Question — Bontempi, Palladium Theologicum V · from Schola Thomistica
Question XLII: Whether it is more proper to charity to love than to be loved
THE questions about the habit of Charity and about its order to its objects having been completed; there must now be treated of its acts.
Utrum Charitatis sit magis proprium amare, quam amari.
PERACTIS quaestionibus de Charitatis habitu, et ordine eius ad obiecta; agendum de actibus illius.
I ASSERT, that it befits Charity more to love, than to be loved.
ASSERO, magis convenire Charitati amare, quam amari.
IT IS PROVED by St. Thom., because to love is an act. But Charity, since it is a virtue, has its own act, which is to love, and accordingly the act of loving befits it; to be loved, however, befits it as the good toward which Charity itself is also moved.
PROBATUR a D. Thom. quia amare est actus. Charitas autem, cum sit virtus, habet suum actum, qui est amare, atque adeo ei competit actus amandi; amari autem convenit ei, ut est bonum, ad quod ipsa etiam Charitas movetur.