On intuition in spousal love and on the nature of love, as expressed in the life of St Agnes

Abstract

It is argued in this essay that we can have an »original knowledge or recognition« (»originales Erfassen«) of a person’s acts, like for example love, which is the reason we know about love and not only due to our self-awareness. In this essay I examine two different kinds of spousal love and compare them with each other. For this examination I am using the example of the spousal love of St. Agnes, the bride of Christ. When we love someone, our love is our »response« to the intrinsic preciousness of the beloved, of his uniqueness and exclusivity as this person and his beauty. The lover belongs to the beloved and the beloved to the lover, they live within each other, in each other’s hearts and »lost is the key« as the poet says. It is an incredible eternal joy for the bride of Christ not only to love her Bridegroom with all her heart, with all her soul, with all her strength, but also to be able to adore her Bridegroom, in the strictest sense of the word. For the bride of Christ, Christ’s desire becomes her very own desire. And similar to the mundane bride who wistfully awaits her wedding night, the bride of Christ also awaits her wedding night, the spiritual union with her Lord, »sweeter than milk and honey, the eternal kiss of the Beloved«