In fact, infidelity or sexual exploits are more alluring to the married ones, having themselves tasted the “forbidden fruit” so to speak. Persons who live in the same house but pass by each other in their values become estranged; their sex life runs down; it becomes perfunctory because they have nothing more to say to each other.

What do we really need? What are we really looking for as singles or as spouses? In our day when contraceptives and sexual techniques are supposed to pave the way to the pleasures of sex without anxiety and guilt, we are experiencing a gnawing disappointment, a new anxiety. It is time to stop being silenced by those who roar that “sex is fun,” that anxiety and guilt are created only by outworn custom, and that all we really need is better technology and better technique so that we may “enjoy” each other’s bodies more.

When one shares one’s body, when one shares another’s, as part of the give-and-take, as symbolic of the frustrations and appreciations that both face together in life, then sexual experience becomes a way of saying what we all need to say and to hear: “I care!” It is the pursuit of meaning that makes sex a source of renewal as persons who care for one another find in their sexual experience a symbol of their union and mutual concern. It is what God has intended for two caring people, in commitment to each other as persons, to share and risk.

What couples are really looking for is commitment to love and courage to marry. And for that, sex can surely wait. What singles can look forward to is fulfillment in life and relationships whether they eventually get hitched or not. In other words, both single and married people want a sanctified life for that is the only quality of life worth pursuing.