Vedybinė kūno prasmė
Nuptial meaning of the body

Summary/Abstract: The call to love is a fundamental call for every human being. Everyone is yearning for true love. What is an authentic human love? God can help us to find the answer to this question. In the process of searching for authentic love, we have to look at the image and the revelation of God, and to learn what the true love entails. When we look at the revelation of God in the Scriptures, we see God described as Being for others. The Holy Trinity is three divine persons, where each person is giving himself to one another in self surrender of love. Jesus – incarnate God through the history of salvation of humankind reveals that true love is giving. Self gift is the definition of love. God’s nature is self giving out of love. The Bible tells us that God created human beings in the image and likeness of God Himself. And since humans are the images of God, so they also have the nature of love. In its deepest meaning human nature is self giving out of love following God’s example of love. How do we, humans, resemble God? As we look for the means in which we, humans, actualize our likeness of God we discover that it is by our love that we resemble God. To be created into image of God is to be created for love. Therefore God created our human nature in such a way that we in our nature, have the ability to express love, the love in which person becomes a gift for another. This ability to express love is called the nuptial meaning of body. We, as human persons, in our own bodily existence carry our calling to love. The nuptial meaning of body which is inscribed in our nature is our call to become a gift of love for another human person. By loving others we fulfill the image of God inscribed in our personalities. We are the images of God by means of love which is divine – self giving as we see with which God loves us. Considering all these points, we can conclude that human existence reaches its meaning when we love other people following God’s example of love. To love like God loves, is the main purpose of every human being, it is the ultimate way in which we fulfill our image of God that we carry in our nature. God has not only created us with the nature of love, but he has also provided help for humans to fulfill our calling to love. First, God testifies that He loved us first, therefore we just have to accept His love and love in return. It is much easier to love when one knows he or she is already loved. So we are called and enabled to love, because God first loved us and gave Himself for us that we clearly see in Jesus’ revelation. God also gifted us with all the creation. All that exists is created for humankind and is freely given to us as gift. That’s the truth we read in the first book of Bible, namely in the book of Genesis. The creation of the world and all that exists is a gift of love from God to humans. We are called to accept this gift of love, and to prolong this love by becoming a gift for others.

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