Married Love...

Pope Paul describes in paragraph nine of Humanae Vitae the concept of Married Love. He describes it as love that is constructed, saying that "it is not, then, merely a question of natural instinct or emotional drive." It is something that involves work and learning to put your partner before yourself. He describes married love as part of some sort of plan of God's and that it is intended for reproduction. He describes the gift of children as the goal of marriage and that it is the ultimate reward. He says that married love is about sharing and giving to your partner and not about our own convenience. "Married love is also faithful and exclusive of all other, and this until death". Couples are supposed to be fully aware of the terms of marriage before committing to it.

I definitely agree with Pope Paul about how marriage is not natural instinct. I think that society has constructed this idea of marriage and pushed us to believe it is the ultimate ritual/praxis of finalizing a relationship. All the discourse we read about marriage and the archetypes of married men and women lead us to believe this is just another necessary and required step of relationships. I think Pope Paul recognizes that society has essentially ruined the true meaning of marriage and the reality of the commitment. When he talks about "being fully aware of what they were doing", I think he is addressing how some couples go into marriage blindly and don't acknowledge that there is work and it is sometimes difficult. I believe that marriage is a society-developed subgroup that people enter into because it supposedly gives them a sense of who they are and they can put a term onto their love with another person (we're married, therefore we love each other this much) It is as if society sees married people and imply all these things about their love and I think Pope Paul is trying to say that committing to marriage is committing to work and compromise with another person in order to procreate and that getting married isn't something you do without knowing everything you're getting in to. One area the Pope lacks addressing is gay marriage. I believe that the whole paragraph can apply to gay marriage until at the end he talks about how marriage's goal is to procreate. Lacking to address gay marriage is simply ignoring what is common and should be accepted. I think that he is implying that you can only have this type of sacred married love if you procreate, but I believe that love is attainable if you work and commit, no matter if you choose to procreate. If marriage is God's plan (according to the Pope) and God created some men and women with reproductive issues (therefore they cannot procreate, even if they have this sacred married love) then that sacred, married love should not be exclusive to those who procreate.