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Perfection, so we are taught by the Gospel and St. Paul, means
perfection in charity. "Every being," says St. Thomas,
[1292] "is perfect when it attains its final goal. But
charity unites us to God, the goal of all human life, a truth
expressed by St. John's word on him who abides in God and God in
him. Hence charity constitutes the life of Christian perfection."
Faith and hope, since they can coexist with mortal sin, cannot
constitute perfection. Nor can infused moral perfections, since they
are concerned with the roads that lead to God, and hence are
meritorious only so far as they are vivified by charity, which is their
animating principle.
"Perfection," St. Thomas [1293] continues, "lies
principally in love of God, secondarily in love of neighbor, and only
accidentally in the evangelical counsels," obedience, chastity, and
poverty, which are unprescribed instruments of perfection. Hence
perfection can be attained without literal observance of the counsels,
in the state, say, of matrimony, though the spirit of the counsels,
i. e.: detachment from worldliness, is necessary for perfection in
any state. The advantage of literal observance of the counsels lies in
this: they are the most sure and rapid road whereby to reach sanctity.
Love of neighbor, though secondary in value when compared to love of
God, is nevertheless first in the order of time, because love of our
neighbor, who is the visible image of God, is the indispensable first
proof of our love for God. Our Lord says: "By this shall all men
know that you are My disciples, if you have love one for another."
[1294] .
Which is higher in value, love of God, or knowledge of God? In
this life, so runs the answer of St. Thomas, [1295] love of
God stands higher than knowledge of God. Why? Because, although
in general the intellect is higher than the will which it guides, our
intellect, until it obtains the beatific vision, draws God down
within its own limited and finite ideas, whereas when we love God we
ourselves are drawn upward to God's own unlimited and infinite
perfection. Hence it comes that when a saint, the Cure of Ars, for
example, teaches catechism, his act of love his higher value than the
wisest meditation of a theologian with a lower degree of love.
[1296] In this sense we can love God more than we know Him,
and we love Him the more, the more His mysteries surpass our
knowledge. Charity is the bond of perfection, since it draws all
virtues into one unit which is anchored in God.
But love of God and neighbor, in matrimony, priesthood, or
religion, is subject to the law of unlimited growth. It is an error,
says St. Thomas, [1297] to imagine that the commandment of
charity is limited to a degree beyond which it becomes a simple
counsel. The commandment itself has no limits. We must love God
with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. Charity is in no
way a mere counsel, but the purpose and goal of all commandments.
[1298] Means may be loved with measure, but not the end
itself. No one, says Aristotle, [1299] wills a goal by
half. Does the physician will to restore merely half of health? No.
What he does limit and measure is the medicine, the means whereby to
restore, if he can, unlimited health. Now the counsels are means,
the precept, the love of God, is the end. But why does God
command, not merely counsel, to love Him completely, with heart,
soul, mind, and strength, seeing that our love here below can never
be perfect? Because, as St. Augustine [1300] answers his
own question, love of God and neighbor is not a thing to be finished
here and now, but a goal to be ceaselessly aimed at by all men each
according to his own state of life. [1301] This ancient
doctrine, from which in part Suarez [1302] departs, is well
preserved by St. Francis de Sales, [1303] and reappears in
two encyclicals of Pius XI. [1304] .
In relation to this perfection which consists in charity we distinguish
three forms of human life: the contemplative life, the active life,
and the apostolic life. [1305] Contemplation studies divine
truth, action serves our neighbor, preaching and teaching gives to our
neighbor the fruits of our own contemplation. [1306] .
The active life is the disposition for the contemplative life, because
it subordinates passion to advancement in justice and mercy. Its end
is contemplation, the better part, which leads us to rest eternally in
the inner life of God. The apostolic life is the completion of the
contemplative life, because it is more perfect to illumine others than
to be merely illumined ourselves. Hence the perfect apostolic life,
as exemplified in the apostles and their successors, presupposes
plenitude of contemplation, which itself advances by the gifts of
knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, which make faith penetrating
and attractive. [1307] .
Bishops must be perfect both in the active life and in the
contemplative. And whereas religious are tending to the perfection of
charity, [1308] bishops are already in the state of perfection
to which they are to lead others. [1309] Hence a bishop who
would enter religion would make a step backward, as long as he is
useful to the souls for whom he has accepted responsibility.
[1310] .
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