Whether Charity Can Increase?
Objection 1: It would seem that charity cannot increase. For nothing
increases save what has quantity. Now quantity is twofold, namely
dimensive and virtual. The former does not befit charity which is a
spiritual perfection, while virtual quantity regards the objects in
respect of which charity does not increase, since the slightest
charity loves all that is to be loved out of charity. Therefore
charity does not increase.
Obj. 2: Further, that which consists in something extreme receives no
increase. But charity consists in something extreme, being the
greatest of the virtues, and the supreme love of the greatest good.
Therefore charity cannot increase.
Obj. 3: Further, increase is a kind of movement. Therefore wherever
there is increase there is movement, and if there be increase of
essence there is movement of essence. Now there is no movement of
essence save either by corruption or generation. Therefore charity
cannot increase essentially, unless it happen to be generated anew or
corrupted, which is unreasonable.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (Tract. lxxiv in Joan.) [*Cf. Ep.
clxxxv.] that "charity merits increase that by increase it may merit
perfection."
_I answer that,_ The charity of a wayfarer can increase. For we are
called wayfarers by reason of our being on the way to God, Who is the
last end of our happiness. In this way we advance as we get nigh to
God, Who is approached, "not by steps of the body but by the
affections of the soul" [*St. Augustine, Tract. in Joan. xxxii]: and
this approach is the result of charity, since it unites man's mind to
God. Consequently it is essential to the charity of a wayfarer that
it can increase, for if it could not, all further advance along the
way would cease. Hence the Apostle calls charity the way, when he
says (1 Cor. 12:31): "I show unto you yet a more excellent way."
Reply Obj. 1: Charity is not subject to dimensive, but only to
virtual quantity: and the latter depends not only on the number of
objects, namely whether they be in greater number or of greater
excellence, but also on the intensity of the act, namely whether a
thing is loved more, or less; it is in this way that the virtual
quantity of charity increases.
Reply Obj. 2: Charity consists in an extreme with regard to its
object, in so far as its object is the Supreme Good, and from this it
follows that charity is the most excellent of the virtues. Yet not
every charity consists in an extreme, as regards the intensity of the
act.
Reply Obj. 3: Some have said that charity does not increase in its
essence, but only as to its radication in its subject, or according
to its fervor.
But these people did not know what they were talking about. For since
charity is an accident, its being is to be in something. So that an
essential increase of charity means nothing else but that it is yet
more in its subject, which implies a greater radication in its
subject. Furthermore, charity is essentially a virtue ordained to
act, so that an essential increase of charity implies ability to
produce an act of more fervent love. Hence charity increases
essentially, not by beginning anew, or ceasing to be in its subject,
as the objection imagines, but by beginning to be more and more in
its subject.
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