Charity
23. The Virtue of Charity
1. Charity as a supernatural virtue is the friendship of man and God. On God's part, it is love, benevolence, and communication of benefits and graces; on man's part charity involves devotion and service to God. It was in charity that our Lord said to his apostles (John 15:15): "I will not now call you servants . . . but friends."
2. Charity is in a person as a determinate, supernatural, habitual power, added to the natural power of the soul, which inclines the will to act with ease and delight in the exercise of loving friendship with God.
3. St. Augustine says (De Morib. Eccl., xi): "Charity is a virtue which, when our affections are perfectly ordered, unites us to God; for it is by charity that we love him."
4. Charity is not a general virtue, nor an overlapping of virtues; it is a special virtue in its own nature; it is on a level with the other theological virtues (faith and hope), and is distinct from these virtues.
5. And charity is one virtue; it is not divided into different species or essential kinds.
6. Charity is the most excellent of all virtues. Faith knows truth about God; hope aspires to good in God; charity attains God himself simply, and not as having something to gain from him.
7. All true virtue directs a man to God, his ultimate good, his last end. Hence, charity, which embraces the ultimate good simply, must be in the soul that has any true and living virtue. No true supernatural virtue is possible without charity.
8. Charity therefore directs the acts of all the other virtues, making these serve to get man onward to his last end. And thus charity gives to these virtues their determinate being as effective instruments. Thus charity is said to be the "form" of the other virtues.
24. The Subject of Charity
1. Charity as a supernatural virtue resides in man's soul; specifically, it resides in the appetitive part of man's soul, that is, in man's will. For the object towards which the will tends is the good, and charity is the virtue which, above all others, tends to and actually embraces the ultimate good of man. Charity lays hold on God himself.
2. This charity is not in us by our nature; it is supernatural. Hence, we cannot acquire charity by our natural powers. Charity is in us by divine infusion, by in-pouring. St. Paul (Rom. 5:5) says: "The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given to us."
3. Our natural gifts and capacities have no part in determining the quantity, so to speak, of charity in us. For (John 3:8), "the Spirit breatheth where he will"; and (I Cor. 12:11), "all these things one and the same Spirit worketh, dividing to everyone according as he will." Thus the measure of charity is not our capacity, but the will of God.
4. Charity can increase in us while we are in this life, on the way to God; that is, while we are wayfarers. If charity did not increase, we could make no progress along the way to God.
5. Charity increases not by having new elements added to it, but by growing more intense.
6. Not every act of charity increases the virtue of charity. It is possible that an act of charity, done imperfectly, should mean no increase at all in the person who performs the act. But each act of charity, rightly performed, leads to another, and ultimately to a favor of action which increases charity.
7. Charity may go on increasing and increasing; it is not possible to fix limits to this increase while earthly life endures.
8. A perfection of charity (which in no way marks a stay or limit to its increase) is found in those who give their whole hearts habitually to God, not thinking or desiring anything contrary to his love.
9. We may distinguish three steps or degrees in charity; it has its beginning, its progress, and its (nonlimiting) perfection.
10. Charity cannot decrease. It is altogether lost by mortal sin, but it cannot be merely lessened in the soul. Human friendship may grow weak and be diminished through the negligence of friends and their forgetfulness. But charity is divine friendship; it depends on God, the infinitely perfect friend, who never grows negligent or forgetful; hence, charity does not decrease. However, to neglect acts of charity and to commit venial sins, may be to dispose ourselves to lose charity entirely through mortal sin; only in this extrinsic way may charity be said to suffer decrease.
11. Once we have charity, we have with it no guarantee that, during this life, we shall not lose it. The charity of the blessed in heaven (comprehensors) cannot be lost; the charity of men on earth (wayfarers ) can be lost.
12. Charity is lost by mortal sin. For whoever has charity is deserving of eternal life; a man who commits mortal sin is deserving of eternal death, that is, of everlasting punishment. It is therefore impossible for a person to have charity and, at the same time, to be in the state of mortal sin. One mortal sin drives out charity.
