Objection 1: It would seem that God cannot be loved wholly. For love
follows knowledge. Now God cannot be wholly known by us, since this
would imply comprehension of Him. Therefore He cannot be wholly loved
by us.
Obj. 2: Further, love is a kind of union, as Dionysius shows (Div.
Nom. iv). But the heart of man cannot be wholly united to God,
because "God is greater than our heart" (1 John 3:20). Therefore God
cannot be loved wholly.
Obj. 3: Further, God loves Himself wholly. If therefore He be loved
wholly by another, this one will love Him as much as God loves
Himself. But this is unreasonable. Therefore God cannot be wholly
loved by a creature.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Deut. 6:5): "Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with thy whole heart."
_I answer that,_ Since love may be considered as something between
lover and beloved, when we ask whether God can be wholly loved, the
question may be understood in three ways, first so that the
qualification "wholly" be referred to the thing loved, and thus God
is to be loved wholly, since man should love all that pertains to God.
Secondly, it may be understood as though "wholly" qualified the
lover: and thus again God ought to be loved wholly, since man ought
to love God with all his might, and to refer all he has to the love
of God, according to Deut. 6:5: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with thy whole heart."
Thirdly, it may be understood by way of comparison of the lover to
the thing loved, so that the mode of the lover equal the mode of the
thing loved. This is impossible: for, since a thing is lovable in
proportion to its goodness, God is infinitely lovable, since His
goodness is infinite. Now no creature can love God infinitely,
because all power of creatures, whether it be natural or infused, is
finite.
This suffices for the Replies to the Objections, because the first
three objections consider the question in this third sense, while the
last takes it in the second sense.
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