Whether a Man Ought to Love His Body Out of Charity?
Objection 1: It would seem that a man ought not to love his body out
of charity. For we do not love one with whom we are unwilling to
associate. But those who have charity shun the society of the body,
according to Rom. 7:24: "Who shall deliver me from the body of this
death?" and Phil. 1:23: "Having a desire to be dissolved and to be
with Christ." Therefore our bodies are not to be loved out of charity.
Obj. 2: Further, the friendship of charity is based on fellowship in
the enjoyment of God. But the body can have no share in that
enjoyment. Therefore the body is not to be loved out of charity.
Obj. 3: Further, since charity is a kind of friendship it is towards
those who are capable of loving in return. But our body cannot love
us out of charity. Therefore it should not be loved out of charity.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (De Doctr. Christ. i, 23, 26) that
there are four things that we should love out of charity, and among
them he reckons our own body.
_I answer that,_ Our bodies can be considered in two ways: first, in
respect of their nature, secondly, in respect of the corruption of
sin and its punishment.
Now the nature of our body was created, not by an evil principle, as
the Manicheans pretend, but by God. Hence we can use it for God's
service, according to Rom. 6:13: "Present . . . your members as
instruments of justice unto God." Consequently, out of the love of
charity with which we love God, we ought to love our bodies also, but
we ought not to love the evil effects of sin and the corruption of
punishment; we ought rather, by the desire of charity, to long for
the removal of such things.
Reply Obj. 1: The Apostle did not shrink from the society of his
body, as regards the nature of the body, in fact in this respect he
was loth to be deprived thereof, according to 2 Cor. 5:4: "We would
not be unclothed, but clothed over." He did, however, wish to escape
from the taint of concupiscence, which remains in the body, and from
the corruption of the body which weighs down the soul, so as to
hinder it from seeing God. Hence he says expressly: "From the body of
this death."
Reply Obj. 2: Although our bodies are unable to enjoy God by knowing
and loving Him, yet by the works which we do through the body, we are
able to attain to the perfect knowledge of God. Hence from the
enjoyment in the soul there overflows a certain happiness into the
body, viz., "the flush of health and incorruption," as Augustine
states (Ep. ad Dioscor. cxviii). Hence, since the body has, in a
fashion, a share of happiness, it can be loved with the love of
charity.
Reply Obj. 3: Mutual love is found in the friendship which is for
another, but not in that which a man has for himself, either in
respect of his soul, or in respect of his body.
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