Part III (Secunda Secundae) Part 43 (2/2)
Objection 1: It would seem that we are not bound to love the angels out of charity. For, as Augustine says (De Doctr. Christ. i), charity is a twofold love: the love of G.o.d and of our neighbor. Now love of the angels is not contained in the love of G.o.d, since they are created substances; nor is it, seemingly, contained in the love of our neighbor, since they do not belong with us to a common species.
Therefore we are not bound to love them out of charity.
Obj. 2: Further, dumb animals have more in common with us than the angels have, since they belong to the same proximate genus as we do.
But we have not charity towards dumb animals, as stated above (A. 3).
Neither, therefore, have we towards the angels.
Obj. 3: Further, nothing is so proper to friends as companions.h.i.+p with one another (Ethic. viii, 5). But the angels are not our companions; we cannot even see them. Therefore we are unable to give them the friends.h.i.+p of charity.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (De Doctr. Christ. i, 30): ”If the name of neighbor is given either to those whom we pity, or to those who pity us, it is evident that the precept binding us to love our neighbor includes also the holy angels from whom we receive many merciful favors.”
_I answer that,_ As stated above (Q. 23, A. 1), the friends.h.i.+p of charity is founded upon the fellows.h.i.+p of everlasting happiness, in which men share in common with the angels. For it is written (Matt.
22:30) that ”in the resurrection ... men shall be as the angels of G.o.d in heaven.” It is therefore evident that the friends.h.i.+p of charity extends also to the angels.
Reply Obj. 1: Our neighbor is not only one who is united to us in a common species, but also one who is united to us by sharing in the blessings pertaining to everlasting life, and it is on the latter fellows.h.i.+p that the friends.h.i.+p of charity is founded.
Reply Obj. 2: Dumb animals are united to us in the proximate genus, by reason of their sensitive nature; whereas we are partakers of everlasting happiness, by reason not of our sensitive nature but of our rational mind wherein we a.s.sociate with the angels.
Reply Obj. 3: The companions.h.i.+p of the angels does not consist in outward fellows.h.i.+p, which we have in respect of our sensitive nature; it consists in a fellows.h.i.+p of the mind, imperfect indeed in this life, but perfect in heaven, as stated above (Q. 23, A. 1, ad 1).
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ELEVENTH ARTICLE [II-II, Q. 25, Art. 11]
Whether We Are Bound to Love the Demons Out of Charity?
Objection 1: It would seem that we ought to love the demons out of charity. For the angels are our neighbors by reason of their fellows.h.i.+p with us in a rational mind. But the demons also share in our fellows.h.i.+p thus, since natural gifts, such as life and understanding, remain in them unimpaired, as Dionysius states (Div.
Nom. iv). Therefore we ought to love the demons out of charity.
Obj. 2: Further, the demons differ from the blessed angels in the matter of sin, even as sinners from just men. Now the just man loves the sinner out of charity. Therefore he ought to love the demons also out of charity.
Obj. 3: Further, we ought, out of charity, to love, as being our neighbors, those from whom we receive favors, as appears from the pa.s.sage of Augustine quoted above (A. 9). Now the demons are useful to us in many things, for ”by tempting us they work crowns for us,”
as Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xi, 17). Therefore we ought to love the demons out of charity.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Isa. 28:18): ”Your league with death shall be abolished, and your covenant with h.e.l.l shall not stand.” Now the perfection of a peace and covenant is through charity. Therefore we ought not to have charity for the demons who live in h.e.l.l and compa.s.s death.
_I answer that,_ As stated above (A. 6), in the sinner, we are bound, out of charity, to love his nature, but to hate his sin. But the name of demon is given to designate a nature deformed by sin, wherefore demons should not be loved out of charity. Without however laying stress on the word, the question as to whether the spirits called demons ought to be loved out of charity, must be answered in accordance with the statement made above (AA. 2, 3), that a thing may be loved out of charity in two ways. First, a thing may be loved as the person who is the object of friends.h.i.+p, and thus we cannot have the friends.h.i.+p of charity towards the demons. For it is an essential part of friends.h.i.+p that one should be a well-wisher towards one's friend; and it is impossible for us, out of charity, to desire the good of everlasting life, to which charity is referred, for those spirits whom G.o.d has condemned eternally, since this would be in opposition to our charity towards G.o.d whereby we approve of His justice.
Secondly, we love a thing as being that which we desire to be enduring as another's good. In this way we love irrational creatures out of charity, in as much as we wish them to endure, to give glory to G.o.d and be useful to man, as stated above (A. 3): and in this way too we can love the nature of the demons even out of charity, in as much as we desire those spirits to endure, as to their natural gifts, unto G.o.d's glory.
Reply Obj. 1: The possession of everlasting happiness is not impossible for the angelic mind as it is for the mind of a demon; consequently the friends.h.i.+p of charity which is based on the fellows.h.i.+p of everlasting life, rather than on the fellows.h.i.+p of nature, is possible towards the angels, but not towards the demons.
Reply Obj. 2: In this life, men who are in sin retain the possibility of obtaining everlasting happiness: not so those who are lost in h.e.l.l, who, in this respect, are in the same case as the demons.
Reply Obj. 3: That the demons are useful to us is due not to their intention but to the ordering of Divine providence; hence this leads us to be friends, not with them, but with G.o.d, Who turns their perverse intention to our profit.
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TWELFTH ARTICLE [II-II, Q. 25, Art. 12]
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