Whether Joy Is a Virtue?
Objection 1: It would seem that joy is a virtue. For vice is contrary
to virtue. Now sorrow is set down as a vice, as in the case of sloth
and envy. Therefore joy also should be accounted a virtue.
Obj. 2: Further, as love and hope are passions, the object of which
is _good,_ so also is joy. Now love and hope are reckoned to be
virtues. Therefore joy also should be reckoned a virtue.
Obj. 3: Further, the precepts of the Law are about acts of virtue.
But we are commanded to rejoice in the Lord, according to Phil. 4:4:
"Rejoice in the Lord always." Therefore joy is a virtue.
_On the contrary,_ It is not numbered among the theological virtues,
nor among the moral, nor among the intellectual virtues, as is
evident from what has been said above (I-II, QQ. 57, 60, 62).
_I answer that,_ As stated above (I-II, Q. 55, AA. 2, 4), virtue is
an operative habit, wherefore by its very nature it has an
inclination to a certain act. Now it may happen that from the same
habit there proceed several ordinate and homogeneous acts, each of
which follows from another. And since the subsequent acts do not
proceed from the virtuous habit except through the preceding act,
hence it is that the virtue is defined and named in reference to that
preceding act, although those other acts also proceed from the
virtue. Now it is evident from what we have said about the passions
(I-II, Q. 25, AA. 2, 4) that love is the first affection of the
appetitive power, and that desire and joy follow from it. Hence the
same virtuous habit inclines us to love and desire the beloved good,
and to rejoice in it. But in as much as love is the first of these
acts, that virtue takes its name, not from joy, nor from desire, but
from love, and is called charity. Hence joy is not a virtue distinct
from charity, but an act, or effect, of charity: for which reason it
is numbered among the Fruits (Gal. 5:22).
Reply Obj. 1: The sorrow which is a vice is caused by inordinate
self-love, and this is not a special vice, but a general source of
the vices, as stated above (I-II, Q. 77, A. 4); so that it was
necessary to account certain particular sorrows as special vices,
because they do not arise from a special, but from a general vice. On
the other hand love of God is accounted a special virtue, namely
charity, to which joy must be referred, as its proper act, as stated
above (here and A. 2).
Reply Obj. 2: Hope proceeds from love even as joy does, but
hope adds, on the part of the object, a special character, viz.
_difficult,_ and _possible to obtain;_ for which reason it is
accounted a special virtue. On the other hand joy does not add to love
any special aspect, that might cause a special virtue.
Reply Obj. 3: The Law prescribes joy, as being an act of
charity, albeit not its first act.
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