On your wedding day you spoke words of consent: you promised to give yourselves to each other freely, totally, faithfully, and to welcome children. Saint John Paul II pointed out that those words do not stay at the altar. Spouses continue to “speak” them throughout married life, especially through their bodies. He called this “the language of the body.”
The body speaks
We already know that the body communicates. A hug says something. A turned back says something. A gentle hand says something. John Paul II applied this to the marital act. The physical union of husband and wife, by its nature, says: “I give myself to you completely, and I receive you completely.”
The Church teaches that in marriage, the bodily intimacy of the spouses becomes “a sign and pledge of spiritual communion” (CCC 2360). The marital act is meant to express, and to strengthen, the covenant you made.
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Sources
- CCC 2360 Catechism of the Catholic Church, The love of husband and wife
- CCC 2368-2370 Catechism of the Catholic Church, Regulation of births
- Humanae Vitae 11-12 Paul VI, Encyclical on the Regulation of Birth
- Familiaris Consortio 32 John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation on the Role of the Christian Family
- TOB 1979-1984, Man and Woman He Created Them John Paul II, General Audiences on the language of the body