Whether Union Is an Effect of Love?
Objection 1: It would seem that union is not an effect of love. For
absence is incompatible with union. But love is compatible with
absence; for the Apostle says (Gal. 4:18): "Be zealous for that which
is good in a good thing always" (speaking of himself, according to a
gloss), "and not only when I am present with you." Therefore union is
not an effect of love.
Obj. 2: Further, every union is either according to essence, thus
form is united to matter, accident to subject, and a part to the
whole, or to another part in order to make up the whole: or according
to likeness, in genus, species, or accident. But love does not cause
union of essence; else love could not be between things essentially
distinct. On the other hand, love does not cause union of likeness,
but rather is caused by it, as stated above (Q. 27, A. 3). Therefore
union is not an effect of love.
Obj. 3: Further, the sense in act is the sensible in act, and the
intellect in act is the thing actually understood. But the lover in
act is not the beloved in act. Therefore union is the effect of
knowledge rather than of love.
_On the contrary,_ Dionysius says (Div. Nom. iv) that every love is a
"unitive love."
_I answer that,_ The union of lover and beloved is twofold. The first
is real union; for instance, when the beloved is present with the
lover. The second is union of affection: and this union must be
considered in relation to the preceding apprehension; since movement
of the appetite follows apprehension. Now love being twofold, viz.
love of concupiscence and love of friendship; each of these arises
from a kind of apprehension of the oneness of the thing loved with
the lover. For when we love a thing, by desiring it, we apprehend it
as belonging to our well-being. In like manner when a man loves
another with the love of friendship, he wills good to him, just as he
wills good to himself: wherefore he apprehends him as his other self,
in so far, to wit, as he wills good to him as to himself. Hence a
friend is called a man's "other self" (Ethic. ix, 4), and Augustine
says (Confess. iv, 6), "Well did one say to his friend: Thou half of
my soul."
The first of these unions is caused _effectively_ by love; because
love moves man to desire and seek the presence of the beloved, as of
something suitable and belonging to him. The second union is caused
_formally_ by love; because love itself is this union or bond. In
this sense Augustine says (De Trin. viii, 10) that "love is a vital
principle uniting, or seeking to unite two together, the lover, to
wit, and the beloved." For in describing it as "uniting" he refers to
the union of affection, without which there is no love: and in saying
that "it seeks to unite," he refers to real union.
Reply Obj. 1: This argument is true of real union. That is necessary
to pleasure as being its cause; desire implies the real absence of
the beloved: but love remains whether the beloved be absent or
present.
Reply Obj. 2: Union has a threefold relation to love. There is union
which causes love; and this is substantial union, as regards the love
with which one loves oneself; while as regards the love wherewith one
loves other things, it is the union of likeness, as stated above (Q.
27, A. 3). There is also a union which is essentially love itself.
This union is according to a bond of affection, and is likened to
substantial union, inasmuch as the lover stands to the object of his
love, as to himself, if it be love of friendship; as to something
belonging to himself, if it be love of concupiscence. Again there is
a union, which is the effect of love. This is real union, which the
lover seeks with the object of his love. Moreover this union is in
keeping with the demands of love: for as the Philosopher relates
(Polit. ii, 1), "Aristophanes stated that lovers would wish to be
united both into one," but since "this would result in either one or
both being destroyed," they seek a suitable and becoming union--to
live together, speak together, and be united together in other like
things.
Reply Obj. 3: Knowledge is perfected by the thing known being
united, through its likeness, to the knower. But the effect of love is
that the thing itself which is loved, is, in a way, united to the
lover, as stated above. Consequently the union caused by love is
closer than that which is caused by knowledge.
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