By: Miguel Ángel Cárceles

God that is love and lives in a community of love, when He created man in his image, gave him a vocation like His: a vocation of love.

Men and women can follow that calling, as an individual person or together as a permanent couple that is part of a love community. If they do it individually, they will live virginity; if they establish a love community, they will live inside a marriage (Engracia A Jordán, “La educación para el amor humano).

Since man is a unity of body and soul, his radical vocation to love also involves human body; which is part of spiritual love. A human being loves with his/her whole being, body and soul.

• Affective Education

Sexuality cannot be reduced to a mere biological phenomenon: the genital experience between a man and a woman. Sexuality reaches a human category when the mystery of love, essential in mankind’s existence is involved. For this reason, sexual education must be taken into account when talking about affective education, that means, education of the feelings and human tendencies, where love has a fundamental role.

When sex is not considered within spirituality, it turns out to be inhuman, and inhuman is lower than pure animal. Love, totally isolated from the spiritual world – of the human global context- sees the other as a mere , not the sole material union without the spiritual part reduces people to the category of a thing that provides only satisfaction or pleasure.

Life becomes human as long as reason is used –states Víctor García-Hoz-, education starts by an action over intelligence. Therefore, every sexual education has to have its grounds in a clear conscience formation of its role in our life before God.

This affective-sexual education must be an education for love, which orients every one according to his/her specific vocation towards virginity or marriage. The first one is a vocation to love, first to God and in Him to every man. The second one requires a healthy education in married love, which is a total love.

Today’s moment and urgency, "In today’s socio-cultural situation it is urgent to give children, adolescents and youth a positive and gradual affective-sexual education. Silence is not an absolute rule of conduct in this matter, especially when we think about the number of people who use suggestive or provocative language" (S. C. for Catholic Education).

• Educative Orientations

About human love. (Sexual education guidelines, no. 106). The reason is clear: Sex topics are everywhere in the street and they enter our house through mass media, which very frequently use a kind of language aimed only to stimulate the instincts and encourage sexual manifestations completely disconnected from the emotions, the spirit, the openness to others, to life and to God. This is (Familiaris consortio, no. 37).

That is why it is very important to oppose to this distorted and corrupted action, a true affective-sexual education, centered in the Christian concept of human sexuality.

• Parents Rights and Duties

Affective-sexual education as well as other types of education, is also in charge of parents. Family is the first love community and it is there where children are raised in true love, as an honest and obliging service to others. It is within the family that we have many opportunities to talk about different topics on sex and affectivity: the arrival of a new child, pregnancy, sexual development during puberty, and attraction to other teen-agers of the opposite sex, etc. These are ideal situations to talk about sexual aspects. On this matter, Blessed José María Escrivá de Balaguer advises. (Conversations, no. 100).

For this important task parents can rely on the state of grace received by the Sacrament of Matrimony, which (Familiaris Consortio, no. 38).

On the other hand, there are simple and appropriate books, family associations and short courses of family orientation that allow parents to learn the best way to educate.

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