Married love thus becomes a power which enriches persons and makes them grow and, at the same time, it contributes to building up the civilization of love. In fact the gift reveals, so to speak, a particular characteristic of human existence, or rather, of the very essence of the person. Married love is fulfilled in openness to the other person and in self-giving, taking the form of a total gift that belongs to this state of life. Even in the most delicate situations, Christian parents cannot forget that the gift of God is there, at the very basis of all personal and family history. As an incarnate spirit, that is, a soul which expresses itself in a body and a body informed by an immortal spirit, man is called to love in his unified totality.
Love includes the human body, and the body is made a sharer in spiritual love.
Familiaris Consortio, 11. Such diversity, linked to the complementarity of the two sexes, allows thorough response to the design of God according to the vocation to which each one is called. Educational Guidance in Human Love, 5. Married Love 14. When love is lived out in marriage, it includes and surpasses friendship.