25. The Object of Charity
1. The object of charity, that towards which the act of charity is directed, is God, and our fellowmen in God. Says St. John (I John 4:21): "This commandment we have from God, that he who loveth God love also his brother."
2. Charity is love and friendship. We have charity when we love God and neighbor, and wish for our neighbor the good of God's friendship. Thus, out of charity, we love charity itself.
3. We cannot wish to creatures less than man, that is, to irrational creatures, the "fellowship of everlasting happiness." Therefore we cannot love such creatures out of charity.
4. We are to love ourselves out of true charity. For our love of ourselves is the standard of the sort of love we must have for others. Says Holy Scripture (Levit. 19:18): "Love thy neighbor as thyself."
5. Even our body is to be loved out of charity, for it is God's creature to be used by reason in man's service of God. St. Paul says (Rom. 6:13): "Present . . . your members as instruments of justice unto God." We are not, however, to love the disorder of bodily tendencies which are the result in us of the primal fall.
6. We are to love our neighbor out of charity, even if he be a sinner. We must hate sin, yet we must love the person who sins, wishing him repentance, pardon, and eternal life, for God's sake.
7. Sinners do not love themselves truly. They love only an apparent good in themselves, and they love external and creatural goods as things worth having for their own sake. And thus sinners miss the goal of charity which is endless happiness in God. Sinners, therefore, do not love themselves, for, as Holy Writ tells us (Psalm 10): "He that loveth iniquity, hateth his own soul."
8. We have the direct command of our Lord that we are to love our enemies. In St. Matthew (5:44) we read: "Love your enemies: do good to them that hate you: pray for them that persecute and calumniate you."
9. We must, therefore, love our enemies in general, and we must also be ready, if God wills to put opportunity in our way, to show them, as individuals, the signs and offices of love.
10. We are to love God's angels out of charity, for we hope to share with them "the fellowship of everlasting happiness"; this expectation is an element in the friendship called charity.
11. The fallen angels, that is, the demons in hell, cannot share the "fellowship of everlasting happiness," and therefore they are outside the scope of charity.
12. St. Augustine (De Doct. Christ. i) says: "There are four things to be loved: one is above us, God; another is ourselves; a third is near us, our neighbor; a fourth is below us, our body."
26. The Order of Charity
1. There is an order in charity, and God is the principle of that order. God is to be loved out of charity, before all others. The other beings that are to be loved out of charity are, so to speak, lined up in their proper places, subordinate to God.
2. God is to be loved for himself and as the cause of happiness. Hence, God is to be loved more than our neighbor, who is loved, not for himself, but for God.
3. And we are to love God more than we love ourselves. What we love in ourselves is from God, and is lovable only on account of God.
4. A person rightly loves himself by charity when he seeks to be united with God and to partake of God's eternal happiness. And a person loves his neighbor as one to whom he wishes this union and happiness. Now, since seeking to obtain something for oneself is a more intense act than wishing well to one's neighbor, a person manifestly loves himself more than he loves his neighbor. As evidence of this fact, consider this: a man would rightly refuse to sin if, by sinning, he could free his neighbor from sin.
5. While we love ourselves more than we love our neighbor, we are required to love our neighbor more than we love our body.
6. And we rightly love one neighbor more than another-our parents, for instance, or our children. In this we violate no law so long as we do not withhold requisite love from any neighbor.
7. Our dearest objects of charity among neighbors are those who are closest to us by some tie-relationship, common country, and so on.
8. The tie that is strongest of all is the tie of blood. Hence it is natural that we should love our kindred more than others.
9. And in those related to us by blood there is an order. St. Ambrose says that we ought to love God first, then our parents, then our children, then the others of our household.
10. We are to love father and mother. Strictly speaking, the love of father precedes the love of mother.
11. A man loves his wife more intensely than he loves his parents. Yet he loves his parents with greater reverence.
12. It seems that we love those on whom we confer benefits more than those who confer benefits on us.
13. The order of charity, since it is right and reasonable, will endure in heaven.
27. Love, Chief Act of Charity
1. Charity consists in loving rather than in being loved.
2. Charity is active friendship and love. It is therefore something more than good will, which is the condition and the beginning of friendship.
