THE UNION WHICH LOVE SEEKS IS SPIRITUAL[1]
We must be aware that there are natural unions as that of likeness, blood relationship and cause with its effect. There are others which are not natural and may be called voluntary. Even though these may be natural, all the same, they are effected by our will. For instance, such is the union which arises from benevolence which certainly unites the benefactor and the one who receives, socialization, companionship and the like. When union is natural, it produces love.
The love it produces leads to a new voluntary union which makes the natural union perfect. Such are the union between the father and the son, mother and her daughter, or two brothers naturally united by sharing the same blood. They are stirred up to love by this union. By this love, they are led to a union of the will and the spirit which could be called voluntary. Even though its basis is natural, its action is deliberate. In these loves caused by natural union we should not seek any other relationship than that of union itself. In this union nature comes before the will, compels it to approve love and perfect the union already existing.
Voluntary unions, in fact, come after love. However, they are their [these unions’] causes too, as they are their end and unique aim. Just as love tends to union, so also union often extends and increases love. For love seeks companionship and often sharing nourishes and increases love. Love makes one desire spousal union and this union mutually preserves and increases love, so much so that it is true that in every sense love craves union.
What kind of union does love seek? Have you not noticed, Theotimus, that the sacred spouse expresses her desire to be united with her Bridegroom [in the Song of Songs] by a kiss? Does not the kiss symbolize spiritual union which is caused by the communion of hearts? Certainly, it is the human person who loves. But he loves through the will. Hence, the goal of his love depends on the nature of his will. His will is spiritual. So the union he seeks is spiritual. All the more so because the heart is the seat and source of love. It will be not only not perfected by union with bodily things but may even be debased by it.
This does not mean, Theotimus, that there are no such passions in the human person. They are like mistletoe which appears on trees like secretions or overgrowth. Often they spring up amidst love and around love. Nevertheless, they are neither love nor part of love. They are like the secretions or the surplus of it. They are in no way advantageous for maintaining or perfecting love. On the contrary, they greatly hurt and weaken it. Finally, if we do not cut them away, they will utterly ruin love. The following is the reason.
The more we engage ourselves in activity either of the same kind or of different kinds, in proportion, we do them less perfectly and vigorously. The reason is this: The human spirit is limited. Its power to act is also limited. In directing its activity to different actions, it follows necessarily that each of them gets less attention. Thus humans attending to many things are less attentive to each one of them. We cannot consider exactly the features of a human face by sight and at the same time listen to the harmony of a fine piece of music. Nor can we be attentive to the shape and at the same time to the colour. If we are taken up by conversation, we are not able to attend to anything else.
I am not unaware of what is told about Caesar. It is not that I do not believe what so many great men have affirmed about Origen: They could apply their attention to many objects. All the same, each one acknowledges that in the proportion they applied it to many objects, it was less to each object. There is a difference between seeing, hearing and knowing more; and seeing, hearing and knowing better. For he who sees better sees less and he who sees more does not see so well. It is rare that those who know much know quite well what they know. The qualities and powers of the mind scattered in the knowledge of many things are less strong and energetic than when they are concentrated on one single object. When the soul applies its power of loving to many activities of love, necessarily its action thus divided is less energetic and perfect.
We have three kinds of loving: spiritual, rational and sensual. When love directs its power to all these three activities, doubtless, it is more extensive but less intensive. When it is directed to only one kind of activity, it is more intensive though less extensive. We know that fire is the symbol of love. When it is compelled to get out through the single mouth of a canon, it produces a brilliant flash. It would be much less if the barrel had two or three openings. Since love is an act of our will, a person, who desires love to be not only noble and generous but also strong, lively and active, should keep its strength and power within the limits of spiritual activities. Whosoever directs his love to the activities of the sensible and sensitive part of the human spirit in that proportion weakens intellectual activities in which consists always the essence of love.
The ancient philosophers recognized two kinds of ecstasies: One raised us above ourselves and the other degraded us below ourselves. It was as if they meant to say that the human person has a nature in between that of angels and animals. He shares in the angelic nature in his intellectual nature and the animal nature in his sensitive part. All the same, by his way of life and constant care of self, he can free himself and get rid of this middle state. In so far as he concentrates on doing many intellectual activities, he is more like an angel than a beast. If he applies himself much to the activity of the senses, he will come down from his middle state and draw himself closer to the animals. Since ecstasy is nothing else than going out of self, to whichever side one goes out, one is in ecstasy. Those who, touched by divine and intellectual delights, allow their hearts to be enraptured by such feelings are certainly out of themselves. It means that they are above their natural state. By going out in this happy and longed for way, they enter a nobler and higher state. They are more like angels in their activity though they are humans by the substance of their nature. They should be called human angels or angelic humans. On the contrary, those who are attracted by sensual pleasures and give themselves up to their enjoyment descend from their middle state to the lowest of the beasts. They deserve to be called brutes because of their activity though they are humans by nature. Unhappy are those who are out of themselves only to reach a condition infinitely unworthy of their natural state.
