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Like Adam & Eve, We are Called to Union and Communion
In the same way, Adam and Eve could see from the difference in their physical bodies (remember that they were naked) that they were called to union and communion that they were called to LOVE, to give themselves in a total gift to each other, both body and soul, in the most complete physical way possible for a human being, i.e. sexual union.
This physical union points to and expresses a deeper spiritual union. In the same way that a smile is empty if one is not really happy, sexual union is empty without spiritual union. Not only does their physical communion point to an invisible communion between the man and woman, but it actually shows us that this love, this self- gift, is what we are called to, what we were created for.
John Paul II said that God created our bodies the way He did specifically to show us that we are called to love, that our reason for existence is to love, to make a gift of ourselves to others (not only through our complete, permanent gift of self in our vocation, but in everyday life to those we meet). He calls this the “nuptial (or spousal) meaning of the body.”
He explained, “The human body includes right from the beginning…the capacity of expressing love, that love in which the person becomes a gift and by means of this gift fulfills the meaning of his being and existence.” (TOB Jan 16, 1980)
