As the years go by, married persons slow down even in their sexual life. This is a physiological and biological fact. This does not mean, however, giving up physical intimacy, which is not limited to sexual relations, but is also made up of hugs, kisses, and caresses, which must also season one’s daily life as a couple. Physical contact should never be put aside because now it becomes more necessary than before.
It will be a matter of embracing a body that is no longer young, and feeling that, beyond the wrinkles, the weight gain, the joints that creak, through that body, you also embrace the other as a whole, to love him/her as he/she is, without expectations or criticism. It is the body that reveals its mystery, with that hidden meaning that transcends it.
This is the time when communion among spouses must grow, both spiritually, intellectually, and psychologically. For this reason, it is necessary to rediscover tenderness, those small gestures of love, of delicate attention to the changes of the other that help make love more concrete.
You can then be a witness to those who no longer believe in marriage that “forever” is possible, right up to the last breath and beyond, and that old age is, in a certain sense, the “golden age,” because you understand more easily the value of what goes beyond the physical and you learn to enjoy simple things, the fruits of what you have sown in life.
Once the exaggerated mutual expectations are gone, you will be able to enjoy that “one flesh” (Genesis 2:24, Matthew 19:5, Mark 10:8 and Ephesians 5:31) that you have by now become and to which you as a married couple have always aspired for. And there will be nothing more beautiful than looking up together towards that endless Love, which you have been waiting for all your lives.
