Whether Penance Is the First of the Virtues?
Objection 1: It would seem that penance is the first of the virtues.
Because, on Matt. 3:2, "Do penance," etc., a gloss says: "The first
virtue is to destroy the old man, and hate sin by means of penance."
Obj. 2: Further, withdrawal from one extreme seems to precede
approach to the other. Now all the other virtues seem to regard
approach to a term, because they all direct man to do good; whereas
penance seems to direct him to withdraw from evil. Therefore it seems
that penance precedes all the other virtues.
Obj. 3: Further, before penance, there is sin in the soul. Now no
virtue is compatible with sin in the soul. Therefore no virtue
precedes penance, which is itself the first of all and opens the door
to the others by expelling sin.
_On the contrary,_ Penance results from faith, hope, and charity, as
already stated (AA. 2, 5). Therefore penance is not the first of the
virtues.
_I answer that,_ In speaking of the virtues, we do not consider the
order of time with regard to the habits, because, since the virtues
are connected with one another, as stated in the Second Part (I-II,
Q. 65, A. 1), they all begin at the same time to be in the soul; but
one is said to precede the other in the order of nature, which order
depends on the order of their acts, in so far as the act of one
virtue presupposes the act of another. Accordingly, then, one must
say that, even in the order of time, certain praiseworthy acts can
precede the act and the habit of penance, e.g. acts of dead faith and
hope, and an act of servile fear; while the act and habit of charity
are, in point of time, simultaneous with the act and habit of
penance, and with the habits of the other virtues. For, as was stated
in the Second Part (I-II, Q. 113, AA. 7, 8), in the justification of
the ungodly, the movement of the free-will towards God, which is an
act of faith quickened by charity, and the movement of the free-will
towards sin, which is the act of penance, are simultaneous. Yet of
these two acts, the former naturally precedes the latter, because the
act of the virtue of penance is directed against sin, through love of
God; where the first-mentioned act is the reason and cause of the
second.
Consequently penance is not simply the first of the virtues, either
in the order of time, or in the order of nature, because, in the
order of nature, the theological virtues precede it simply.
Nevertheless, in a certain respect, it is the first of the other
virtues in the order of time, as regards its act, because this act is
the first in the justification of the ungodly; whereas in the order
of nature, the other virtues seem to precede, as that which is
natural precedes that which is accidental; because the other virtues
seem to be necessary for man's good, by reason of their very nature,
whereas penance is only necessary if something, viz. sin, be
presupposed, as stated above (Q. 55, A. 2), when we spoke of the
relation of the sacrament of penance to the other sacraments
aforesaid.
Reply Obj. 1: This gloss is to be taken as meaning that the act of
penance is the first in point of time, in comparison with the acts of
the other virtues.
Reply Obj. 2: In successive movements withdrawal from one extreme
precedes approach to the other, in point of time; and also in the
order of nature, if we consider the subject, i.e. the order of the
material cause; but if we consider the order of the efficient and
final causes, approach to the end is first, for it is this that the
efficient cause intends first of all: and it is this order which we
consider chiefly in the acts of the soul, as stated in _Phys._ ii.
Reply Obj. 3: Penance opens the door to the other virtues, because it
expels sin by the virtues of faith, hope and charity, which precede
it in the order of nature; yet it so opens the door to them that they
enter at the same time as it: because, in the justification of the
ungodly, at the same time as the free-will is moved towards God and
against sin, the sin is pardoned and grace infused, and with grace
all the virtues, as stated in the I-II, Q. 65, AA. 3, 5.
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