72. On the precept itself. 1. By divine precept man is bound to love the neighbor with theological charity; this is established from the words of Christ: But the second commandment is like to this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.¹ And this commandment we have from God, that he who loves God should love also his brother.² From these words it is clear first indeed that charity of neighbor is prescribed, and then that this charity is the same by which we love God, and therefore theological.

a. Moral love of neighbor proceeding from the motive of natural honesty is not at all evil, but, if it happens from grace, is supernatural and prescribed by God: Therefore all things whatsoever you wish men to do to you, do you also to them.³ Yet by that love the divine precept of loving the neighbor with theological charity is not satisfied. Nor is it satisfied by love of concupiscence, by which we will good to the neighbor so that it may be well with us from it.

b. By the words "as yourself" there is signified not equality of love with respect to intensity, since we ought to love ourselves more than the neighbor, and not all neighbors with the same grade of love, but equality with respect to motive and object, insofar as for God's sake we generally will and procure the same goods for the neighbor as also for ourselves.

2. By the divine precept of love we ought to love the neighbor with affective love, or with an internal act of benevolence: for we are bound to love the neighbor as ourselves; but we love ourselves by an internal act of benevolence, nor can we love ourselves otherwise. And indeed love by its nature consists in the internal act of the will by which we will good to another; therefore without an internal act, external love would not be true love.⁴

a. Affective love toward the neighbor is exercised by acts the same in species as those by which we love God, such as: a. joy concerning the goods of the neighbor; b. desire, by which we wish him happiness; c. sadness concerning his evils; d. purpose of the will by which, when the occasion has been given, we are prepared to do good to him (n. 56).

b. The precept of loving the neighbor with theological charity is satisfied both by praying for him and by external acts of beneficence which proceed from the motive of divine charity. He satisfies the precept of loving the neighbor by an internal act who abstains from hatred, prays for all, has the will of observing the precepts existing concerning the neighbor, and, when the occasion has been given, actually observes them.

3. The divine precept of loving the neighbor also prescribes effective love, or external acts of beneficence and mercy, by which we assist the neighbor who needs our help: He who has the substance of this world and sees his brother having need and shuts his bowels from him, how does the charity of God remain in him? My little children, let us not love in word nor in tongue, but in deed and in truth.⁵ For I was hungry and you did not give Me to eat, etc.⁶ And indeed the internal affection, if it is true and sincere, ought outwardly to manifest itself by works.

Therefore by the precept of charity man is bound to procure good for his neighbor and to impede his evil both with respect to body and with respect to soul, if it can easily be done. Yet to satisfy this precept it is not required that works of beneficence toward the neighbor be done from the motive of charity, but it suffices that they be done from another lower motive, for example, mercy, kindness, etc.

4. Love of neighbor, both affective and effective, ought to be universal, that is, it ought to extend itself to all who are reckoned under the name of neighbor, especially also to sinners and enemies. But it is not required that we pursue each individual with internal love of benevolence and external love of beneficence: for this is nowhere prescribed and in reality is impossible. Rather, general love suffices, which excludes no one from the affection of benevolence and is prepared, when there is need, to assist the needy.

This common love must then, in determinate circumstances, be referred and applied to singular persons, as if someone is solicited by a temptation of hatred against the neighbor, or if the neighbor is placed in necessity.

Article Third. On the Order of Charity

Before the precept of external charity is determined more accurately, the order of charity must be presented. For since the persons to be loved and the goods to be wished and procured for them are of unequal excellence, charity also ought, according to their diverse excellence, to be borne toward them in a diverse way. Besides this, diverse necessities must be distinguished, because according to the greater or lesser necessity of the neighbor the obligation of assisting him is diverse. Therefore a threefold order must be observed: among persons, among goods, and among necessities.

¹ Matt. 22:39.

² 1 John 4:21.

³ Matt. 7:12. Cf. Tob. 4:16.

⁴ Concerning this precept there are two propositions condemned by Innocent XI: We are not bound to love the neighbor by an internal and formal act (10). We can satisfy the precept of loving the neighbor by external acts alone (11).

⁵ 1 John 3:17-18. Cf. James 2:13 ff.

⁶ Matt. 25:42 ff.

73. On the order to be observed among persons. 1. One can love one more than another in three ways: objectively, appreciatively, intensively. a. Objectively we love him more to whom we will a greater good than to another. b. Appreciatively we love him more whom we esteem more highly than another, so that, if it were necessary, we would rather lose the friendship of this one than of that one. c. Intensively we love him more whom we love by a more fervent and more perfect act of charity than another. It is clear that these three modes of loving are not necessarily joined, but we can love one more, for example appreciatively, and another more intensively.

