Claim. True conjugal love does not expire with youth but grows toward eternity and becomes the highest art of life.
Elaboration. SMM says spouses should love “eternally,” and first “until death,” because loving until death means giving everything one has (CSG 4.7 §8, 37-23, 1970.12.22). A true husband and wife take each other as eternal partners of love, form a family where initial love grows, and can “participate in God’s love” (Blessed Family 880). The best relation is the one formed in first love and kept for eternity. SMM then makes an aesthetic claim: an ideal couple turns the highest art and literature into reality. Before art depicts love, the sweetest husband-wife love must be the world’s best work of art.
See also. spirit-world