3. God is loved out of charity for his own sake, not on account of anything other than himself. Yet in one way we can love God out of charity, and still have something else in view, as when we love God for the favors we receive or expect, but in such a way that these very favors are loved because they dispose us to love God the more.
4. Even in this life, in which we are wayfarers, we can have an immediate love of God, that is, love without a medium between lover and beloved. We know God through the medium of created things; love moves the other way, for we love God first and then love created things for the love of God.
5. We can love God wholly according to our own creatural wholeness, but not according to the infinite wholeness of God. For we are finite, and cannot compass infinity.
6. We need no test or mode or measure in our love for God. St. Augustine says we need only go on measurelessly loving God.
7. It is, in itself, more meritorious to love a friend than to love an enemy, just as it is worse to hate a friend than to hate an enemy. But, considering that the love of a friend is likely to be less purely the effect of love of God, and also considering the distaste and difficulty that one must overcome to love an enemy, we see that it can be more meritorious to love an enemy than to love a friend.
8. To love God is more meritorious than to love one's neighbor. Indeed, to love one's neighbor is a meritorious act only when we love him for the sake of God.
28. Joy
1. Spiritual joy, often called joy in God, is an effect of charity.
2. Spiritual joy admits no admixture of sorrow, for it is joy in the divine wisdom of which Scripture says (Wisd. 8:16), "Her conversation hath no bitterness."
3. Spiritual joy is full and perfect when God is possessed by the soul, and nothing remains to be desired. It is manifest, therefore, that we cannot achieve the fullness of spiritual joy until we reach heaven.
4. Joy is not a virtue in itself; it is an act and an effect of the virtue of charity, and it is numbered among the fruits of the Holy Ghost.
29. Peace
1. Peace is not merely quiet agreement among men. Peace means harmony and satisfaction in all the tendencies and desires of a man's heart. Peace, therefore, is more than outer concord; it is inner repose in the attainment of all that can be desired.
2. Peace is the end of all desiring. Wherever there is tendency, there is the drive for repose in the attaining of the object of tendency. Peace is fulfillment, with tendency at rest. All things, inasmuch as they tend to their connatural or supernatural end, tend to peace; we may even say that everything desires peace.
3. Peace in a man's soul, spiritual peace, results from charity. When a person focuses his harmonious inner tendencies on God, he exercises charity, and he has peace. When men exercise charity one towards another as true neighbors, they tend together unto God, and they have peace.
4. Peace, like joy, is not a virtue on its own account or in itself; it is the exercise of a virtue; it is an act and an effect of the virtue of charity. Like joy, it is one of the twelve fruits of the Holy Ghost.
30. Mercy
1. St. Augustine (De Civ. Dei, ix) says: "Mercy is heartfelt sympathy for another's distress, impelling us to help him if we can." Hence, the distress of another, that is, the evil suffered by another, is the motive of mercy.
2. Pity is a kind of sorrow for some defect. We feel pity for others in so far as we look upon their defect or deficiency as though it were our own. And pity stirs us to deeds of mercy. The terms mercy and pity are frequently used interchangeably.
3. Mercy is a name sometimes applied to a feeling or sentiment; so also is pity. But when mercy or pity is more than a sentiment; when it is the habitual and regulated movement of the soul, acting in the light of reason, it is a virtue.
4. Indeed, mercy is in itself the greatest of virtues, and it is said of God that "his mercies are above all his works." But among creatures mercy is not so great a virtue as charity, and, without charity, would be wholly ineffective. However, mercy ranks next to charity itself, and, of the purely social virtues, mercy is the greatest.
81. Beneficence
1. Beneficence is doing good to another. It is an act of charity or friendship.
2. We are bound to exercise beneficence, for we are obligated to "do good to all men." St. Paul (Gal. 6:10) indicates this fact when he points out beneficence as our lifelong duty: "While we have time, let us do good to all men."
3. The opportunity of actually exercising beneficence for the benefit of all mankind is not given to many. We have the duty, then, of exercising beneficence towards those who are about us, to those who are more closely united to us.