2. There are three persons to be loved: God, ourselves, and the neighbor;¹ now ordered charity requires that each one:

a. First love God above all things with love at least appreciatively highest, since divine goodness infinitely surpasses all created goods.

b. In the second place, each one ought to love himself: for by the will of Christ love of self is the norm of love of neighbor; but the norm is more important than that which is normed. Therefore the common axiom: ordered charity begins from itself, namely from the one loving.

c. Finally, in the third place, each one ought to love neighbors.

¹ You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and your neighbor as yourself. Luke 10:27.

74. On the order to be observed among goods. 1. The goods to be wished and procured both for ourselves and for others are of three orders: a. spiritual goods, both supernatural, namely eternal life, grace of God, virtues, etc., of which goods some are necessary for salvation and others only useful, such as the religious state, virginity; and natural, namely intellect, will, liberty; b. bodily goods, internal goods: life, health, integrity of members and other dispositions of the body; c. external goods, of which some are goods of the person, honor, reputation, others goods of fortune. Honor and reputation, as being something moral, are of a higher order than riches.

2. Among goods each one ought to love more those which are more excellent; therefore of itself he ought to love spiritual goods more than bodily goods, and bodily goods more than external goods. To these things must be added that the common good is greater than a private good, because the good of the whole surpasses the good of the part.

Yet from these things it does not follow that any good whatever of a higher order must be preferred to any good whatever of a lower order: for in the moral estimation of men, sometimes a great external good is worth more than a slight internal good; thus anyone would rather suffer a headache for a short time than a great loss of riches.

75. On the order to be observed among necessities. The necessity which the neighbor can suffer is one thing when spiritual, another when bodily; each is either extreme, or grave, or light, or common.

1. On spiritual necessity.

a. He is found in extreme necessity who without the help of another can either in no way or only with the greatest difficulty escape eternal damnation, as an infant about to die without baptism or a heretic without penance.

b. He is found in grave spiritual necessity who can free himself from danger of damnation without another's help only with great difficulty, as an unformed Christian sinner in death, who can elicit an act of contrition only with great difficulty.

c. He is found in light spiritual necessity who can free himself from the danger of damnation or from sin without another's help without great difficulty, as ordinary sinners who, if they wished to make some effort, could easily be freed from sin or abstain from it without being helped, taught, or corrected by others.

2. On bodily necessity.

a. He is found in extreme necessity who is in danger of death threatening either now or after a short time, whether from natural causes or from the malice of men.

b. He is found in quasi-extreme necessity who is in danger of falling into extreme necessity or into a grave evil, either perpetual or at least long-lasting, grave imprisonment, loss of goods, loss of state; St. Alphonsus adds also very grave infamy.

c. He is found in grave necessity who suffers a grave evil, but not one long-lasting, or indeed one long-lasting but not so grave.

d. He is found in common necessity who suffers an inconvenience not very troublesome, such as ordinary poor people suffer.

Since there are almost innumerable grades of necessity, other distinctions besides these are proposed by authors, but of them only quasi-extreme or very grave necessity is to be attended to.

3. The order of necessity in which a greater or lesser obligation of helping the neighbor urges:

a. extreme spiritual necessity;

b. grave spiritual necessity;

c. extreme bodily necessity; yet it can happen that in this necessity there urges a greater obligation of assisting than in the former;

d. grave bodily necessity;

e. common necessity, whether spiritual or bodily.

76. On the order to be observed between ourselves and the neighbor. 1. Other things being equal, that is, in the same order of goods and in equal necessity, each one can and sometimes is bound to love himself more than the neighbor. Therefore of itself he is bound to love first himself with respect to spiritual goods, second the neighbor with respect to the same spiritual goods, third himself with respect to bodily goods, fourth the neighbor with respect to the same bodily goods, fifth himself with respect to external goods, sixth the neighbor with respect to the same external goods.

2. But where the order of goods is diverse and our necessity and the neighbor's necessity are diverse, we must often prefer the neighbor to ourselves according to the following rules.

