Miłość małżeńska ‒ proces obdarowania sobą małżonków. Geneza i próba definicji

Abstract

Matrimonial love depends on the main criterion – the personal being of the man and woman first of all. Biblical relation about human being’s creation by God (Gen. 1,26-27), indicates him as the persons, man and woman, gifted by God to be able to get in the mutual relation of love. Man and woman are able to get in the mutual relation of being personal gift each to other, because there are image of God loving and gifting them. The process of the mutual, personal gift between the husband and his wife exists and develops on three levels: cognitive, emotional and behavioral. On each of them it is different but combine with others. Finally this process is the basis to distinguish the three notions of matrimonial love: the attitude of matrimonial love, the bond of matrimonial love and the matrimonial union. The attitude of matrimonial love is relatively persistent treatment of the spouse. This treatment consists in being a personal gift for husband or wife. The personal bestowal of the spouse is somewhat different on the cognitive, emotional and behavioral area. The essential feature of the matrimonial attitude is its one sided treatment of the spouse. It nothing says about the reciprocation. The second notion is the matrimonial bond. It is defined as a process of mutual, personal gift, between husband and his wife, considered on 3 areas. About matrimonial bond we can speak when the matrimonial attitude one of the spouses is accepted by the other one. The acceptance must be understood in the anthropological category and do not economic. It means the reciprocation of the matrimonial gift. Therefore matrimonial bond is named the attitude accepted as well. If the attitude of love is not accepted, matrimonial bond is not developing. The essential feature of matrimonial bond is the reciprocation of the matrimonial gift and being the process. The reciprocation of the matrimonial gift exposes an ability of the spouses to accept the offered gift. The matrimonial bond as a process exposes the necessity of permanent effort and cooperation of the spouses. The matrimonial bond creates the matrimonial union. It is defined as a relatively persistent structure of the values joining spouses. Among presented notions the matrimonial union is the most persistent, though it is developed by the bond, during marriage.