4. Beneficence, like good will, is an act of charity; it is not a special virtue in itself.
32. Almsdeeds
1. An alms is "something given to the needy, out of compassion, and for the sake of God." Almsdeeds are works of compassion or mercy; mercy itself is suffused with charity; hence, almsgiving can be called an act of charity.
2. The different almsdeeds are well enumerated as corporal alms and spiritual alms. These are commonly called the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. The corporal works of mercy are seven: (a) to feed the hungry; (b) to give drink to the thirsty; (c) to clothe the naked; (d) to harbor the harborless; (e) to visit the sick; (f) to ransom the captive; (g) to bury the dead. The spiritual works of mercy are also seven: (a) to instruct the ignorant; (b) to counsel the doubtful; (c) to comfort the sorrowing; (d) to reprove sinners; (e) to forgive injuries; (f) to bear wrongs patiently; (g) to pray for the living and the dead.
3. By their nature, spiritual almsdeeds are more excellent than corporal almsdeeds. Yet in particular cases, the corporal deeds may be of greater value. It is, for instance, more valuable to feed a hungry man than to instruct him.
4. Corporal almsdeeds may have a spiritual effect; they may, for example, lead a man to pray for his benefactor.
5. Almsgiving is a matter of precept; it is involved in the precept of loving one's neighbor. We are therefore obliged to give alms out of what we possess as surplus, that is, out of goods remaining to us after we have taken care of our own needs and the needs of those who are under our charge. The precept of almsgiving binds us to help those who are in need. We cannot help all who are in need, of course, but we can, and must, help those needy persons whose need would not be relieved unless we relieved it. Thus the precept of almsgiving binds when two conditions are fulfilled: (a) our having available means; and (b) a case of need dependent on us for relief. In other cases, in which these two conditions are not both fulfilled, almsgiving is not of precept, but of counsel.
6. A man may sometimes sacrifice what is commonly considered necessary to his position, so that he can relieve the needy. So long as he does not act inordinately, or do an injustice to others (such as wife, children, dependent parents), such a sacrifice is noble, and may even be heroic. Ordinarily, however, there is no obligation on a person to make such a sacrifice.
7. Alms are to be given out of the donor's own property. To use the surplus of a rich neighbor to relieve the needy, is to be guilty of theft. The goods of others are not ours to dispose of without their direction or permission.
8. Therefore, a person who is under the direction or rule of another as to the disposal of goods, must have that other's permission before he bestows alms.
9. The claims of those more closely united to us are to be considered in giving alms, when otherwise the conditions among claimants are fairly equal.
10. We are to give alms according to the means available. Scripture says (Tob. 4:9): "If thou have much, give abundantly: if thou have little, take care . . . willingly to bestow a little." And the abundance of our almsgiving should rather appear in the relief of many needy persons or causes than in an oversupply bestowed on one.
33. Fraternal Correction
1. Fraternal correction is the spiritual almsdeed of reproving a sinner; it is an act of charity.
2. Sometimes we are under obligation of giving fraternal correction. This is always so when a discreet word of ours could lead a grievous sinner to amend his ways.
3. Correction as an act of justice is the duty of those whose place and station require them to direct others spiritually. Correction as an act of charity is a warning properly given on due occasion by anyone who can prudently prevent sin or cause a sinner to repent and amend.
4. Fraternal correction can be given by anyone to any other person, be that person's place high or low. Indeed, sometimes conditions make it the duty of a subject to correct his superior. Yet correction must always be given with prudence and discretion, and never with insolence.
5. One sinner cannot justly rebuke another in such a way that his own sin seems less to be condemned than that of the person he rebukes. Yet, if the thing be done humbly, one sinner may correct another, even though he condemns himself at the same time. The good thief at the Crucifixion humbly acknowledged his own sin as he rebuked the bad thief for upbraiding Christ.
6. Fraternal correction, to deserve the name, must be an act of charity, not of officiousness, or meddling, or pride, or hyprocrisy. It is to be given in the spirit of loving friendship in God. And when such correction is necessary, those bound to administer it, by reason either of justice or of charity, are not to refrain from it for fear that the person corrected may be angry or resentful, or may be worse in conduct because of what is said to him in correction.