77. Special rules. 1. Man is bound to love himself more than the neighbor with respect to necessary spiritual goods: for if ever, man certainly ought to prefer himself to the neighbor in those things which are necessary for salvation. But in those things which can be done or omitted without sin, charity inclines to preferring oneself to others; yet it is permitted to prefer the neighbor to oneself, both because there is no obligation of procuring those things for oneself, and because the good which is omitted is compensated by another greater good, namely the good of the virtue which is exercised in this way.

a. The desire of lacking eternal beatitude for the sake of any good whatever of another is illicit; but it is permitted to will the delay of beatitude in order to labor longer for the glory of God and the salvation of neighbors.¹ It is never permitted to commit any venial sin to procure any good whatever, whether spiritual or bodily, of the neighbor, for the good pleasure of God must be preferred to all things; but it pleases God more if I avoid sin than if by sinning I profit others. Besides this, evils are not to be done that goods may come.²

b. It is licit for procuring the spiritual or bodily salvation of the neighbor to expose oneself to a remote danger of sinning; wherefore it is permitted for a priest to read dangerous things so that he may be capable of hearing confessions, and for a physician it is permitted so that he may render himself capable of healing bodies. Indeed, for procuring spiritual salvation in the extreme necessity of the neighbor, it is permitted to expose oneself to proximate danger of sinning, with remedies nevertheless applied against sin, which through the grace of God can be avoided.³

c. Someone can defer or omit entrance into religion in order to exercise care of souls where another pastor cannot be found, or even to support poor blood relatives. A priest can omit prayer or spiritual reading in order to instruct neighbors or to care for the sick.

d. It is permitted to desire greater spiritual goods for the neighbor than for oneself: thus it is permitted to wish that all know and love God more perfectly than I do. Yet charity rather inclines each one to wish and procure greater goods for himself than for others, but because this is not prescribed, anyone can procure these things for himself or for others as he pleases.⁴

e. It is not only licit but also laudable to offer all one's satisfactions for the souls in purgatory. Formerly theologians indeed disputed whether this oblation is consonant with ordered charity; but since the Church approved it by granting indulgences, there can be no doubt concerning this matter. And indeed it is permitted to prefer the neighbor to oneself even in spiritual goods, provided in things necessary for salvation we prefer ourselves to him. Added to this is that the least increase of grace and glory must be esteemed more highly than liberation from long-lasting punishment of purgatory; but this oblation is an excellent good work, which produces a great increase of grace and glory.

Whether it is licit to expose one's own life to danger in order to preserve the life of the neighbor.

Man indeed is bound, absolutely speaking, to love his own life and the goods necessary for its conservation more than the life of the neighbor; nevertheless a. he ought to prefer the life of the neighbor both for preserving a person necessary or very useful to religion or to the republic, and for preserving a community in danger; b. he can licitly prefer the life of the neighbor for preserving even an equal or inferior person, especially if this happens from the motive of virtue. The reason of the first is that for the common good we ought to expose not only goods of fortune but even the good of life; therefore anyone can and ought to expose his own body to defend the prince from the sword of a killer, likewise he ought to hand himself over to enemies to preserve the fatherland unharmed. The reason of the second is that the matter does not concern a good necessary for salvation; but if one's own life is exposed to danger from the motive of virtue, one's own life is not compared with the life of the neighbor, but the virtue which is exercised in saving the life of the neighbor is compared with the life of the neighbor. Therefore it is laudable to serve those infected with plague with danger to life; likewise with danger to life to throw oneself into water to snatch another away; in Sacred Scripture Tobias is praised, who exposed himself to danger of life in burying the bodies of the dead;⁵ sometimes pious men have offered their life for the recovery of the neighbor's health, and God has accepted the oblation.⁶

¹ Cf. Ex. 32:32; Rom. 9:3; Phil. 1:23 ff.

² Cf. Matt. 10:26.

³ Cf. St. Alphonsus, bk. 2, n. 26; Lehmkuhl, Casus conscientiae, I, n. 376.

⁴ Cf. Castropalao, tr. 6, disp. 1, punct. 7.

⁵ Tob. 12:12.

⁶ Cf. Muller, II, p. 99.

78. 2. Man is bound to love the neighbor more with respect to spiritual goods than himself with respect to bodily or external goods; therefore sometimes he is bound to help the neighbor even with his own damage or inconvenience. But in particular these things are to be established:

a. The neighbor placed in extreme spiritual necessity must be assisted even with danger to life or grave temporal damage: for according to the example of the Lord, we also ought to lay down our souls for the brethren.¹ Certainly the loss of temporal life compared with the eternal salvation of the neighbor is a slight evil, which we are bound from charity to undergo if the necessity of the neighbor is extreme.

