Chapter III — On the divine precept by which we are commanded to love our neighbor with an internal act of charity

I. By the name of neighbor are understood all rational creatures capable of eternal beatitude — whether they be infidel men or just, unjust, friends or enemies, predestined or reprobate. Demons and irrational creatures are not comprehended absolutely under the neighbor to be loved; but we can love irrational creatures only insofar as we will that they remain unto the glory of God and the utility of men, as St. Thomas teaches, II-II, q. 25, art. 3.

II. Question I. Is there a precept of loving the Neighbor? Answer. All affirm it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: Matthew 22. And John 15: This is my commandment, that you love one another. That this mutual love is the most splendid character of the Christian profession, Christ the Lord adds in the same place: By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another. And St. Peter, first epistle, chapter 4: But before all things have a constant mutual charity among yourselves, for charity covereth a multitude of sins. St. Paul, to the Galatians, chapter 5: For all the law is fulfilled in one word: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. It is therefore of faith that there is a precept of loving the Neighbor. This precept is natural, insofar as it commands a natural love; but supernatural insofar as we are commanded to love our neighbor not only according as he is akin to us in nature, a neighbor, and by other titles, but also as he is a man redeemed by God and capable of eternal beatitude.

III. Question II. Does this precept oblige us to love our neighbor by peculiar internal acts? Answer. Not a few have denied it; but their doctrine was condemned by Innocent XI in these two theses: We are not bound to love our Neighbor by an internal act. 2. We can satisfy the precept of loving our Neighbor by external acts alone. Exterior works are dead unto eternal life, unless they be vivified by charity. If I have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Therefore, interior charity being taken away, the exterior works of liberality and beneficence toward the neighbor are inept for fulfilling that divine precept by which we are commanded to love the Neighbor.

IV. Question III. Must the act by which we are commanded to love our neighbor be distinct from the act of love by which we love God? Answer. Certain authors of a more benign turn deny it; but their opinion is false. For there are two distinct precepts, of which one commands the love of God, the other the love of the neighbor. By two distinct acts, then, must the two precepts be fulfilled? Assuredly. The divine goodness is the reason under which the neighbor is loved; and it is not the reason which is loved. God is the primary object of charity, and the Neighbor the secondary. He who loves God with his whole heart above all things virtually loves his Neighbor. But this does not suffice. Nay, the doctrine contained in this thesis was condemned: We are not bound to love our neighbor by an internal and formal act.

V. Question IV. Does this precept oblige of itself to the love of the neighbor? Answer. If the discourse be of the neighbor in general, it is certain that everyone is bound of himself to love his neighbor by a formal act, prescinding from any circumstance whatsoever. On the contrary, if the neighbor be regarded in particular, it is agreed among the Theologians that he is to be loved by force of the precept only when necessity presses.

VI. Per accidens this precept presses when a grave temptation of hatred assails the soul, and the opposite love is judged an opportune remedy for expelling the hatred. Secondly, when we are bound to succor a neighbor in peril, or to bring help to one pressed by any grave necessity, whether in spiritual or in temporal things: then we are bound to love our neighbor with an internal act, because the law of charity is not fulfilled without internal acts. Thirdly, when a grave injury, whether in the goods of reputation or in the goods of soul or body, is inflicted upon our neighbor, on account of which he is most gravely disturbed and afflicted. Fourthly, when our neighbor, placed in extreme necessity, needs our counsel, or spiritual or temporal aid.

VII. We ought to have our mind prepared to love our neighbor in particular, if necessity should occur. And this promptitude of soul is placed in this, that our soul burn with charity in general. This charity excludes no one from that community. But if you desire to know whether charity toward your neighbor in general burns in your heart, see whether, occasion being given either of an injury received or of one inflicted, you be prompt to love. For the plant is known by its fruits.

VIII. Question V. How ought you to love your neighbor as yourself? Answer. This phrase as thyself St. Thomas expounds, II-II, q. 44, art. 7: Now the mode of the love is touched when it is said, as thyself: which is not to be understood as though one should love his neighbor equally with himself, but in a like manner to himself. And this in three ways. First, on the part of the end: namely, that one love his neighbor for God's sake, just as he ought to love himself for God's sake; so that thus the love of the neighbor may be holy. Secondly, on the part of the rule of love: namely, that one should not comply with his neighbor in any evil, but only in good things; just as a man ought to satisfy his own will only in good things; so that thus the love of the neighbor may be just. Thirdly, on the part of the reason of the love: namely, that one love his neighbor not for his own utility or delight, but for this reason, that he wills good to his neighbor, as he wills good to himself; so that thus the love of the neighbor may be true.

