Whether We Are Bound to Love the Demons Out of Charity?
Objection 1: It would seem that we ought to love the demons out of
charity. For the angels are our neighbors by reason of their
fellowship with us in a rational mind. But the demons also share in
our fellowship thus, since natural gifts, such as life and
understanding, remain in them unimpaired, as Dionysius states (Div.
Nom. iv). Therefore we ought to love the demons out of charity.
Obj. 2: Further, the demons differ from the blessed angels in the
matter of sin, even as sinners from just men. Now the just man loves
the sinner out of charity. Therefore he ought to love the demons also
out of charity.
Obj. 3: Further, we ought, out of charity, to love, as being our
neighbors, those from whom we receive favors, as appears from the
passage of Augustine quoted above (A. 9). Now the demons are useful
to us in many things, for "by tempting us they work crowns for us,"
as Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xi, 17). Therefore we ought to love
the demons out of charity.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Isa. 28:18): "Your league with
death shall be abolished, and your covenant with hell shall not
stand." Now the perfection of a peace and covenant is through
charity. Therefore we ought not to have charity for the demons who
live in hell and compass death.
_I answer that,_ As stated above (A. 6), in the sinner, we are bound,
out of charity, to love his nature, but to hate his sin. But the name
of demon is given to designate a nature deformed by sin, wherefore
demons should not be loved out of charity. Without however laying
stress on the word, the question as to whether the spirits called
demons ought to be loved out of charity, must be answered in
accordance with the statement made above (AA. 2, 3), that a thing may
be loved out of charity in two ways. First, a thing may be loved as
the person who is the object of friendship, and thus we cannot have
the friendship of charity towards the demons. For it is an essential
part of friendship that one should be a well-wisher towards one's
friend; and it is impossible for us, out of charity, to desire the
good of everlasting life, to which charity is referred, for those
spirits whom God has condemned eternally, since this would be in
opposition to our charity towards God whereby we approve of His
justice.
Secondly, we love a thing as being that which we desire to be
enduring as another's good. In this way we love irrational creatures
out of charity, in as much as we wish them to endure, to give glory
to God and be useful to man, as stated above (A. 3): and in this way
too we can love the nature of the demons even out of charity, in as
much as we desire those spirits to endure, as to their natural gifts,
unto God's glory.
Reply Obj. 1: The possession of everlasting happiness is not
impossible for the angelic mind as it is for the mind of a demon;
consequently the friendship of charity which is based on the
fellowship of everlasting life, rather than on the fellowship of
nature, is possible towards the angels, but not towards the demons.
Reply Obj. 2: In this life, men who are in sin retain the possibility
of obtaining everlasting happiness: not so those who are lost in
hell, who, in this respect, are in the same case as the demons.
Reply Obj. 3: That the demons are useful to us is due not to
their intention but to the ordering of Divine providence; hence this
leads us to be friends, not with them, but with God, Who turns their
perverse intention to our profit.
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