For this precept to urge, three conditions are required: a. that there be certain hope of helping him; b. that there not be another who can and wills to help him; c. that a graver evil not follow from it, as if by someone dying for this cause several others would be brought into danger of salvation.

b. Man is not bound to assist the neighbor placed in grave spiritual necessity with danger to life or grave temporal damage, unless by office he ought to care for the spiritual salvation of the neighbor, as a pastor of souls; yet he is bound with light damage or inconvenience to himself.

a. For since the neighbor himself can help himself if he wills, one must not assert an obligation of assisting the neighbor even with danger to life or with notable loss of temporal goods; nevertheless this would be an exercise of excellent virtue, because the salvation of the neighbor is a far greater good than one's own life.

b. Because to the obligation of charity there is added another obligation, namely of office, or justice, pastors of souls ought to assist even one placed in grave necessity with danger to life or temporal goods: the good shepherd gives his soul for his sheep.²

c. The neighbor placed in light spiritual necessity must be assisted if this can happen without temporal damage or with only light damage: for charity of neighbor certainly requires something - God commanded each one concerning his neighbor;³ but it does not require that we undergo any damage except light damage for freeing the neighbor from an evil from which he himself can easily free himself.

¹ 1 John 3:16.

² John 10:11.

³ Ecclus. 17:12.

79. 3. Man is bound to love the neighbor more with respect to bodily goods than himself with respect to external goods; therefore sometimes he is bound to assist the neighbor even with loss of his own external goods. In particular these things are to be established:

a. The neighbor placed in extreme temporal necessity must be assisted with great inconvenience indeed, yet not with danger to life or of an almost equal good, unless someone by office ought to care for the bodily good of the neighbor, as a physician hired for a wage: for for a good of the neighbor so excellent we are indeed bound to undergo some inconvenience; yet since each one is bound first to love himself, he is not bound to undergo so grave an inconvenience for another's temporal good.

b. The neighbor placed in grave temporal necessity must be assisted with some light inconvenience: for although we ought to undergo some inconvenience for the more excellent good of the neighbor, nevertheless no one is bound from charity to deprive himself of a great good unless a much greater good is to be procured for the neighbor.

c. The neighbor placed in common temporal necessity must be assisted if it can easily be done: for charity of neighbor does not require that we undergo inconvenience to free him from an evil which is not grave for him.¹

¹ Therefore the solemn adage, charity does not oblige with grave inconvenience, has its exceptions: for we are sometimes bound to assist the neighbor even with grave inconvenience.

80. On the order to be observed among diverse neighbors. There were some who said that those act against Christian perfection who love one neighbor more than another on account of blood relationship or human friendship. But they are false: for by rational nature itself we are induced to love more those who are more joined to us; but grace does not destroy nature, but perfects it; therefore even by supernatural charity we can and ought to love more those who are more closely joined to us. The same is confirmed by the example of Christ, who in the Gospel is narrated to have loved St. John more than the other disciples. And so:

1. Objectively we ought to love more those who are better than others: for charity wills for each one those natural and supernatural goods which he has or which are fitting to him; therefore those who are holier are to be loved objectively more than others.

2. Affectively and effectively, in equal necessity, those who are more closely joined to us are to be loved more; but if the necessity is unequal, he who suffers the greater necessity must be helped first.

We ought to assist a brother placed in extreme spiritual or bodily necessity before a stranger placed in the same necessity, if we cannot help each. But we ought to assist a stranger placed in spiritual necessity before one joined to us placed in temporal necessity. A priest called to baptize an infant and absolve a dying person, if the danger in delay is equal and there is no lay person who may baptize the infant, is bound to prefer the infant if the adult can help himself by contrition; if he cannot do this, he is bound to prefer the adult.

3. Those more closely joined to us are to be preferred to others only in those goods which pertain to that conjunction; therefore those spiritually joined are to be preferred to others with respect to spiritual goods, those carnally joined with respect to bodily goods, those civilly joined with respect to social goods. In goods common to every conjunction, those are to be preferred who are united with us by a stronger conjunction.

Therefore the solemn adage, charity does not oblige with grave inconvenience, has its exceptions: for we are sometimes bound to assist the neighbor even with grave inconvenience.

4. Among all conjunctions, carnal conjunction is stronger, because nature is prior and the foundation of every other conjunction; spiritual follows carnal next, and then moral or civil.

Therefore a parish priest in time of plague, called to two dying persons, of whom one is his father but not a parishioner, while the other is a parishioner, must leave his father, if he is not in extreme necessity, and assist the parishioner, because in spiritual goods those who are spiritually joined to us are to be preferred to others. Yet in extreme necessity equal on each side, whether spiritual or temporal, those carnally joined to us must be assisted first, because carnal conjunction is stronger.