Although St. Thomas spends more time in the
Summa Theologiae discussing faith and charity, he is remembered more for his treatment there
of charity than of faith.
This is because his doctrine of charity contains at least two revolutionary ideas.
I call these ideas revolutionary, not because they do violence to the Christian tradition
regarding charity, but because they mark a new moment in the Church's appreciation of
the virtue.
The first revolutionary or pioneering idea of Aquinas emerges from his treatment of the
object of charity and the second from his treatment of the act of charity.
Let's begin our discussion however, by reviewing briefly what Aquinas says about the subject
of charity.
Where is the seat of charity in the human person?
Aquinas responds to this question by explaining that because charity is concerned not with
knowing God, but with loving him.
Charity resides in and perfect the human power concerned with loving, which is the will.
Now right away, Aquinas notes that the human will loves with one of two loves, the love
of concupiscence and the love of benevolence or friendship.
With the love of concupiscence we love some
good for our own sake.
This is the love with which we love the goods that keep us alive and help us to grow in
virtue.
We love these goods, hamburgers, winter coats, health, education, for the benefits that they
offer us.
We love ourselves when we love these goods for our own sake.
With the love of benevolence, however, we love some good, not for our sake, but for
another's sake.
This is the love that constitutes friendship.
By willing some good for another we regard the other as another self.
We love our friend when we love his goods for his sake.
Once Aquinas distinguishes these two loves
of the human will, he asks which of the two does grace elevate and direct towards God?
It turns out that grace elevates both.
Hope elevates the love of concupiscence such that we can love God Himself as our final
end, as the final good for me.
Charity elevates the love of benevolence such that we love God Himself as a friend, not
for our sake, but for his sake.
And this is where the first of Aquinas' revolutionary ideas emerges in his treatment of charity.
He sees the whole reality and work of the virtue through the lens of friendship.
Unlike anyone before him, Aquinas produces a theology of charity that reflects deeply
on Christ's words to the apostles at the last supper, "No longer do I call you servants.
I have called you friends."
This brings us to Aquinas's description of the object of charity. Considered materially,
the object of charity is the same as the object of faith and hope,
God Himself.
Like the acts of faith and hope the act of charity ends and rests in God Himself.
Considered formally, however, the object of charity remains distinct from the objects
of faith and hope.
If faith inclines to God as first truth spoken and if hope inclines to God as final good
promised, then that aspect of God himself to which charity inclines is God as beloved
or God is our first and best friend.
Now it is important to note right away that
we do not establish this friendship with God.
We cannot make God our friend.
We share nothing with God on which to build any friendship with Him.
In order for us to become friends with God, God has to take the first step and He has.
As St. John reminds us in this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us.
By graciously extending to us a share in his happiness, God establishes a certain society
with us within which friendship can develop.
Because by God's gracious initiative, we share the same happiness with God we humans can
love that happiness for the sake of God and thereby love God.
We can love God as a friend.
For Aquinas, charity is nothing other than
our loving response to the friendship offered to us by God and because in every friendship
we love our friend as well as what he loves,
in charity we love God as well as what He loves, which is everything that He has made,
especially other persons.
Thus for Aquinas, do we fulfill Christ's double command to love. In charity.
we love God for God's sake and our neighbor for God's sake
Considered materially and formally, therefore,
the object of charity is God as our best friend befriending us and every other good thing
that can be loved for God's sake.
What remains for us to examine is the act of charity and from this teaching of Aquinas
emerges the second of his revolutionary ideas.
Aquinas explains that the act produced by the virtue of charity is the love of God for
His sake above all things.
This teaching itself is not revolutionary, but the implication that Aquinas draws from
it is. More than any of his contemporaries,
Aquinas saw that because grace builds on and does not destroy nature, there must be some
natural love of God above all things that charity elevates and perfects.
In other words, charity does not introduce the preferential love of God into the world,
but rather it elevates this preferential love written into the very fabric of creation and
into the very heart of man, unto a union of real friendship with God.
Therefore, Aquinas teaches that because everything
naturally inclines to higher goods more than lower goods, and because every effect naturally
longs for the perfection of its cause, every creature, including the human creature, naturally
loves God more than itself.
In man, therefore, charity rescues this love from the perversion of sin and divinizes it
unto a real union of love with God, not simply as He is our highest good and cause, but as
He is our first and best friend.
This is why for Aquinas, unlike faith and hope which pass away when the pilgrim finally
reaches heaven, charity endures in beatitude as the one believed on Earth is finally seen
in Heaven and as the one hoped for on Earth is finally possessed in Heaven, the one loved
on Earth is finally met face to face in Heaven and thus friendship with Him already begun
on Earth grows exponentially in perfection in Heaven.
Aquinas observes that like the virtue of faith, the virtue of charity is exercised by the
Christian internally and externally.
He points out that internally charity produces joy, peace, and mercy and externally charity
expresses itself in beneficence, alms giving, and fraternal correction.
The sins against charity appear according
to this same distinction.
One sins against charity generally by hating God rather than loving him, but Aquinas adds
that one sins against the joy of charity, specifically through sloth or envy and against
the peace of charity, specifically through discord, contention, schism, war, strife,
or sedition.
Finally, one consent against the beneficence of charity specifically by causing scandal.
In conclusion, Aquinas teaches that wisdom
is the gift of the Holy Spirit that perfects the virtue of charity.
At first glance, this might seem counterintuitive.
Aquinas grants that wisdom first and foremost is a perfection of the intellect, not the
will, but he observes that the kind of perfection that wisdom grants the intellect has a direct
effect on the will.
To be wise, Aquinas explains, is to make right judgements about causes and then to order
things rightly under the highest causes.
The gift of wisdom therefore offers the Christian a Spirit-led ability to judge rightly about
the absolute highest cause and thereby to order all things in his life, including his
loves under this cause.
As a result, the gift of wisdom allows the believer to fulfill the beatitude, blessed
are the peacemakers.
This is Aquinas's final word on charity in the Summa.
For him, peacemaking is the work of charity perfected by wisdom.
With wise charity, the Christian orders himself toward peace from which inner charitable peace
he can work for peace with others and among others.
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