Part III (Secunda Secundae) Part 44 (2/2)
(13) Whether the order of charity endures in heaven?
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FIRST ARTICLE [II-II, Q. 26, Art. 1]
Whether There Is Order in Charity?
Objection 1: It would seem that there is no order in charity. For charity is a virtue. But no order is a.s.signed to the other virtues.
Neither, therefore, should any order be a.s.signed to charity.
Obj. 2: Further, just as the object of faith is the First Truth, so is the object of charity the Sovereign Good. Now no order is appointed for faith, but all things are believed equally. Neither, therefore, ought there to be any order in charity.
Obj. 3: Further, charity is in the will: whereas ordering belongs, not to the will, but to the reason. Therefore no order should be ascribed to charity.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Cant 2:4): ”He brought me into the cellar of wine, he set in order charity in me.”
_I answer that,_ As the Philosopher says (Metaph. v, text. 16), the terms ”before” and ”after” are used in reference to some principle.
Now order implies that certain things are, in some way, before or after. Hence wherever there is a principle, there must needs be also order of some kind. But it has been said above (Q. 23, A. 1; Q. 25, A. 12) that the love of charity tends to G.o.d as to the principle of happiness, on the fellows.h.i.+p of which the friends.h.i.+p of charity is based. Consequently there must needs be some order in things loved out of charity, which order is in reference to the first principle of that love, which is G.o.d.
Reply Obj. 1: Charity tends towards the last end considered as last end: and this does not apply to any other virtue, as stated above (Q.
23, A. 6). Now the end has the character of principle in matters of appet.i.te and action, as was shown above (Q. 23, A. 7, ad 2; I-II, A.
1, ad 1). Wherefore charity, above all, implies relation to the First Principle, and consequently, in charity above all, we find an order in reference to the First Principle.
Reply Obj. 2: Faith pertains to the cognitive power, whose operation depends on the thing known being in the knower. On the other hand, charity is in an appet.i.tive power, whose operation consists in the soul tending to things themselves. Now order is to be found in things themselves, and flows from them into our knowledge. Hence order is more appropriate to charity than to faith.
And yet there is a certain order in faith, in so far as it is chiefly about G.o.d, and secondarily about things referred to G.o.d.
Reply Obj. 3: Order belongs to reason as the faculty that orders, and to the appet.i.tive power as to the faculty which is ordered. It is in this way that order is stated to be in charity.
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SECOND ARTICLE [II-II, Q. 26, Art. 2]
Whether G.o.d Ought to Be Loved More Than Our Neighbor?
Objection 1: It would seem that G.o.d ought not to be loved more than our neighbor. For it is written (1 John 4:20): ”He that loveth not his brother whom he seeth, how can he love G.o.d, Whom he seeth not?”
Whence it seems to follow that the more a thing is visible the more lovable it is, since loving begins with seeing, according to _Ethic._ ix, 5, 12. Now G.o.d is less visible than our neighbor. Therefore He is less lovable, out of charity, than our neighbor.
Obj. 2: Further, likeness causes love, according to Ecclus. 13:19: ”Every beast loveth its like.” Now man bears more likeness to his neighbor than to G.o.d. Therefore man loves his neighbor, out of charity, more than he loves G.o.d.
Obj. 3: Further, what charity loves in a neighbor, is G.o.d, according to Augustine (De Doctr. Christ. i, 22, 27). Now G.o.d is not greater in Himself than He is in our neighbor. Therefore He is not more to be loved in Himself than in our neighbor. Therefore we ought not to love G.o.d more than our neighbor.
_On the contrary,_ A thing ought to be loved more, if others ought to be hated on its account. Now we ought to hate our neighbor for G.o.d's sake, if, to wit, he leads us astray from G.o.d, according to Luke 14:26: ”If any man come to Me and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, end children, and brethren, and sisters ... he cannot be My disciple.” Therefore we ought to love G.o.d, out of charity, more than our neighbor.
_I answer that,_ Each kind of friends.h.i.+p regards chiefly the subject in which we chiefly find the good on the fellows.h.i.+p of which that friends.h.i.+p is based: thus civil friends.h.i.+p regards chiefly the ruler of the state, on whom the entire common good of the state depends; hence to him before all, the citizens owe fidelity and obedience. Now the friends.h.i.+p of charity is based on the fellows.h.i.+p of happiness, which consists essentially in G.o.d, as the First Principle, whence it flows to all who are capable of happiness.
Therefore G.o.d ought to be loved chiefly and before all out of charity: for He is loved as the cause of happiness, whereas our neighbor is loved as receiving together with us a share of happiness from Him.
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