Brian Killian has an excellent article up at Catholic Exchange taking a look at the romanticized Hollywood “love” scenes and how we typically view the act of sexual intercourse today:

Remember the older Hollywood love scenes?

A man and woman are wrapped in each other’s arms in front of gently billowing curtains and moonlight as they tenderly and lovingly kiss and caress each other–beautiful music playing in the background–for what seems like hours of intimate bliss.

Today, we might laugh at such a romanticized picture of lovemaking and object that the reality is much different. We might note that in real life sex is less graceful, more sweaty, and seemingly related more to the animal than the angelic.

Of course, humans share with animals the same mechanics of sex. In that respect it’s true that those love scenes are not very true to life. But this is taking these scenes too literally. They express an intuition about sex that is not only true, but is in danger of being lost. And the truth is that…

Sex Really Can be “Making Love”

Those romanticized love scenes are not supposed to be realistic depictions of sex, but metaphors of making love. They turn the lovers inside out so that we don’t get misled by the external details–which obscure the inner truth–but show us the reality of what is being expressed by the lovers.

Read the rest in which he talks about how human sexual relations should always incorporate the interior and the exterior – the spiritual as well as the physical. After all, to use the words of JP II:

[M]an is a person in the unity of his body and his spirit. The body can never be reduced to mere matter: it is a spiritualized body, just as man’s spirit is so closely united to the body that he can be described as an embodied spirit (Letter to Families, n. 19)

Visit Brian’s website: http://nuptialmystery.com.

His article reminds me of my favorite movie “love scene” ever. From Cat on a Hot Tin Roof – so hot, and NO NUDITY:

TOB Tuesday