In proportion as the intensity of the ecstasy either lifting one above oneself or dragging one below oneself is greater, the more the soul is prevented from returning to itself. The ecstasy prevents it from doing activities contrary to the state in which it exists. Thus those angelic persons absorbed in God and in heavenly things are entirely lost in them. As long as their ecstasy lasts, they lose the usage and attention of their senses, physical movement and all exterior activities. It happens thus because the soul, in order to concentrate its power and its activity entirely and more attentively on God, withdraws and gathers them from all other faculties in order to direct them to this side [God]. It is the same with brutish persons. Absorbed in sensual pleasures, especially in those of the sense of touch, they entirely lose the usage of reason and judgment. It happens because their miserable soul, in order to experience more fully and attentively the brutish object, turns away from spiritual activities and immerses itself in and turns everything into what is brutish and beastly. These [two ecstasies] show some mystical similarity: One that of Elijah taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot among angels (2 Kings 11:11), and the other Nebuchadnezzar made brutish and debased to the level of wild beasts (Dan 4:30).
Now this is what I say: when a person practises love through sensual activity, it drags him below himself. It is impossible that he does not become all the more weak in the exercise of superior love. In fact, the union to which superior love tends should be helped and preserved. On the contrary, the union which sensual love seeks weakens, dissipates and ruins it. The oxen of Job tilled the ground while the useless asses grazed around them eating the grass due to the oxen which were working (Job 1:14). The intellectual part of our spirit works for a honest, virtuous love for some worthy object. Often it happens that the senses and the lower faculties strive for a union that is natural to them and serve as their pasture. It happens even though union is due only to the heart and spirit which alone can produce true and substantial love.
Elisha, after healing Naaman the Syrian, was happy to have done him a favour. For the rest, he refused to accept his gold, his silver and his furniture which were offered to him. But Giezi, his unfaithful servant, ran after him, requested and took, against his master’s will, what the prophet had refused (2 Kings 5: 14-23). Intellectual and heartfelt love, which certainly is and should be the master of our spirit, refuses all kinds of bodily and sensual unions. It is satisfied with simple good will. But the sensitive faculties which are and should be the servants of our spirit beg, seek and seize what has been refused by reason. Without getting reason’s approval, they go ahead and make mean, servile unions. Like Giezi, they dishonour the purity of intention of their master which is the spirit. In proportion as the soul turns to such sensual and coarse unions, it turns away from the refined intellectual and tender union.
So, you see, Theotimus, that these unions which concern pleasures and passions of an animal nature do not in any way produce and preserve love. Instead, they are also very harmful and weaken it extremely. The incestuous Ammon was overwhelmed and infatuated with love for Thamar [his sister]. When he gave way to sensual and brutish union, he was so much deprived of heartfelt love that he could never see her. He unworthily pushed her out [of the room] (2 Sam 13). Thus he cruelly violated the law of love as he shamefully violated the law of blood relationship.
Sweet-basil, rosemary, marigold, hyssop, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemons and musk mixed together make a compound that gives a quite pleasant scent by the combination of their good fragrance. Yet the scent is not as great as that of the water distilled from the mixture. In that water, all these ingredients in their sweetness, separated from their particles, combine themselves more perfectly. They unite themselves into a very perfect aroma which penetrates more keenly the sense of smell. This would not happen if the particles of the ingredients were joined together with the scent and the water. Similarly, love may be found in the union of the sensual and intellectual faculties. But it is never so excellent as when the spirit and heart, separated from bodily affections, join together to produce pure, spiritual love. For the scent of the affections thus mingled are not only more delightful and better but also more lively, more active and more solid.
It is true that many are rough, mean and earthly minded. They think that the value of love is like that of gold pieces. Among them, the biggest and heaviest are better and more valuable. Similarly, they are of opinion that brutish love is stronger because it is more violent and exciting. It is more solid because it is more coarse and earthly, greater because more sensual and passionate. On the contrary, love is like a fire. If the fuel is more refined, the flames will be brighter and more beautiful. We cannot put them out except by beating them down and covering them over with earth. Similarly, the more elevated and spiritual the object of love is, the more lively, sustaining and lasting its activities. It is not possible to ruin such love except by degrading it to base and earthly unions.
St. Gregory tells us:
There is this difference between spiritual and carnal pleasures. The carnal pleasures excite some desire before we have them. Once had, they cause disgust. On the contrary, spiritual joys arouse some disgust before we have them and delight once we have them.
Animal love claims to overflow and perfect pleasure by union with the thing loved. On the contrary, once enjoyed, it destroys the pleasure as the union terminates. It made the great philosopher [Aristotle] say that every animal, after the enjoyment of its most intense and vehement carnal pleasure, remains sad, dejected, stupefied. It is like a merchant who hoped to gain much but finds himself deceived and sustaining heavy loss. On the contrary, intellectual love, finding in its union with the object greater happiness than it had hoped for, perfects its delight in the object. It continues to be united with the object and unites with it all the more as it continues.
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[1] TLG Bk I Chs 10, 11,12 reveal the soul of St. Francis de Sales. St. Jane de Chantal speaks about the admirable harmony which pervaded the heart of St. Francis de Sales.