Whether Charity Is Rightly Distinguished into Three Degrees,
Beginning, Progress, and Perfection?
Objection 1: It would seem unfitting to distinguish three degrees of
charity, beginning, progress, and perfection. For there are many
degrees between the beginning of charity and its ultimate perfection.
Therefore it is not right to put only one.
Obj. 2: Further, charity begins to progress as soon as it begins to
be. Therefore we ought not to distinguish between charity as
progressing and as beginning.
Obj. 3: Further, in this world, however perfect a man's charity may
be, it can increase, as stated above (A. 7). Now for charity to
increase is to progress. Therefore perfect charity ought not to be
distinguished from progressing charity: and so the aforesaid degrees
are unsuitably assigned to charity.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (In prim. canon. Joan. Tract. v)
"As soon as charity is born it takes food," which refers to
beginners, "after taking food, it waxes strong," which refers to
those who are progressing, "and when it has become strong it is
perfected," which refers to the perfect. Therefore there are three
degrees of charity.
_I answer that,_ The spiritual increase of charity may be considered
in respect of a certain likeness to the growth of the human body. For
although this latter growth may be divided into many parts, yet it
has certain fixed divisions according to those particular actions or
pursuits to which man is brought by this same growth. Thus we speak
of a man being an infant until he has the use of reason, after which
we distinguish another state of man wherein he begins to speak and to
use his reason, while there is again a third state, that of puberty
when he begins to acquire the power of generation, and so on until he
arrives at perfection.
In like manner the divers degrees of charity are distinguished
according to the different pursuits to which man is brought by the
increase of charity. For at first it is incumbent on man to occupy
himself chiefly with avoiding sin and resisting his concupiscences,
which move him in opposition to charity: this concerns beginners, in
whom charity has to be fed or fostered lest it be destroyed: in the
second place man's chief pursuit is to aim at progress in good, and
this is the pursuit of the proficient, whose chief aim is to
strengthen their charity by adding to it: while man's third pursuit
is to aim chiefly at union with and enjoyment of God: this belongs to
the perfect who "desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ."
In like manner we observe in local motion that at first there is
withdrawal from one term, then approach to the other term, and
thirdly, rest in this term.
Reply Obj. 1: All these distinct degrees which can be discerned in
the increase of charity, are comprised in the aforesaid three, even
as every division of continuous things is included in these
three--the beginning, the middle, and the end, as the Philosopher
states (De Coelo i, 1).
Reply Obj. 2: Although those who are beginners in charity may
progress, yet the chief care that besets them is to resist the sins
which disturb them by their onslaught. Afterwards, however, when they
come to feel this onslaught less, they begin to tend to perfection
with greater security; yet with one hand doing the work, and with the
other holding the sword as related in 2 Esdr. 4:17 about those who
built up Jerusalem.
Reply Obj. 3: Even the perfect make progress in charity: yet this is
not their chief care, but their aim is principally directed towards
union with God. And though both the beginner and the proficient seek
this, yet their solicitude is chiefly about other things, with the
beginner, about avoiding sin, with the proficient, about progressing
in virtue.
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