Whether Obedience Is the Greatest of the Virtues?
Objection 1: It seems that obedience is the greatest of the virtues.
For it is written (1 Kings 15:22): "Obedience is better than
sacrifices." Now the offering of sacrifices belongs to religion,
which is the greatest of all moral virtues, as shown above (Q. 81, A.
6). Therefore obedience is the greatest of all virtues.
Obj. 2: Further, Gregory says (Moral. xxxv) that "obedience is the
only virtue that ingrafts virtues in the soul and protects them when
ingrafted." Now the cause is greater than the effect. Therefore
obedience is greater than all the virtues.
Obj. 3: Further, Gregory says (Moral. xxxv) that "evil should never
be done out of obedience: yet sometimes for the sake of obedience we
should lay aside the good we are doing." Now one does not lay aside a
thing except for something better. Therefore obedience, for whose
sake the good of other virtues is set aside, is better than other
virtues.
_On the contrary,_ obedience deserves praise because it proceeds from
charity: for Gregory says (Moral. xxxv) that "obedience should be
practiced, not out of servile fear, but from a sense of charity, not
through fear of punishment, but through love of justice." Therefore
charity is a greater virtue than obedience.
_I answer that,_ Just as sin consists in man contemning God and
adhering to mutable things, so the merit of a virtuous act consists
in man contemning created goods and adhering to God as his end. Now
the end is greater than that which is directed to the end. Therefore
if a man contemns created goods in order that he may adhere to God,
his virtue derives greater praise from his adhering to God than from
his contemning earthly things. And so those, namely the theological,
virtues whereby he adheres to God in Himself, are greater than the
moral virtues, whereby he holds in contempt some earthly thing in
order to adhere to God.
Among the moral virtues, the greater the thing which a man contemns
that he may adhere to God, the greater the virtue. Now there are
three kinds of human goods that man may contemn for God's sake. The
lowest of these are external goods, the goods of the body take the
middle place, and the highest are the goods of the soul; and among
these the chief, in a way, is the will, in so far as, by his will,
man makes use of all other goods. Therefore, properly speaking, the
virtue of obedience, whereby we contemn our own will for God's sake,
is more praiseworthy than the other moral virtues, which contemn
other goods for the sake of God.
Hence Gregory says (Moral. xxxv) that "obedience is rightly preferred
to sacrifices, because by sacrifices another's body is slain whereas
by obedience we slay our own will." Wherefore even any other acts of
virtue are meritorious before God through being performed out of
obedience to God's will. For were one to suffer even martyrdom, or to
give all one's goods to the poor, unless one directed these things to
the fulfilment of the divine will, which pertains directly to
obedience, they could not be meritorious: as neither would they be if
they were done without charity, which cannot exist apart from
obedience. For it is written (1 John 2:4, 5): "He who saith that he
knoweth God, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar . . . but he
that keepeth His word, in him in very deed the charity of God is
perfected": and this because friends have the same likes and dislikes.
Reply Obj. 1: Obedience proceeds from reverence, which pays worship
and honor to a superior, and in this respect it is contained under
different virtues, although considered in itself, as regarding the
aspect of precept, it is one special virtue. Accordingly, in so far
as it proceeds from reverence for a superior, it is contained, in a
way, under observance; while in so far as it proceeds from reverence
for one's parents, it is contained under piety; and in so far as it
proceeds from reverence for God, it comes under religion, and
pertains to devotion, which is the principal act of religion.
Wherefore from this point of view it is more praiseworthy to obey God
than to offer sacrifice, as well as because, "in a sacrifice we slay
another's body, whereas by obedience we slay our own will," as
Gregory says (Moral. xxxv). As to the special case in which Samuel
spoke, it would have been better for Saul to obey God than to offer
in sacrifice the fat animals of the Amalekites against the
commandment of God.
Reply Obj. 2: All acts of virtue, in so far as they come under a
precept, belong to obedience. Wherefore according as acts of virtue
act causally or dispositively towards their generation and
preservation, obedience is said to ingraft and protect all virtues.
And yet it does not follow that obedience takes precedence of all
virtues absolutely, for two reasons. First, because though an act of
virtue come under a precept, one may nevertheless perform that act of
virtue without considering the aspect of precept. Consequently, if
there be any virtue, whose object is naturally prior to the precept,
that virtue is said to be naturally prior to obedience. Such a virtue
is faith, whereby we come to know the sublime nature of divine
authority, by reason of which the power to command is competent to
God. Secondly, because infusion of grace and virtues may precede,
even in point of time, all virtuous acts: and in this way obedience
is not prior to all virtues, neither in point of time nor by nature.
Reply Obj. 3: There are two kinds of good. There is that to
which we are bound of necessity, for instance to love God, and so
forth: and by no means may such a good be set aside on account of
obedience. But there is another good to which man is not bound of
necessity, and this good we ought sometimes to set aside for the sake
of obedience to which we are bound of necessity, since we ought not to
do good by falling into sin. Yet as Gregory remarks (Moral. xxxv), "he
who forbids his subjects any single good, must needs allow them many
others, lest the souls of those who obey perish utterly from
starvation, through being deprived of every good." Thus the loss of
one good may be compensated by obedience and other goods.
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