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Objection 1: It would seem that a man ought to love his mother more
than his father. For, as the Philosopher says (De Gener.
Animal. i, 20), "the female produces the body in generation."
Now man receives his soul, not from his father, but from God by
creation, as stated in the FP, Question 90, Article 2;
Question 118. Therefore a man receives more from his mother than
from his father: and consequently he ought to love her more than him.
Objection 2: Further, where greater love is given, greater love is
due. Now a mother loves her child more than the father does: for the
Philosopher says (Ethic. ix, 7) that "mothers have greater love
for their children. For the mother labors more in child-bearing, and
she knows more surely than the father who are her children."
Objection 3: Further, love should be more fond towards those who
have labored for us more, according to Rm. 16:6: "Salute
Mary, who hath labored much among you." Now the mother labors more
than the father in giving birth and education to her child; wherefore
it is written (Ecclus. 7:29): "Forget not the groanings of
thy mother." Therefore a man ought to love his mother more than his
father.
On the contrary, Jerome says on Ezech. 44:25 that "man ought
to love God the Father of all, and then his own father," and
mentions the mother afterwards.
I answer that, In making such comparisons as this, we must take the
answer in the strict sense, so that the present question is whether the
father as father, ought to be loved more than the mother as mother.
The reason is that virtue and vice may make such a difference in such
like matters, that friendship may be diminished or destroyed, as the
Philosopher remarks (Ethic. viii, 7). Hence Ambrose
[Origen, Hom. ii in Cant.] says: "Good servants should be
preferred to wicked children."
Strictly speaking, however, the father should be loved more than the
mother. For father and mother are loved as principles of our natural
origin. Now the father is principle in a more excellent way than the
mother, because he is the active principle, while the mother is a
passive and material principle. Consequently, strictly speaking, the
father is to be loved more.
Reply to Objection 1: In the begetting of man, the mother supplies
the formless matter of the body; and the latter receives its form
through the formative power that is in the semen of the father. And
though this power cannot create the rational soul, yet it disposes the
matter of the body to receive that form.
Reply to Objection 2: This applies to another kind of love. For
the friendship between lover and lover differs specifically from the
friendship between child and parent: while the friendship we are
speaking of here, is that which a man owes his father and mother
through being begotten of them.
The Reply to the Third Objection is evident.
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