7. Certainly, fraternal correction is always to be given in a manner befitting the exercise of charity. It is to be given privately-at least, at first. Some evils may call for public denunciation, but private admonition should be given first. Sacred Scripture directs that this course be taken. (See Matt. 18:15.)
8. After private admonition has proved fruitless, the sinner should be corrected before "one or two more" prudent witnesses, and thus every opportunity should be given him to amend without suffering public dishonor.
34. Hatred
1. It is possible for a debased human will to hate God. God is altogether lovable, but to the sinner who incurs the necessary penalties of sin, hatred of the divine justice, which imposes the penalties, is possible.
2. Hatred of God is manifestly the worst of sins. For the evil of sin consists in the fact that it turns the soul away from God. And there can be no more complete and dreadful turning from God than by hatred of God.
3. It is always a sin to hate one's neighbor. For, as St. John says (I John 2:9): "He that hateth his brother is in darkness." We are to hate sin in our brother, but we are to love our brother.
4. Our hatred of our neighbor is a sin less hurtful to him than other sins, such as theft, or murder, or adultery. Therefore, it is not true to say that hatred is the most grievous of sins against a neighbor.
5. Hatred is not listed with the capital sins. For, though other sins may arise from hatred as from their capital source, hatred itself is not promptly present to fallen nature, but comes as the result of the gradual deterioration and destruction of love.
6. Hatred grows out of the capital sin of envy, which is sorrow over a neighbor's good. Envy makes a neighbor's good hateful to the envious man, and thus, as St. Augustine says in his Rule: "Out of envy cometh hatred."
35. Sloth
1. Sloth is sluggishness of mind which neglects to begin good. It is a kind of oppressive sorrow (for what is, in itself, good) which so weighs on a person's mind that he chooses to do nothing. Sloth is spiritual laziness. It is a sin, and a capital sin.
2. Sloth is sorrow for spiritual good. It is a special vice opposed to charity. For charity rejoices in the good which sloth finds the occasion for sadness.
3. Sloth is, therefore, by its nature, contrary to charity, and, by that fact, it is a mortal sin in its genus or general essential kind. Yet, like all sins that are mortal in their genus, sloth is not mortal in fact, unless it be fully accepted by the deliberate will.
4. Sloth is rightly listed among the capital (or source) sins-from which many other sins flow.
36. Envy
1. Envy is sorrow or sadness over another's good, because that good is regarded as something withheld or taken away from the envious person's excellence or reputation.
2. Envy is a sin; it grieves over what charity finds capable of causing joy; it is a spiritual disorder.
3. Envy in its kind (or genus) is a mortal sin, for it is in conflict with the precept of charity. But in the envious person the sin of envy is mortal only when it is committed with full knowledge and full consent.
4. Envy is a fruitful source of other sins, and therefore it is listed with the capital sins.
37. Discord
1. Discord or dissension is a conflict of wills to the offense of charity and the destruction of peace. Being contrary to charity, it is sinful.
2. Discord arises from vainglory which makes a man cling inordinately to his own will, and leads him to despise the way and the opinions of others. Hence, discord is rightly known as "the daughter of vainglory."
38. Contention
1. Contention is discord that finds expression in words. It is bickering, unreasonable arguing, without regard to charity, and often without regard to truth. Contention is sinful, and it is possible for it to be mortally sinful.
2. Contention, like discord, is a daughter of vainglory. For the contentious man clings pridefully to his own way and his own opinion, arguing stubbornly even in the face of evidence and the manifestation of truth.
39. Schism
1. Schism is a breaking away, a division which disrupts unity. As a sin, it is the disruption of unity born of charity. In special, it is the sin of cutting away from the unity of the faithful under the rule of the Vicar of Christ; it is the refusal to submit to the rule and jurisdiction of the sovereign pontiff.
