Chapter III — The notion, object, prerogatives, and precept of theological charity

I. Question I. What is charity, and what its object? Answer. Charity taken for the habit is defined: It is a virtue divinely infused, by which God is loved for his own sake, and the Neighbor for the sake of God. Charity loves God as he is God, that is, on account of his goodness and perfection. In the word Neighbor are comprehended all rational creatures capable of eternal glory.

II. The material object, or primary object which, of charity is God; the secondary is the Neighbor for the sake of God. The formal object of charity is the infinite goodness of God, lovable for its own sake. By this reason charity is distinguished from the two other theological virtues.

III. The first prerogative of charity is friendship between God and men. I will not now call you servants ... but friends: John 15. This friendship includes reciprocal benevolence, and a mutual communion of goods, as the same Evangelist adds, chapter 14: He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him. The Son of God coupled human nature to himself, and raised it to the summit of Divinity, that he might shadow forth a certain semblance of equality. The second prerogative of charity is that it is the life of the soul, just as the soul is the life of the body, says Augustine. The third prerogative of charity is that it is a gift infused by God with none of our merits preceding, and with no regard for any natural capacity of ours. The fourth prerogative is the worth which charity bestows upon all other works. The other virtues have indeed from their proper object their honesty and goodness; but that they may come forth wreathed with the crown of the reward, they must needs be adorned with the nuptial garment of charity. The fifth prerogative of charity is that it is the most excellent of all the virtues, as St. Paul says, 1 Corinthians 13: And the greatest of these is charity.

IV. The offices and acts of actual charity are benevolence; the affection of union; complacency in the divine perfections; love of the infinite goodness; desire of his glory; to will good things to God — both intimate goods, which are all his infinite perfections, and extrinsic goods, placed in the manifestation of the divine perfections, namely, that God be worshipped, adored, praised, and loved by all creatures.

V. Question II. Does the precept of loving God press? Answer. This is the greatest and first of all commandments, says the Evangelist Matthew, chapter 22: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. Compare, I pray, these words of Christ with the opinions which I have reported above, at number 2, from Tamburini, Sanchez, and Sporer, and with the proscribed theses which certain recent Probabilists taught; and thence gather what faith is to be given to similar authors in the other obscure and entangled controversies of morals, if, in explaining the gravest and first commandment, so luminously expressed by Christ the Lord, they have fallen into opinions so lax.

VI. St. Thomas, II-II, q. 44, art. 1, proves this special precept by several weights of reasons. For by the same reason by which charity is a special virtue, the precept commanding its act is a peculiar one. Now something is due (says the Angelic Doctor) in two ways: in one way, of itself; in another way, on account of another. Of itself, indeed, that is due in each business which is its end, because it has the character of a good of itself; on account of another, that is due which is ordered to the end ... Now the end of the spiritual life is that man be united to God, which is done through charity; and to this are ordered, as to their end, all the things that pertain to the spiritual life ... But in any genus, that which is of itself is superior to that which is on account of another; and therefore the greatest precept is that of charity.

VII. St. Augustine, book 1 On the morals of the Church, chapter 11, explaining this commandment, says: If, then, to them that love God all things work together unto good; and if no one doubts that the supreme good, which is also called the best, is not only to be loved, but to be loved so that we ought to love nothing more — which is signified and expressed by what was said: With thy whole soul, and with thy whole heart, and with thy whole mind — who, I ask, will doubt, all these things being established and most firmly believed, that nothing else is for us the best thing, to the gaining of which, all other things set aside, we must hasten, but God? Again, if no thing separates us from his love, what can be not only better, but also more certain, than this good? But let us briefly consider the several points. No one separates us thence by threatening death: for that very thing by which we love God cannot die, except in not loving God; for to die is nothing else than to prefer anything to him in loving and following. No one separates us thence by promising life: for no one separates us from the fountain by promising water, etc.

VIII. Therefore that commandment is special, commanding of itself an act of love. False, then, is the opinion of certain men who asserted that that commandment is general, included in the other precepts. Wherefore Alexander VIII deservedly proscribed the following thesis in the year 1690: Objective goodness consists in the agreement of the object with rational nature; formal goodness, in the conformity of the act with the rule of morals. For this it suffices that the moral act tend to the last end interpretatively. Hence man is not bound to love [God] either at the beginning or in the course of his moral life.

IX. Question III. Must the love which this precept commands be appreciative, or also intensive? Answer. The Theologians distinguish a twofold love of charity: the one appreciative, the other intensive — a distinction which is not very ancient. With appreciative love we pursue God when we prefer God to all things, and when, burning with such love, we are prepared to suffer and endure all evils, and to lose whatever goods, lest we offend God. Intensive love adds a more vehement fervor, a more intense endeavor, and even a sensible tenderness, as it were, greater or less. It is agreed among all that this precept does not command intensive love explained in this manner — that is, insofar as intensity impels the soul beyond the observance of the precepts to the execution of the works of counsel, and to the traversing of the sublimer way of perfection, and insofar as it constitutes delights in mutual embraces. What is commanded, however, is appreciative love, by which we choose God before, and prefer him to, all other goods; and in this way we love God with the whole heart, with the whole soul: since God alone rules in our heart, and subjects to himself all our affections. This love, since it fights against carnal love and earthly cupidity, is not severed from some fervor, intensity, and endeavor. Yet this charity increases, and its fervor is kindled more. Therefore the Theologians, with Augustine and Thomas, distinguish three states of charity: namely, of beginners, of proficients, and of the perfect. Beginning charity subjects the man to God, restrains concupiscence, desires, and appetites, pursues all sins, and removes all the impediments of heavenly love. Proficient charity rises higher, lifts its flames upward, attempts great things, and applies itself wholly to the exercises of piety and of the virtues: it studies not only to keep the law exactly, but strives also to execute the counsels of evangelical perfection. Perfect charity, as though triumphing over prostrate enemies, enjoys God, and, tranquil, overflows with heavenly delights. But all these things are expressed by the experience and exercise of divine love more than by the pen.

X. A deliberate desire of remaining perpetually in this life several authors do not excuse from mortal sin; which opinion I judge true, when with deliberate mind one should truly desire to dwell perpetually in this world: because such a one would prefer the state of this life to God, and would therefore violate the precept of loving God above all things. Nor may you reply that such a one does not prefer this life to God, but only desires not to be deprived of this life, and not to fall into hell — that he directly desires, therefore, to avoid the eternal punishments. This, I say, you shall not object. For the way of avoiding hell is not the perpetuity of this life, but the flight of sin and the exercise of the virtues. Those who would wish to remain perpetually in this life would in very deed — though they do not express it — desire to enjoy the pleasures of sins, and at the same time to escape hell. That desire of the perennity of this life proceeds from a perverse love of carnal pleasures; therefore it is evil and vicious, and hostile to charity.