Article I: On the Order Between God and Us

S. Th. II-II, q. 26, aa. 1, 2, 3; De Virt., q. 2, a. 7.

903. Notions. - It must be noted beforehand that someone is loved more than another in a threefold way: a) objectively, we love more him to whom we will a greater good; b) appreciatively or estimatively, we love more him whom simply we prefer and esteem more highly than another, so that we fear more to lose his friendship than that of another; c) intensively, we love more him whom we love with a more fervent affection, that is, with greater intensity and vehemence of act, for example, with greater striving of the will.¹

¹ Billuart notes that St. Thomas under the same word of intension speaks of intension and appreciation: both are on the part of the agent.

904. Principle. In the order of charity God is to be loved simply above all things. - It is of the essence of charity that we love God above all things, as is said in Deut. VI, 5 and Mt. XXII, 37:

1. Objectively, because we ought to will to God divine goods which are infinite, namely, the infinity of his perfections which can belong to no creature; and because we ought to refer all other things to God and desire greater glory for him than for ourselves or neighbor.

2. Also appreciatively, so that we would prefer to lose and suffer all things rather than desert him;² for a) the infinite demands to be loved more than a finite creature, and the common good of all more than one's own particular good; b) God is the principle and cause of beatitude, whence we ought to love God more than ourselves or neighbor, who are only participants in this beatitude; c) the reason for loving ourselves and neighbor is God, as was said in nn. 877-878; whence God is to be loved more. Hence d) it is said in Lk. XIV, 26: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother..., and also his own soul (life), he cannot be my disciple" (cf. Mt. X, 37).

² Appreciatively, that is, also by election of the will or by estimative affection, not only judicatively through an act of the intellect; for thus even the demons themselves know and judge that God on account of himself is most worthy to be preferred to all created goods, but they do not thus esteem him by will.

3. Nevertheless we are not bound to love God more intensively;³ for sensible and present or proximate goods are accustomed to move us more vehemently than remote, absent, and divine goods.

³ Appreciation is from election of the will; intensity is not always so. For the intensity of the will and sensation of love does not arise so much from the dignity of the object as from the subjective disposition of the one loving, namely, from the vivid perception of the object and its proximity. Those things which seem more proximate to us are accustomed to be perceived more vividly and thus to excite more and to be loved more intensely. Hence many created objects, as visible, are perceived by us as more proximate and are felt by us more vividly than God, and therefore they excite intense love more than the contemplation of the invisible perfections of God.

But a creature cannot be loved more intensively than God, if from charity it is loved by the same act, because thus the reason for loving the creature is God loved, who consequently is loved more.