2. Schism is a grave sin, but it is not so grave as heresy and unbelief. Heresy cuts a person off from the unity of the faithful just as schism does; but heresy adds to this the evil of embracing false doctrine. {-When papal infallibility and the primacy and jurisdiction of the sovereign pontiff were solemnly defined, schism became a practical denial of truths of the faith, and hence is itself heretical.-}
3. Schismatics lose the right to exercise spiritual powers; they lose jurisdiction itself, and not merely its licit use.
4. It is right and just that schismatics, who sever themselves from the unity of the Church, should be punished by the Church with the penalty their action invites, namely, excommunication.
40. War
1. War, which is armed conflict between countries or nations, may be sometimes lawful and without sin. Three conditions are necessary for a justified war: (a) it must be waged by lawful public authority in defense of the common good; (b) it must be waged for a just cause; (c) it must be waged with the right intention, not vengefully nor to inflict harm.
2. It is not lawful for bishops and other clerics to fight in a war; such action is not in harmony with their place and their duties.
3. Ambushes are strategems of war; they are part of the normal conduct of war, and are not considered to be unfair tricks. Hence, if the war be just, strategems, including ambushes, are not wrong in themselves.
4. For the safeguarding of the common welfare, it is lawful to carry on the acts of a just war, and to wage fights, if need be even on Sundays and holy days.
41. Strife or Quarreling
1. Strife or quarreling means fighting among individuals, even as war means fighting among peoples or nations. Strife comes from inordinate or perverse wills. It is therefore contrary to reason; it is a sin; it can be a mortal sin.
2. Strife, as here understood, is not a mere affair of words as contention is; it includes deeds intended to hurt or harm another. Strife is rightly called "the daughter of anger."
42. Sedition
1. Sedition, strictly understood, is the uprising of part of a people against another; it is also the stir and effort of individuals and groups to make one part of a people rise against another. Sedition is opposed to the unity and peace of a people, which is a special good; hence, sedition is a special sin. It is, therefore, a sin distinct from war, fighting, discord, contention.
2. In its genus or essential kind, sedition is a mortal sin, for it involves a grievous offense against law and the common good. The leaders of a sedition are the most guilty, and, after them, with a lesser degree of guilt, come the people who are led to the disturbing of the common good.
43. Scandal
1. Scandal is a needless word or deed which does spiritual harm to those who hear or observe it. Scandal is word or deed that occasions sin in another; it is bad example.
2. In the person scandalized (that is, led to sin) the scandal is passive; in the person doing or saying the scandalous thing, the scandal is active. Active scandal is a sin against charity, which bids us seek our neighbor's good. Active scandal is not only what actually leads a person to sin, but it is also what is intended to lead him to sin (or, by its nature is calculated to lead him to sin), even if, as a fact, he does not commit sin. Passive scandal is sometimes taken, by mistake or by perversity, from what is not, in itself, calculated to lead a person to sin.
3. Scandal is a special kind of sin, because it is opposed to a special kind of good work, which is called fraternal correction.
4. Scandal, in the person who actively gives it, is either a mortal or a venial sin, according to the gravity of the scandalous word or deed, and also according to the awareness and the intention of the scandal-izer.
5. Scandal is taken by (that is, affects) persons of a mind unsettled in adherence to good. Those who adhere perfectly to God by charity are not scandalized; passive scandal is not found in them.
6. Nor can those perfectly united to God by charity be the cause of scandal; they cannot be active scandalizers. For scandal is inordinate, and solidly virtuous persons direct their lives with order; they live according to the direction of St. Paul (I Cor. 14:40): "Let all things be done decently, and according to order." The slight weaknesses of thoroughly good people never amount to an occasion of sin in others.
7. There is a type of passive scandal, called pharisaical, or "scandal of the Pharisees," which tries to make evil out of what is good, just as the Pharisees tried to make our Lord's words and deeds seem seditious and even diabolical. There is another type of passive scandal, called "scandal of the little ones" or scandal of the weak, which sees evil where there is none, not by reason of malice, but by want of understanding and lack of instruction. We should never forego a spiritual good because of pharisaical scandal, for this type of scandal is born of hypocrisy and malice, and is to be treated with contempt. But we ought to do all we can, without being guilty of sinful remissness, to avoid what occasions the scandal of the weak.
