Whether Hope Is a Cause of Love?
Objection 1: It would seem that hope is not a cause of love. Because,
according to Augustine (De Civ. Dei xiv, 7, 9), love is the first of
the soul's emotions. But hope is an emotion of the soul. Therefore
love precedes hope, and consequently hope does not cause love.
Obj. 2: Further, desire precedes hope. But desire is caused by love,
as stated above (Q. 25, A. 2). Therefore hope, too, follows love, and
consequently is not its cause.
Obj. 3: Further, hope causes pleasure, as stated above (Q. 32, A. 3).
But pleasure is only of the good that is loved. Therefore love
precedes hope.
_On the contrary,_ The gloss commenting on Matt. 1:2, "Abraham begot
Isaac, and Isaac begot Jacob," says, i.e. "faith begets hope, and
hope begets charity." But charity is love. Therefore love is caused
by hope.
_I answer that,_ Hope can regard two things. For it regards as its
object, the good which one hopes for. But since the good we hope for
is something difficult but possible to obtain; and since it happens
sometimes that what is difficult becomes possible to us, not through
ourselves but through others; hence it is that hope regards also that
by which something becomes possible to us.
In so far, then, as hope regards the good we hope to get, it is
caused by love: since we do not hope save for that which we desire
and love. But in so far as hope regards one through whom something
becomes possible to us, love is caused by hope, and not vice versa.
Because by the very fact that we hope that good will accrue to us
through someone, we are moved towards him as to our own good; and
thus we begin to love him. Whereas from the fact that we love someone
we do not hope in him, except accidentally, that is, in so far as we
think that he returns our love. Wherefore the fact of being loved by
another makes us hope in him; but our love for him is caused by the
hope we have in him.
Wherefore the Replies to the Objections are evident.
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