholic Church, is to keep the baby, which can sometimes push the couple to marriage or co-habitation. A study by Mary Kenny shows that co-habitation is a bad idea as studies have shown that couples that live together before marriage are more likely to split up after marriage. In this case it is better to wait until you are married to have sexual intercourse.
In Genesis we are told, “a man should leave his father and mother and cling to his wife, and the two shall become one body.” This is one of the true meanings of marriage, which a man and woman should be clear on when they are joined in one body at marriage.
Catholics should be clear about fornication. Fornication is when a person is clear on the Roman Catholic Churches teaching about sex before marriage. Also a person should understand that love is for life and not until we get bored with it. If a person does get bored with marriage, it can lead to sadness and depression, which may then lead on to that person having an affair. The Catholic Church teaches that sex outside marriage is an act of ‘pretend love’ or deception, because those involved are not deliberately and unreservedly committing themselves to love each other both at the time and for all the years to follow.
In Matthew 5:27-30, we are told that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery, and if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. From this passage we should realise how sinful it is to indulge in pornography.
Marriage should have certain qualities, which include love, kindness, happiness and faithfulness. In a marriage there are two-fold purposes 1) a pro-creative function or 2) a unitive function. A pro creative function is where a couple increase, multiply and fill the earth, and a unitive function is when “it is not good for a man to be alone. I will give him a helpmate…that is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife and the two of them become one unitive function! When a couple gets married they should remember that they joined in a covenant, which also included God as the third person, which made the marriage work!
When a couple start to grow apart and they decide that they want to separate they can file for a divorce, which the Catholic Church forbids, or they can try to get an annulment. If they file for a divorce, it may turn into a bitter feud between the two parties whereas, if they apply for an annulment, which means that there never was a proper marriage to begin with, but the disadvantage in annulments is that it may take anything up to 7 years for an annulment to come through. To get an annulment, the pair and a church panel has to agree that there was never a real marriage in the first place. If they both agree on that then they have to give a reason why, this reason could be that the other partner would not have a child or they had been forced into the marriage at the start or that on the terms of the case, the annulment may now be granted.
According to the law of state-“Marriage is the voluntary union for life of one man and one woman to the exclusions of all others. I believe that this statement is true as it explains a marriage between two people!
