Part III (Secunda Secundae) Part 165 (2/2)

FOURTH ARTICLE [II-II, Q. 106, Art. 4]

Whether a Man Is Bound to Repay a Favor at Once?

Objection 1: It seems that a man is bound to repay a favor at once.

For we are bound to restore at once what we owe, unless the term be fixed. Now there is no term prescribed for the repayment of favors, and yet this repayment is a duty, as stated above (A. 3). Therefore a man is bound to repay a favor at once.

Obj. 2: Further, a good action would seem to be all the more praiseworthy according as it is done with greater earnestness. Now earnestness seems to make a man do his duty without any delay.

Therefore it is apparently more praiseworthy to repay a favor at once.

Obj. 3: Further, Seneca says (De Benef. ii) that ”it is proper to a benefactor to act freely and quickly.” Now repayment ought to equal the favor received. Therefore it should be done at once.

_On the contrary,_ Seneca says (De Benef. iv): ”He that hastens to repay, is animated with a sense, not of grat.i.tude but of indebtedness.”

_I answer that,_ Just as in conferring a favor two things are to be considered, namely, the affection of the heart and the gift, so also must these things be considered in repaying the favor. As regards the affection of the heart, repayment should be made at once, wherefore Seneca says (De Benef. ii): ”Do you wish to repay a favor? Receive it graciously.” As regards the gift, one ought to wait until such a time as will be convenient to the benefactor. In fact, if instead of choosing a convenient time, one wished to repay at once, favor for favor, it would not seem to be a virtuous, but a constrained repayment. For, as Seneca observes (De Benef. iv), ”he that wishes to repay too soon, is an unwilling debtor, and an unwilling debtor is ungrateful.”

Reply Obj. 1: A legal debt must be paid at once, else the equality of justice would not be preserved, if one kept another's property without his consent. But a moral debt depends on the equity of the debtor: and therefore it should be repaid in due time according as the rect.i.tude of virtue demands.

Reply Obj. 2: Earnestness of the will is not virtuous unless it be regulated by reason; wherefore it is not praiseworthy to forestall the proper time through earnestness.

Reply Obj. 3: Favors also should be conferred at a convenient time and one should no longer delay when the convenient time comes; and the same is to be observed in repaying favors.

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FIFTH ARTICLE [II-II, Q. 106, Art. 5]

Whether in Giving Thanks We Should Look at the Benefactor's Disposition or at the Deed?

Objection 1: It seems that in repaying favors we should not look at the benefactor's disposition but at the deed. For repayment is due to beneficence, and beneficence consists in deeds, as the word itself denotes. Therefore in repaying favors we should look at the deed.

Obj. 2: Further, thanksgiving, whereby we repay favors, is a part of justice. But justice considers equality between giving and taking.

Therefore also in repaying favors we should consider the deed rather than the disposition of the benefactor.

Obj. 3: Further, no one can consider what he does not know. Now G.o.d alone knows the interior disposition. Therefore it is impossible to repay a favor according to the benefactor's disposition.

_On the contrary,_ Seneca says (De Benef. i): ”We are sometimes under a greater obligation to one who has given little with a large heart, and has bestowed a small favor, yet willingly.”

_I answer that,_ The repayment of a favor may belong to three virtues, namely, justice, grat.i.tude and friends.h.i.+p. It belongs to justice when the repayment has the character of a legal debt, as in a loan and the like: and in such cases repayment must be made according to the quant.i.ty received.

On the other hand, repayment of a favor belongs, though in different ways, to friends.h.i.+p and likewise to the virtue of grat.i.tude when it has the character of a moral debt. For in the repayment of friends.h.i.+p we have to consider the cause of friends.h.i.+p; so that in the friends.h.i.+p that is based on the useful, repayment should be made according to the usefulness accruing from the favor conferred, and in the friends.h.i.+p based on virtue repayment should be made with regard for the choice or disposition of the giver, since this is the chief requisite of virtue, as stated in _Ethic._ viii, 13. And likewise, since grat.i.tude regards the favor inasmuch as it is bestowed gratis, and this regards the disposition of the giver, it follows again that repayment of a favor depends more on the disposition of the giver than on the effect.

Reply Obj. 1: Every moral act depends on the will. Hence a kindly action, in so far as it is praiseworthy and is deserving of grat.i.tude, consists materially in the thing done, but formally and chiefly in the will. Hence Seneca says (De Benef. i): ”A kindly action consists not in deed or gift, but in the disposition of the giver or doer.”

Reply Obj. 2: Grat.i.tude is a part of justice, not indeed as a species is part of a genus, but by a kind of reduction to the genus of justice, as stated above (Q. 80). Hence it does not follow that we shall find the same kind of debt in both virtues.

Reply Obj. 3: G.o.d alone sees man's disposition in itself: but in so far as it is shown by certain signs, man also can know it. It is thus that a benefactor's disposition is known by the way in which he does the kindly action, for instance through his doing it joyfully and readily.

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SIXTH ARTICLE [II-II, Q. 106, Art. 6]

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