Meditation ~ The Trinity and Sexuality

Perhaps one of the saddest and most damaging things Christians can do is think about sex in a joyless, Manichean/Puritanical way. That's because in a privileged sense, sex was created by God to image the intimacy and joy of Triune love. Above all, sex imparts the following idea: the most superlative pleasure is not one I can "give" myself. I need someone else.

I need someone else.

As sinners, we resist that truth with all we've got. We live on a solitary mountain where we can feel in control, accumulate in an unfettered way, and not have to part with what we'd rather keep. Other people are a threat. They can only "take" from us. They can only rob us of time and other resources. Or they can outshine or outperform us.

As sinners, we like to to be social, but in a spirit of accumulation. We like to accumulate company or the status of being social.

Trinitarian life is very different. It is not people "for me." People are not things I accumulate. Neither do I allow them to accumulate or control me. Rather, there is "sum is greater than the parts" phenomenon. Somehow, "we" is greater than what we can be on our own. I give sacrificially to the other, they give sacrificially to me. I admit my need for them, them for me. In a real and substantial way, we are coexistent and meant for each other. Our existence is truly mutual. This is Trinitarian.

Sex proclaims this. I can't have fulfilling sex by myself. I need someone else.

By extension, marriage also proclaims this. I can't marry myself. I need a husband.

If we uphold sex as being superlatively joyful and meaningful--and the marital union that sustains it--we will understand that the most blessed state in life is one of mutuality.

This value of mutuality will filter into our other relationships, friendship, professional, and so on. From the mutuality of marriage and sexuality, flows a worldview of mutuality. A worldview of coming out of our alienated, isolated existences. We exist in a meaningful way for others, and them for us. In being marriage minded, we become Trinitarian minded. The joys of sexuality are meant to spark a desire in us to think and live in a Trinitarian way.