IX. Certain rules are prescribed for loving the neighbor. 1. The neighbor must be loved with an affective and an effective love — one, namely, which, proceeding from the heart and from a conscience not feigned, brings aid to the neighbor according to one's powers and the circumstances. 2. The characters of fraternal love St. Paul sets forth, 1 Corinthians 13: Charity is patient, is kind; charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely, is not puffed up, is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not upon iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth: beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. It is God who speaks with the voice of Paul. Meditate these things seriously, O reader and teacher, that you may become a doer of charity. In these words the whole of Theology is comprehended. Charity is kind in the conversion of the brethren and in the care of their salvation. Patient in bearing the defects of the neighbor. Envieth not, neither openly nor secretly and by mines — whether by keeping silence about the neighbor's merits, or by disparaging his virtues and casting little clouds upon them. Dealeth not perversely, by contriving frauds against him, or throwing impediments in his way. Is not puffed up on account of any endowments whatsoever, whether of soul or of body, whether riches, or nobility, or knowledge. Is not ambitious, so as to lord it arrogantly over the neighbor and to stand out above him. Seeketh not her own, that she may succor the needy neighbor and relieve his necessity. Is not provoked to anger when assailed by injuries, so as to take vengeance or to repay any evil. Thinketh no evil, but interprets all things in the better part — the truth, however, being preserved: therefore it is added: rejoiceth not upon iniquity, but detests and bewails sins, disapproves indifference and deadly negligence, and lifts up her voice against it, because she rejoiceth with the truth. This truth she prefers to all things. Beareth all things, that she may attain eternal life. Believeth all things on account of the authority of God revealing and of the Church proposing. Endureth all things, that she may please God, keep his law, and attain eternal felicity. St. Paul adds, Galatians chapter 6: Bear ye one another's burdens, and so you shall fulfil the law of Christ. These few words, seriously pondered, instruct you more luminously than the many volumes of certain men. For they were dictated by God, and on these the whole law depends, and the prophets.

X. Question VI. What order is to be observed in charity? Answer. To each object of love his own place must be assigned: if he be of a higher bench, a higher place; if of a lower, a lower place must be granted him in the heart. The measure of the lover's love is the goodness of the person loved. The order is twofold: one of loving, the other of succoring. The order of loving flows from the dignity and goodness of the person; the order of succoring flows from the need of the neighbor who lacks our help. Both orders fall under the precept, says St. Thomas, II-II, q. 44, art. 8: Now the order of charity pertains to the very nature of the virtue, since it is taken according to the proportion of the love to the object of love. Whence it is manifest that the order of charity ought to fall under the precept.

XI. Each one ought to love his neighbor as himself, as is plain from the evangelical text itself: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love toward yourself, then, is the rule and measure of love toward your neighbor. He that is evil to himself, to whom will he be good? says Ecclesiasticus, chapter 14. For a man is nearer to himself than all others. Fire cannot burn external matter unless it first burn in itself. If your own life and the life of your neighbor be regarded absolutely, your own is to be preferred; but if the life of your neighbor be more useful to the glory of God, your own can be exposed, from a motive of virtue, to the danger of death, that the life of the neighbor may be saved. The same must be said if you were to expose your life to save the life of your father, of your lord, of an intimate friend, of a signal benefactor, in testimony of Christian gratitude. But for the reputation, honor, and other goods of the neighbor it is not licit to expose your own life, because such goods are of an inferior order, whereas life is of a superior order.

XII. We are bound to succor the extreme spiritual necessity of our neighbor with the loss of life and of temporal goods. Extreme spiritual necessity is that in which the neighbor is eternally damned unless you bring him help. This doctrine St. John teaches, first epistle, chapter 3: As Christ laid down his life for us, so we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Hence we are bound to baptize, with danger of life, a child abandoned among those infected with plague. If, however, your life be necessary to the common good of the Church or of the Commonwealth, then by the order of charity the common welfare is to be preferred to the welfare of one Private person. Similarly, if you were guilty of mortal sin, and contrition were difficult for you, or you doubted of it, then your own salvation is to be preferred to your neighbor's.

XIII. One condemned to die of hunger cannot refuse food secretly offered him; nor, if the judge were to command this, would he have to be obeyed, because it would be a horrendous and inhuman precept. Nor are you bound to neglect the defense of your own life, lest the killing of another follow. God must nevertheless be prayed to, that he permit us not to fall into such straits, since I count it most difficult to observe the laws of blameless self-defense. Midwives who have baptized children invalidly are bound, even at the danger of death, to make the offense manifest — whatever Fr. Laymann says to the contrary.

XIV. A pregnant mother who is unable to give birth is not bound to suffer a deadly cutting of the womb, that the child enclosed in the womb may be baptized: because evils are not to be done that goods may come. This opinion St. Thomas teaches, on the fourth book, distinction 6, question 2, article 1, ad 4: Therefore a man ought rather to let the infant perish, than that he himself should perish by committing the crime of homicide upon the mother. The graver Theologians subscribe to the Angelic Doctor. Nor is this opposed to the former opinion, in which it was said that a child must be baptized even at the danger of death: because a child existing in the mother's womb has no right to baptism, such as belongs to a child brought forth into the light. In order to provide for the spiritual salvation of your neighbor, you are not bound — nay, you ought not — to expose yourself to a probable danger of sinning; nor is it lawful to will the privation of grace, even for a time, for the salvation of others.

XV. Question VII. Who are to be preferred in love? Answer. First of all are to be preferred father and mother; then wives and children. Wives are to be preferred to parents only as regards habitation and a more tender love. Brothers are to be set before other blood-relations; and among these, those must be preferred who are nearer. Blood-relations must be set before relations by marriage; the faithful before infidels; friends before enemies; benefactors before non-benefactors; spiritual benefactors before temporal benefactors; fellow-citizens before strangers. But the precept of this preference presses only when extreme necessity presses of succoring one or the other of these neighbors. Hence a stranger placed in extreme necessity must be succored before a father who does not labor under such necessity. A community laboring under grave spiritual necessity you must succor even at the danger of life, because in such a community someone is always found placed in extreme necessity.