Chapter — Koch–Preuss
Chapter I: Nature and Obligation of Christian Self-Love
- NATURE OF CHRISTIAN SELF-LOVE.—The duties which man owes to himself may be summarized in the proposition that he is obliged to love himself.
Self-love is so powerful an instinct of nature that it is impossible for man to act without it. Self-love not only follows logically from the universal commandment of charity, but is expressly inculcated in Holy Scripture as the standard and measure of that chiefest of all virtues.
Matt. VII, 12: "All things therefore whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you also to them." Matt. XXII, 39: 'The second [commandment] is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”1
1 Cfr. St. Augustine, De Doctrina Christiana, I, c. 25, n. 26: "The manner of loving must be prescribed to man, that is, how he should love himself so as to benefit himself. But to doubt that he loves himself and wishes to benefit himself is the mark of a madman." —Ibid., c. 26, n. 27: "Since the love of God comes first and the prescribed manner of loving Him is evident, so that all other things flow into it, nothing seems to have been said about your love of yourself; but when it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ at the same time your love of yourself was not omitted." (Migne, P. L., XXXIV, 28 sq.).—Cfr. Terence, Andr., IV, 3: "Proximus sum egomet mihi."
The second Commandment inculcates self-love, not in the sense of that innate disposition by which man seeks his own gratification, welfare, and advancement, but as a moral virtue.
Self-love as a natural instinct is not capable of governing man's conduct so as to enable him to attain its object, i. e., self-preservation. Moreover, in the debased state in which humanity unhappily exists since the fall of Adam and Eve, this natural instinct is perverted and tends away from, rather than towards, man's true end; in fact it has degenerated into inordinate selfishness, which, in the words of St. Thomas, is "the cause of all sin,"2 because it leads to covetousness, pride, blasphemy, disobedience, ingratitude, incontinency, and many other vices.3
2 Summa Theol., 1a 2ae, qu. 77, art. 4: "Inordinatus amor sui est causa omnis peccati."
3 Cfr. 2 Tim. III, 1-3. —Cfr. St. Augustine, De Civ. Dei, XIV, c. 28: "Two loves have made two cities: love of self extending even to contempt of God made the earthly city, but love of God extending even to contempt of self made the heavenly city. The former glories in itself, but the latter in the Lord. For the former seeks glory from men; but for the latter God, the witness of conscience, is its greatest glory." (Migne, P. L., XLI, 436).
Although the moral virtue of self-love derives its rule from the law of God, yet it is based upon or rooted in an instinct of nature.
Christian self-love, therefore, is a virtue opposed to selfishness and necessarily involves self-denial. "If any man come to me," says our Divine Saviour, "and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple."4 And again: "He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal."5
4 Luke XIV, 26.
5 John XII, 25.
To love oneself, therefore, in the Christian and Catholic sense of the term, means to combat selfishness and to seek the glory of God rather than one's own gratification.
Two corollaries flow from this proposition, namely:
a) Man is not his own master, but has control over his actions only in so far as he does not violate the divine order; b) He is in duty bound to regulate his conduct so as to be enabled to reach his divinely appointed end (bonum), and hence must avoid whatever is opposed to that end (malum).
- THE DUTIES ARISING FROM CHRISTIAN SELF-LOVE.—The principal duty that springs from Christian self-love is that of preserving one's intellectual and moral personality. This means that every man must provide properly for the salvation of his soul and the welfare of his body. The moral and religious life knows no standstill, and hence every Catholic is in duty bound so to exert his mental and physical faculties as to reach what St. Paul calls "the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ,"6 and thus, by developing his personality, to achieve both his temporal and eternal destiny.
6 Eph. IV, 13.—Cfr. St. Jerome, Epist., 54 (al. 10), n. 6: “Seize the opportunity, I beg you, and make a virtue of necessity. In Christians beginnings are not sought, but the end. Paul began badly but ended well. The beginnings of Judas are praised, but his end is condemned by betrayal. Read Ezekiel: The justice of the just man shall not deliver him on whatever day he sins; and the impiety of the impious man shall not harm him on whatever day he turns from his impiety.” (Migne, P. L., XXII, 552).—IDEM, In Epist. ad Gal., II, c. 4: "Blessed is he who walks in the way of the virtues, but only if he reaches the virtues themselves. Nor does it profit to have withdrawn from vices unless you lay hold of the best things, because in good pursuits it is not so much the beginnings that are to be praised as the end." (P. L., XXVI, 381).
This constant striving after perfection is a duty which none may shirk and which, in importance and binding force, surpasses even the obligations we owe to our fellowmen. "For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?"7
7 Matt. XVI, 26. —Cfr. A. Lehmkuhl, S. J., Casus Conscientiae, Vol. I, 3rd ed., n. 376.
"To govern oneself," says Seneca, "is to exercise the highest dominion."8
8 Epist., 113, 30: "Imperare sibi maximum imperium est."
The virtue of Christian self-love inspires true self-respect because it is based on self-knowledge, humility, and a sincere desire to save one's soul and keep the body efficient for the attainment of its highest purpose by practicing temperance, diligence, and economy.
Opposed to self-love are, on the one hand, exaggerated self-esteem, selfishness, and egotism, which are destructive of charity, and, on the other, disregard for the dignity of human nature, indifference to spiritual things, and particularly that unnatural hatred of self which results from a wicked life and is almost invariably coupled with contempt for virtue, nay for God Himself, finally culminating in that terrible sin which in a previous volume has been described as "diabolical."9
9 Koch-Preuss, Handbook of Moral Theology, Vol. II, pp. 91 sqq.
"He that loveth iniquity hateth his own soul," says the Psalmist;10 and the angel told Tobias: “They that commit sin and iniquity are enemies to their own soul."11
10 Ps. X, 6.
11 Tob. XII, 10.
READINGS.—H. Noldin, S.J., Summa Theologiae Moralis, Vol. II, 11th ed., pp. 72 sqq., Innsbruck 1914.—Th. Meyer, S.J., Institutiones Iuris Naturalis, Vol. II, n. 29-47, Freiburg 1900. —Aug. Lehmkuhl, S.J., Theologia Moralis, Vol. I, 11th edition, pp. 400 sqq., Freiburg 1910.—V. Cathrein, S.J., Moralphilosophie, 4th ed., Vol. II, pp. 46 sqq., Freiburg 1904.—E. Müller, Theologia Moralis, 7th ed., Vol. II, pp. 86 sqq., Vienna 1894.—F. A. Göpfert, Moraltheologie, Vol. II, 6th ed., pp. 1 sqq., Paderborn 1909.