Claim. Grief at a spouse’s death is metaphysical: the surviving spouse loses the universal support generated by conjugal oneness.
Elaboration. SMM says a wife does not cry at her husband’s death for a vague reason; love embraces four directions, and the spouse stands in the left-right relation that supports those directions (CSG 4.7 §7, Blessed Family 901). With a spouse, one establishes horizontal give-and-take and contacts “the vertical power of the universe.” Without that partner, one falls from universal support and feels pressure from universal power. Joy and sorrow separate according to whether a person conforms to universal law: “a man and a woman from beginning to end in total oneness” (24-223, 1969.8.17). Spousal grief exposes how deeply creation is structured for paired love.
See also. give-and-take-action