Question XXXI: Whether God is to be loved more than the neighbor

I ASSERT first that the habit of Charity is borne principally and more toward God.

IT IS PROVED by St. Bonaventure first, because thus God commands, Matth. 22. This is the first and greatest commandment. You have the same in Matth. 10. Lucae 14.

SECONDLY. The cause is prior to its effect; but the love of God is the cause of the love of neighbor: for man loves his neighbor precisely because he loves God, whose image he is, and whom God commands to be loved.

THIRDLY, because friendship principally and first regards that which has the ratio of an end, in which is found that good upon whose communication it is founded, and which is the cause of that good: but God is such a good, toward which the neighbor also is ordered, and is that from which that communication is derived in the supernatural life of beatitude, in which the perfect friendship of charity consists: Therefore. St. Thomas uses the same reason, which St. Bonaventure rubs up again, more in the body. And Tannerus disp. 2 quest. 3 dub. 2 num. 21. and the rest.

FINALLY: Love inclines first to that toward which it inclines more ardently, because the affection follows the greater inclination; but the love of Charity inclines more ardently to the loving of God than of one's neighbor: Therefore.

I ASSERT secondly. Charity as to exercise is first borne toward the neighbor, as the more imperfect act, so that through the active life it may rise to the perfect love of God, and to the contemplative; for he who wishes to be a perfect lover of God ought first to exercise himself in the love of neighbor; as he who wishes to be a good contemplative ought first to be a good active, as St. Gregory teaches. And in sign of this thing, the Holy Spirit was given twice. First on earth, Ioan. 20. Second from heaven, Act. 2. Because the love of charity must first be exercised in those things which we see, that we may be carried up through the love of visible things to the love of invisible ones; and according to this way proceed the reasons to be brought forward below: This is St. Bonaventure's.

It is THEREFORE proved first. The destruction of one is destructive of the other, and its position is the position of the other: but the destruction of charity for one's neighbor is destructive of the charity of God, as Ioan. argues, prima, cap. 4. He who does not love his brother, whom he sees; how can he love God, whom he does not see? But that thing to which the position or destruction of the other consequently follows must be prior to it; and this is according to disposition, as St. Thomas also says ad primum.

SECONDLY. First that which is animal, then that which is spiritual follows, prima ad Corinthios 15. but the love of neighbor is more sensible: Therefore it precedes.

THIRDLY. The process is from the imperfect to the perfect, from the way to the terminus; but the love of God is more perfect, and the terminus toward which the love of neighbor tends: therefore.

FOURTHLY. Action is prior to contemplation; but the love of neighbor is occupied with the active life; the love of God with the contemplative: Therefore.