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 TOPIC 23.3
CONJUGAL LOVE: A FULLY HUMAN LOVE

References: Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 1601-1617;

St. Paul VI, Enc. Humanae Vitae;
Karol Wojtyla (St. John Paul II), Love and Responsibility
 CONJUGAL LOVE:
A FULLY HUMAN LOVE

Conjugal Love: Conjugal Love

a Fully Human Love as a Subjective Reality

Sentiment Rationality Indispensable Role

or Emotional Delight in Conjugal Love of Reason and Free Will

A commitment Governing Sensuality

of free will is needed and Affectivity
 CONJUGAL LOVE:
A “FULLY HUMAN LOVE”
“…not a simple transport of instinct and sentiment, but also, and principally,
an act of the free will, intended to endure and grow by means of the joys
and sorrows of daily life, in such a way that husband wife become
one only heart and one only soul, and together attain their human perfection”
Humanae vitae, no. 9
St. Paul VI

◦ Conjugal love
◦ sexuality = substratum for total, exclusive, life-long self-giving
◦ sexual dimension is subordinated to the personal dimension

◦ 3 essential properties
(not statically lived, but dynamically fostered as signs of the desire to intensify one’s love)
◦ Exclusivity,
◦ Indissolubility,
◦ Openness to Life

◦ Specific Object of Conjugal Love: the person in his/her sexuality

◦ Conjugal love as an “objective” reality: its nature and properties
 Conjugal Love as a Subjective Reality

Sensuality
Sensuality
& Affectivity
• bodily elements • faculty that reacts
(instincts, feelings) to the sexual value
Subjective that the body of any person of the
opposite sex has (instinctively
elements perceived
involved as fulfilling my bodily needs:
in Conjugal Intellect
a “good-for-me”)

Love & Free Will • the most material element

• spiritual elements involved in conjugal love
(rationality) (and usually the first reaction
experienced)
 Sentiment
or Emotional Delight
Sentiment
an emotional reaction to a particular person
of the opposite sex in his/her totality.
◦ not merely a reaction to his/her bodily sexual value, but to the
person he/she
is because of the masculinity/femininity
he/she possesses.
◦ involves a value-response to the person
of the other (unlike mere sensuality)

◦ “People of this race have attractive features.”

 sensuality

◦ “Anna has a pleasing personality

and is very feminine.”
 sentiment
 Rationality
in Conjugal Love
What sensuality and sentiment have in common:
they are still mere bodily responses to the sexual values
(sensual and affective) of the other.
◦ the whole person of the subject
(including his/her intellect and free will) who loves,
is not yet involved

◦ Conjugal love
the mutual, total and exclusive self-donation
of a man and a woman
◦ True Love: always inspired sincere self-giving,
not self-seeking
◦ involves the affirmation of the person,
lovable for his/her own sake
 Indispensable Role of
Reason & Free Will
The transformation of sensuality and sentiment
into a vehicle for the affirmation of the person requires
the recognition of the goodness/value of the person as such (a spiritual reality)

◦ a some-one not a some-thing,

valuable in his uniqueness and unrepeatability
◦ a being made unto God’s image
and redeemed by Christ
◦ perceived only by the intellect,
especially when enlightened by faith
◦ We are all “interpreters” of Christ’s love for each and every man.

Jn 13:34: “Love one another as I have loved you.”

Fruit:
with the help of God’s grace,
sensuality is subordinated to sentiment
(affection and tenderness); and both are subordinated
to the affirmation of the person by the governing role
of intellect and will
 A commitment
of Free Will is needed
A commitment must be made to value
the other for his/her own sake:
“personalistic norm” vs. “utilitarian norm”
Karol Wojtyla

◦ L., dilectio (“love”) < electio (“choice”)

Free will
◦ the spiritual faculty that values and affirms
the good as known by the intellect
◦ sensuality and sentiment alone cannot be the basis for love

Selfishness can manifest itself in both levels

◦ “egoism of the senses” and “egoism of the emotions”
◦ intellect and will must rule over
sensuality and sentimentality.
◦ The useful and pleasurable goods must be ordained to the moral good

“Justice of mothers” in showing love for their children

St. Josemaria
 Governing Sensuality
and Affectivity
◦ A purely animal existence
◦ one limited within the confines of materiality
◦ purely sentient, emotive, and instinctive

◦ True love requires, with the help of God’s grace, the constant
effort to govern one’s sensations
and emotions using one’s intellect & will
to affirm the person
◦ 1 Jn 4:10: We are able to love because “God has loved us
first.” Cf. Rom 5:5.
The transformation of simple feelings
of attraction and desire to

love-as-attraction love-as-desire love of goodwill love of betrothal

not to merely think about commitment to desire one’s commitment to always seek commitment to use
one’s spouse as a good; but spouse the true good sensuality and sentiment as
a commitment as a “good-for-me” of the person vehicles to express exclusive
to think of her as a good but a “good-in-herself” as an image of God and irrevocable gift of one’s
self

NEXT LESSON
 TOPIC 23.3
CONJUGAL LOVE: A FULLY HUMAN LOVE

References: Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 1601-1617;

St. Paul VI, Enc. Humanae Vitae;
Karol Wojtyla (St. John Paul II), Love and Responsibility