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{"id":16995,"date":"2015-01-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-29T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=1820"},"modified":"2015-01-29T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-01-29T00:00:00","slug":"love-melts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/01\/love-melts\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Melts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<\/head>

One of the most profound passages from the Summa <\/em>quoted in Peter Kreeft\u2019s\u00a0Practical Theology<\/a> is this (p. 97), from ST <\/em>I-II, 289, 5:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFour proximate effects may be ascribed to love, viz. melting, enjoyment, languor, and fervor. Of these, the first is melting<\/em>, which is opposed to freezing. For things that are frozen are closely bound together so as to be hard to pierce; but it belongs to love that the appetite is fitted to receive the good which is loved inasmuch as the object loved is in the love. . . . Consequently the freezing or hardening of the heart is a disposition incompatible with love, while melting denotes a softening of the heart, whereby the heart shows itself to be ready for the entrance of the beloved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of the many wonders in this passage, I note only one: Love melts so that<\/em> the melted heart is permeable; specifically, so that<\/em> the thing loved can penetrate the heart and dwell in it. Love melts its own way into the heart; it makes its own doorway into the heart and enters the door. God is Love; God is the heat that melts; God is the Lover who enters the opening He Himself makes.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"