8. We are not always obliged to forego all claim, even on temporal goods, because of scandal of the weak. But the scandal should be removed by explanation or instruction. If this cannot be done, there are occasions on which we must forego temporal goods to avoid giving scandal. St. Paul (I Cor. 8:13) says that if his eating meat will scandalize his brother, he will not eat meat.
44. The Precepts of Charity
1. Whatever God requires of us is a matter of precept. Now, God requires us to love him, and to love our neighbor for his sake. Hence, there are precepts of charity, which is the love of God and friendship with God in his holy grace. We have such precepts in scripture: (Deut. 10:12), "Fear the Lord thy God, and walk in His ways and love Him"; (Matt. 22:37, 39), "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind"; "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
2. The love of God involves love of neighbor for God. For who can really love God and not love what God loves? And God loves all men. Yet, since many would not notice that love of neighbor is included in the love of God, it is fitting that the great law of charity should have expression in two precepts: love of God, and love of neighbor.
3. These two precepts of charity suffice. Our Lord himself says (Matt. 22:40): "On these two commandments dependeth the whole law, and the prophets."
4. God is to be loved as the last end, the ultimate goal, the eternal purpose to which all things are to be referred. This totality of order and direction of creatures to God is indicated to mankind in the precept requiring all men to love God with the whole heart . . . whole soul . . . whole mind.
5. Other expressions of scripture emphasize the same totality of tendency to God; we are told to love God with our whole might, and with all our strength.
6. Perfect fulfillment of the great precept of charity, that is, total love of God, cannot be attained in this earthly life; it will come in heaven. St. Augustine says (De Perfect. Justit.), in the "fullness of heavenly charity, this precept will be fulfilled. ... As long as carnal concupiscence remains to be restrained by continence, man cannot love God with his whole heart." Yet it is man's duty on earth to come nearer and nearer to the fulfilling of the precept of perfect charity.
7. We are to love our neighbor as ourselves; not, indeed, as much as we love ourselves, but in the same manner, and with desire for the same good that we seek for ourselves. We seek to attain God, and, loving our neighbor as ourselves, we seek to have our neighbor attain God.
8. The order of charity is expressed in the precept of charity: love of God first, and love of neighbor second. And yet the second love is in the first.
45. The Gift of Wisdom
1. To be wise is to know the deepest causes in that department of knowledge and conduct in which one is said to be wise. A wise physician must know the fundamental principles of medicine. The term wisdom, taken simply, means the knowledge of the highest cause of all, that is, God. Out of this knowledge comes clear judgment about all things, judgment made in the divine light of the knowledge. Now, man attains this judgment through the Holy Ghost. Wisdom is, therefore, a gift of the Holy Ghost.
2. Wisdom, notwithstanding it has the power to direct man's life according to the charity which resides in his will, is itself in the intellect as in its proper subject.
3. Wisdom is in the practical intellect as well as in the speculative intellect. For it is not merely abstract knowing; it is a directing of human conduct, and hence is a doing.
4. Wisdom, as a gift of the Holy Ghost, enables a person to judge rightly of divine things, and to judge of other things according to the divine law of charity which is in him. Wisdom presupposes charity. Since charity is expelled by mortal sin, so also is wisdom.
5. Whoever is free from mortal sin and is in the state of sanctifying grace has charity, and also has wisdom.
6. St. Augustine says that there is a special agreement or correspondence of wisdom with peacemakers. For he says (De Serm. Dom. in Mont., i): "Wisdom is becoming to peacemakers, in whom there is no movement of rebellion, but only obedience to reason." Hence the seventh beatitude, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God," corresponds to the gift of wisdom.
46. Folly
1. Folly is the opposite of wisdom. Folly is the contrary of wisdom, whereas fatuity is the sheer absence of wisdom.
2. Folly is dullness in judging, especially in matters that relate to God and the good of the soul. When folly results from inordinate love and use of earthly things, it is a sin.
3. Since a man's sense is plunged into earthly things by lust more than by any other vice, folly is called "the daughter of lust."