Ecstasy and the Wound of Love

As for the intentionality of love, it is no longer a “having,” but a “tendency toward,” a going beyond what we are to orientate us toward the good loved. In this sense, one can say that this intentionality which presupposes that of knowledge, bears within itself another demand, a demand of a new order, irreducible to that of knowledge. This demand consists first of all in a “going beyond,” in an élan directed toward the known good, capable of perfecting us. One can say in this sense that this intentionality is “ecstatic.” By love, he who loves is “outside of himself,” it is as though he departed from himself, “elated”; he is entirely turned toward the good which polarizes him and makes him forget himself. But at the same time, this intentionality of love renders the person who loves receptive to what is loved, to the good; it is as though all frontiers and all limits were suppressed or abolished. This is what exhibits to us the demand of interiority of the intentionality of love. Due to this interiority, he who loves will be capable of carrying the “secret” which he will guard as his treasure; the good loved becomes for him his secret, something that is the most intimate in his own life. The intentionality of love is therefore something which at the same time calls for a “going beyond” and for the greatest interiority. One could also add that this intentionality of love consequently renders him who loves vulnerable to everything which touches the good loved, and that it strengthens him at the same time, making him capable of undertaking all the necessary struggles to unite himself with the good loved; and that this intentionality is a source of joy just as it wound, because the presence of the good loved is never absolute, though it calls for being so, and thus wounds necessarily.

br. Marie-Dominique Philippe o.p.