be criminal to keep ANY two people from being together forever. Yet, there is both a unitive and procreative aspect of love that cannot be separated from it.
With this little example, we can see that even those who view love as simply subjective really hold that there is some objectivity in love (written in the reality of love itself). Where does that objectivity come from? It comes from the fact that we as human persons cannot separate ourselves from the meaning of things written into them by their very creation. From a Christian standpoint, if one truly and critically thinks about it, it stems from a Christian truth that has implications for everything in life.
1 John 4:8 - God is Love.
This may be the very issue in today's culture. You have your view of God, I have mine, and as long as you don't tell me I am wrong, I won't tell you you are wrong. If we all just "do good" and "get along" then we are good people, and this is all "God" is.
Today views God as subjective. So many different views of God based upon our lives...not our lives based upon God. Think about it. If God is God, and he is true, he is Truth itself. He is the ultimate being. He is what reality is all about. All truth, and all the world comes from him. He is Objectivity itself. He is creator, etc.
If God is objective, and God is love, doesn't that mean that from a Christian mindset, Love is Objective too? Shouldn't we view love as something that we conform too, no matter who we are or what time period we live in? No matter what culture or people? Christians who believe that the Scriptures are inspired, who believe what it says, should all be of the same view that God is Love, and Love therefore, what we strive for, finds its definition in God.
Man and woman then love in the image and likeness of God's love. How does God love? What is Love? What is God?
We come to a deep mystery. Revealed to us by Christ and clarified in the early Church, God is a Trinity of Persons. God is love - in his very being. He is love itself. Love is communal. Love is unitive. Love is LIFE GIVING. By its very intrinsic definition itself (God is Love), love can never be stripped from these aspects. Love can be closed to life in as much as God is closed to creating. Love can be divisive in as much as the Father and the Son are divided. As God is, so is love. As Christians, we see love as being unitive and life-giving.
Marriage in the Catholic Church's understanding is that created by God from the beginning in which true love is found. This love that is continual, faithful, complete, unitive, and life-giving is given the name "marriage". Marriage for Catholics stems from God and creation. Two who love each other in marriage are bound in God forever (love says lasting, not, for 10 minutes) Seeking one's good is not a 30 minute at a time endeavor. Love means without end. Love is faithful. One gives them-self to the other completely and fully. As the Father is given to the Son and the Son to the Father, so too the husband is fully given to the wife (hence not two wives or three). When one is totally given to the other, and the other to them, they become so united that God binds them as "one flesh", in the image of God who is ONE, yet a communion of persons. And lastly, love that is truly seeking the good of the other seeks to be life-giving. A love that does not seek a pro-creative aspect cannot truly mirror LOVE itself. Marriage without being open to life is not love, since God is love and God is life-giving.
That said, the Catholic Church cannot promote marriage between two men or two women because it is not open to life in its very definition. Two men cannot be given to each other in such a way that life comes forth. We follow the way God created the world, we do not fight against it. Creation and man are not at odds against each other. God created creation and man, so man follows the creator.
We could continue this forever. It suffices for now.
