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Objection 1: It seems that obedience is the greatest of the
virtues. For it is written (1 Kgs. 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
(Question 81, Article 6). Therefore obedience is the greatest
of all virtues.
Objection 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.
Objection 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 Jn. 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 to Objection 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 to Objection 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 to Objection 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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