Whether Fear Decreases When Charity Increases?
Objection 1: It seems that fear decreases when charity increases. For
Augustine says (In prim. canon. Joan. Tract. ix): "The more charity
increases, the more fear decreases."
Obj. 2: Further, fear decreases when hope increases. But charity
increases when hope increases, as stated above (Q. 17, A. 8).
Therefore fear decreases when charity increases.
Obj. 3: Further, love implies union, whereas fear implies separation.
Now separation decreases when union increases. Therefore fear
decreases when the love of charity increases.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (Qq. lxxxiii, qu. 36) that "the
fear of God not only begins but also perfects wisdom, whereby we love
God above all things, and our neighbor as ourselves."
_I answer that,_ Fear is twofold, as stated above (AA. 2, 4); one is
filial fear, whereby a son fears to offend his father or to be
separated from him; the other is servile fear, whereby one fears
punishment.
Now filial fear must needs increase when charity increases, even as
an effect increases with the increase of its cause. For the more one
loves a man, the more one fears to offend him and to be separated
from him.
On the other hand servile fear, as regards its servility, is entirely
cast out when charity comes, although the fear of punishment remains
as to its substance, as stated above (A. 6). This fear decreases as
charity increases, chiefly as regards its act, since the more a man
loves God, the less he fears punishment; first, because he thinks
less of his own good, to which punishment is opposed; secondly,
because, the faster he clings, the more confident he is of the
reward, and, consequently the less fearful of punishment.
Reply Obj. 1: Augustine speaks there of the fear of punishment.
Reply Obj. 2: It is fear of punishment that decreases when hope
increases; but with the increase of the latter filial fear increases,
because the more certainly a man expects to obtain a good by
another's help, the more he fears to offend him or to be separated
from him.
Reply Obj. 3: Filial fear does not imply separation from God, but
submission to Him, and shuns separation from that submission. Yet, in
a way, it implies separation, in the point of not presuming to equal
oneself to Him, and of submitting to Him, which separation is to be
observed even in charity, in so far as a man loves God more than
himself and more than aught else. Hence the increase of the love of
charity implies not a decrease but an increase in the reverence of
fear.
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