Whether God Always Loves More the Better Things?
Objection 1: It seems that God does not always love more the better
things. For it is manifest that Christ is better than the whole human
race, being God and man. But God loved the human race more than He
loved Christ; for it is said: "He spared not His own Son, but
delivered Him up for us all" (Rom. 8:32). Therefore God does not
always love more the better things.
Obj. 2: Further, an angel is better than a man. Hence it is said of
man: "Thou hast made him a little less than the angels" (Ps. 8:6).
But God loved men more than He loved the angels, for it is said:
"Nowhere doth He take hold of the angels, but of the seed of Abraham
He taketh hold" (Heb. 2:16). Therefore God does not always love more
the better things.
Obj. 3: Further, Peter was better than John, since he loved Christ
more. Hence the Lord, knowing this to be true, asked Peter, saying:
"Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me more than these?" Yet Christ
loved John more than He loved Peter. For as Augustine says,
commenting on the words, "Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me?": "By
this very mark is John distinguished from the other disciples, not
that He loved him only, but that He loved him more than the rest."
Therefore God does not always love more the better things.
Obj. 4: Further, the innocent man is better than the repentant, since
repentance is, as Jerome says (Cap. 3 in Isa.), "a second plank after
shipwreck." But God loves the penitent more than the innocent; since
He rejoices over him the more. For it is said: "I say to you that
there shall be joy in heaven upon the one sinner that doth penance,
more than upon ninety-nine just who need not penance" (Luke 15:7).
Therefore God does not always love more the better things.
Obj. 5: Further, the just man who is foreknown is better than the
predestined sinner. Now God loves more the predestined sinner, since
He wills for him a greater good, life eternal. Therefore God does not
always love more the better things.
_On the contrary,_ Everything loves what is like it, as appears from
(Ecclus. 13:19): "Every beast loveth its like." Now the better a thing
is, the more like is it to God. Therefore the better things are more
loved by God.
_I answer that,_ It must needs be, according to what has been said
before, that God loves more the better things. For it has been shown
(AA. 2, 3), that God's loving one thing more than another is nothing
else than His willing for that thing a greater good: because God's
will is the cause of goodness in things; and the reason why some
things are better than others, is that God wills for them a greater
good. Hence it follows that He loves more the better things.
Reply Obj. 1: God loves Christ not only more than He loves the whole
human race, but more than He loves the entire created universe:
because He willed for Him the greater good in giving Him "a name that
is above all names," in so far as He was true God. Nor did anything
of His excellence diminish when God delivered Him up to death for the
salvation of the human race; rather did He become thereby a glorious
conqueror: "The government was placed upon His shoulder," according
to Isa. 9:6.
Reply Obj. 2: God loves the human nature assumed by the Word of God
in the person of Christ more than He loves all the angels; for that
nature is better, especially on the ground of the union with the
Godhead. But speaking of human nature in general, and comparing it
with the angelic, the two are found equal, in the order of grace and
of glory: since according to Rev 21:17, the measure of a man and of
an angel is the same. Yet so that, in this respect, some angels are
found nobler than some men, and some men nobler than some angels. But
as to natural condition an angel is better than a man. God therefore
did not assume human nature because He loved man, absolutely
speaking, more; but because the needs of man were greater; just as
the master of a house may give some costly delicacy to a sick
servant, that he does not give to his own son in sound health.
Reply Obj. 3: This doubt concerning Peter and John has been solved in
various ways. Augustine interprets it mystically, and says that the
active life, signified by Peter, loves God more than the
contemplative signified by John, because the former is more conscious
of the miseries of this present life, and therefore the more ardently
desires to be freed from them, and depart to God. God, he says, loves
more the contemplative life, since He preserves it longer. For it
does not end, as the active life does, with the life of the body.
Some say that Peter loved Christ more in His members, and therefore
was loved more by Christ also, for which reason He gave him the care
of the Church; but that John loved Christ more in Himself, and so was
loved more by Him; on which account Christ commended His mother to his
care. Others say that it is uncertain which of them loved Christ more
with the love of charity, and uncertain also which of them God loved
more and ordained to a greater degree of glory in eternal life. Peter
is said to have loved more, in regard to a certain promptness and
fervor; but John to have been more loved, with respect to certain
marks of familiarity which Christ showed to him rather than to others,
on account of his youth and purity. While others say that Christ loved
Peter more, from his more excellent gift of charity; but John more,
from his gifts of intellect. Hence, absolutely speaking, Peter was the
better and more beloved; but, in a certain sense, John was the better,
and was loved the more. However, it may seem presumptuous to pass
judgment on these matters; since "the Lord" and no other "is the
weigher of spirits" (Prov. 16:2).
Reply Obj. 4: The penitent and the innocent are related as exceeding
and exceeded. For whether innocent or penitent, those are the better
and better loved who have most grace. Other things being equal,
innocence is the nobler thing and the more beloved. God is said to
rejoice more over the penitent than over the innocent, because often
penitents rise from sin more cautious, humble, and fervent. Hence
Gregory commenting on these words (Hom. 34 in Ev.) says that, "In
battle the general loves the soldier who after flight returns and
bravely pursues the enemy, more than him who has never fled, but has
never done a brave deed."
Or it may be answered that gifts of grace, equal in themselves, are
more as conferred on the penitent, who deserved punishment, than as
conferred on the innocent, to whom no punishment was due; just as a
hundred pounds [marcoe] are a greater gift to a poor man than to a
king.
Reply Obj. 5: Since God's will is the cause of goodness in things,
the goodness of one who is loved by God is to be reckoned according
to the time when some good is to be given to him by divine goodness.
According therefore to the time, when there is to be given by the
divine will to the predestined sinner a greater good, the sinner is
better; although according to some other time he is the worse;
because even according to some time he is neither good nor bad.
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