In the West, we have the unfortunate dichotomy of mind and heart. We see them as almost opposites, one cold and calculating, the other warm and fuzzy. However, we need both mind and heart; a mind without a heart to guide it seeks nothing, and a heart without a mind to guide it finds nothing. For Saint Thomas Aquinas, love is exactly this combination of mind and heart, since it is a desire for union and, at the same time, a willing of goodness for another. Our mind recognizes the good, and our heart moves us towards it. Love, then, combines our mind and our heart: it is a full action of a human individual. I found this very nice quote on the object of love by Aquinas during one of my random Summa perusals.
"For it is our duty to hate, in the sinner, his being a sinner, and to love in him, his being a man capable of bliss; and this is to love him truly, out of charity, for God's sake"
A man capable of bliss is a man who can know God, who has the potential for entering heaven. So recognizing goodness with our intellect, directing ourselves to and for it with our heart, we love, and we love truly.
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