Summa Theologiae Moralis, vol. I: De Principiis

S. Th. II-II, q. 23, a. 1 and 2; de Virt., q. 2, a. 1-2; III Sent., d. 27, q. 2, a. 2 and 4.

852. Thesis. Charity is true and properly so called friendship between God and man. — It is certain.

It is proved:

1) From Scripture: a) it indicates in open words that such friendship exists (Sap. VII, 14; Ps. CXXXVIII, 17), for which reason the just are called friends of God e.g. Abraham (Is. XLI, 8; Judith VIII, 22; Jas. II, 23); — b) the soul is united to God as bride to bridegroom (Cant. Cant.), and man as son to father (Rom. VIII, 14-17; I Jn. III, 1), and becomes citizen and member of the household in the society and house of God (Eph. II, 19); but from the communication of domestic and civil life, especially between son and father, between bridegroom and bride, friendship is naturally born, whence Cant. II, 13, the bridegroom says: "arise, my friend...", and V, 16, the bride says: "he is my friend"; — c) in the New Testament the Son of God himself explicitly calls friends those who keep the commandments (Jn. XIV, 15, 21; XV, 10, 14), and describes that friendship, Jn. XV, 21... "He who loves me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him... and we will come to him and make our abode with him", and XV, 14-15: "You are my friends, I will no longer call you servants because the servant does not know what his master does. But I have called you friends, because all things whatsoever I have heard from my Father I have made known to you". Which friendship we call charity.

2) From Tradition: the thesis is explicitly enunciated by the Fathers: Hilar. in Ps. 138, n. 38; Chrys. (P. G. LV, 417); Athan. (P.G. XXVII, 534); Ambros. ep. 37, n. 13; August. in Jn., tr. 85 (p. 1848 sq.); Cyr. Al. in Jn. XV, 4; Bern. serm. in Cant. 1, n. 8; 68, n. 1, 3; and it is the common doctrine of theologians after S. Thomas, and of the commentators on the Canticle of Canticles.

3) From reason: Charity is friendship between God and man, if all the conditions required for this are present. Now a) there is a communication of goods and indeed of those which are proper to the nature and life of God: for God communicates himself and his own intellectual life and beatitude in the beatific vision (I Cor. I, 9; I Jn. III, 2), and by grace we are partakers and participants of his very divinity, and sons like to God in nature and operations (II Pet. I, 4; I Jn. III, 1-2); in one word: God communicates to us his own goodness inchoately by grace, perfectly and consummately by glory, so that we are truly sons of God and he is our Father (Rom. VIII, 15). From which communication naturally arises b) mutual benevolence, namely a benevolent love by which we love God our Father as the altogether ultimate supernatural end above all things, and therefore for his own sake, because he is infinitely lovable; — and the benevolent love by which God gratuitously loves us as sons not for his own but for our utility and happiness: on the one hand indeed God cannot but be pleased in himself in the likeness of his own nature communicated with us, and on the other hand he expects no utility or happiness to come to himself from this love, since he is in himself the supreme Good and the supreme Happiness. c) It is also mutually known, for God has declared that he loves those who love him (Prov. VIII, 17; Jn. XIV, 21, 23), and by probable conjectures and sufficiently certain signs we are able to discern whether we truly love God. Therefore.

853. In charity there is a threefold union. — One is the communication of goods or the union of likeness which is the foundation of friendship and charity, and this in the case is sanctifying grace by which we are like to God in nature and worthy of eternal beatitude. Another is charity itself, and this is the mutual union according to the affection, by which God wills his own beatitude to us as to himself, and we will the beatitude which we wish for ourselves, more to God. The third is the real union which is an effect of charity, by which God and we seek mutual real presence, and God substantially inhabits in us on earth through grace and charity, and will be present to our minds in glory.

Of the second union, or mutual inherence according to the affection, John says (I ep., IV, 16): He who abides in charity, abides in God and God in him. God namely abides in us, because in our affection he remains so impressed that we will beatitude and all our goods for God as for ourselves, indeed more than for ourselves: thus he has become one with us. On the contrary we abide in God, because we follow the will of God as our own, and have his desires and goods as our own, whence we will, act and live as God: thus we are transformed into God. Whence I Cor. VI, 17: He who adheres to the Lord is one spirit.

854. Corollary. — Since in the state of pure nature no communication of the goodness and life proper to God had been made to us, there would have been between God and us no equality nor friendship, although there would have been from both sides the love of benevolence. For in that state we would have been only servants in relation to God; now however we are his friends, not indeed inasmuch as we are servants, but inasmuch as we are his adopted sons.

855. Charity is not the Holy Spirit himself. — Peter Lombard taught that charity is not a habit created in the soul, but the Holy Spirit himself granted to us who, with no created habit mediating, immediately through himself produces in us the act of divine love. Which opinion is erroneous:

a) Because it cannot be reconciled with the Council of Trent which teaches (sess. 6, c. 7 and 16, can. 11) that charity which is given by the Holy Spirit to us inheres in us, and that in justification we receive infused faith, hope and charity, through the Holy Spirit who pours forth charity; where manifestly charity is described as a habit, and is distinguished from the Holy Spirit as effect from cause;

b) It is also contrary to reason, which 1) proves that charity is the principle of a created operation: for the act of charity is voluntary and meritorious, whence it is not produced by the Holy Spirit alone, nor by the will acting as moved by him as a mere instrument of him, but by a principle of activity intrinsic to the will, by which it itself by its own powers freely moves itself to love God; but the act of charity, because supernatural, exceeds the natural intrinsic powers of the will; therefore it is necessary that the Holy Spirit add to the will a principle of operating, or supernatural powers intrinsic to it by which it becomes capable of producing the act of charity. — 2) Reason proves that this principle is not momentary and transient, but habitual and permanent: for no one perfectly tends and operates toward an end except through a permanent principle of operation, whence to natural things God has given such principles for operating toward their end; therefore also toward our supernatural end (concerning which certainly God has no less provided) he has given us a supernatural principle habitual and permanent, that we may perfectly operate and tend toward it. Otherwise the act of charity would not be easy, nor delectable, but we would be moved toward it almost violently and with sadness, which however is contrary to experience.

Whence that charity is a habit created in the soul is theologically certain.

856. Remarks. — 1st Grace is not itself friendship with God, but its principle, root and foundation, namely a divine good participated, on account of which friendship between God and us can be, which is done through charity: by grace we are made lovable to God, i.e. worthy of the love of divine friendship, by friendship loved and loving; grace is in the essence of the soul to which it gives a supernatural being, charity in the willing will to which it gives the power of operating supernaturally.

2nd God, in order to love us benevolently, does not await the presence of grace in us: for this is the effect, not the cause, of the gratuitous divine love toward us, since the love of God is the cause of all the goodness of things and all good things come from the love of God¹. — But after we have been adorned with grace from the gratuitous love of God, we are now worthy to be loved by him and capable of loving him in return as father. And thus grace, which is the effect of the love of God's special benevolence, is also the foundation of divine friendship or stable and mutual love. God namely first out of love of benevolence confers on man the perfection on account of which he becomes lovable, and then loves him as a friend.

3rd Between us and God there is a friendship of excellence, because there is no equality of quantity but only of proportion to the most excellent, which we participate, of the goodness of God.