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Objection 1: It seems that God does not always love more the better
things. For it is manifest that Christ is better than the whole human
race, being God and man. But God loved the human race more than He
loved Christ; for it is said: "He spared not His own Son, but
delivered Him up for us all" (Rm. 8:32). Therefore God does
not always love more the better things.
Objection 2: Further, an angel is better than a man. Hence it is
said of man: "Thou hast made him a little less than the angels"
(Ps. 8:6). But God loved men more than He loved the angels,
for it is said: "Nowhere doth He take hold of the angels, but of
the seed of Abraham He taketh hold" (Heb. 2:16). Therefore
God does not always love more the better things.
Objection 3: Further, Peter was better than John, since he loved
Christ more. Hence the Lord, knowing this to be true, asked
Peter, saying: "Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me more than
these?" Yet Christ loved John more than He loved Peter. For as
Augustine says, commenting on the words, "Simon, son of John,
lovest thou Me?": "By this very mark is John distinguished from
the other disciples, not that He loved him only, but that He loved
him more than the rest." Therefore God does not always love more the
better things.
Objection 4: Further, the innocent man is better than the
repentant, since repentance is, as Jerome says (Cap. 3 in
Isa.), "a second plank after shipwreck." But God loves the
penitent more than the innocent; since He rejoices over him the more.
For it is said: "I say to you that there shall be joy in heaven upon
the one sinner that doth penance, more than upon ninety-nine just who
need not penance" (Lk. 15:7). Therefore God does not always
love more the better things.
Objection 5: Further, the just man who is foreknown is better than
the predestined sinner. Now God loves more the predestined sinner,
since He wills for him a greater good, life eternal. Therefore God
does not always love more the better things.
On the contrary, Everything loves what is like it, as appears from
(Ecclus. 13:19): "Every beast loveth its like." Now the
better a thing is, the more like is it to God. Therefore the better
things are more loved by God.
I answer that, It must needs be, according to what has been said
before, that God loves more the better things . For it has been
shown (Articles 2,3), that God's loving one thing more than
another is nothing else than His willing for that thing a greater
good: because God's will is the cause of goodness in things; and the
reason why some things are better than others, is that God wills for
them a greater good. Hence it follows that He loves more the better
things.
Reply to Objection 1: God loves Christ not only more than He
loves the whole human race, but more than He loves the entire created
universe: because He willed for Him the greater good in giving Him
"a name that is above all names," in so far as He was true God.
Nor did anything of His excellence diminish when God delivered Him
up to death for the salvation of the human race; rather did He become
thereby a glorious conqueror: "The government was placed upon His
shoulder," according to Is. 9:6.
Reply to Objection 2: God loves the human nature assumed by the
Word of God in the person of Christ more than He loves all the
angels; for that nature is better, especially on the ground of the
union with the Godhead. But speaking of human nature in general, and
comparing it with the angelic, the two are found equal, in the order
of grace and of glory: since according to Rev 21:17, the measure
of a man and of an angel is the same. Yet so that, in this respect,
some angels are found nobler than some men, and some men nobler than
some angels. But as to natural condition an angel is better than a
man. God therefore did not assume human nature because He loved man,
absolutely speaking, more; but because the needs of man were greater;
just as the master of a house may give some costly delicacy to a sick
servant, that he does not give to his own son in sound health.
Reply to Objection 3: This doubt concerning Peter and John has
been solved in various ways. Augustine interprets it mystically, and
says that the active life, signified by Peter, loves God more than
the contemplative signified by John, because the former is more
conscious of the miseries of this present life, and therefore the more
ardently desires to be freed from them, and depart to God. God, he
says, loves more the contemplative life, since He preserves it
longer. For it does not end, as the active life does, with the life
of the body.
Some say that Peter loved Christ more in His members, and therefore
was loved more by Christ also, for which reason He gave him the care
of the Church; but that John loved Christ more in Himself, and so
was loved more by Him; on which account Christ commended His mother
to his care. Others say that it is uncertain which of them loved
Christ more with the love of charity, and uncertain also which of them
God loved more and ordained to a greater degree of glory in eternal
life. Peter is said to have loved more, in regard to a certain
promptness and fervor; but John to have been more loved, with respect
to certain marks of familiarity which Christ showed to him rather than
to others, on account of his youth and purity. While others say that
Christ loved Peter more, from his more excellent gift of charity;
but John more, from his gifts of intellect. Hence, absolutely
speaking, Peter was the better and more beloved; but, in a certain
sense, John was the better, and was loved the more. However, it
may seem presumptuous to pass judgment on these matters; since "the
Lord" and no other "is the weigher of spirits" (Prov.
16:2).
Reply to Objection 4: The penitent and the innocent are related as
exceeding and exceeded. For whether innocent or penitent, those are
the better and better loved who have most grace. Other things being
equal, innocence is the nobler thing and the more beloved. God is
said to rejoice more over the penitent than over the innocent, because
often penitents rise from sin more cautious, humble, and fervent.
Hence Gregory commenting on these words (Hom. 34 in Ev.) says
that, "In battle the general loves the soldier who after flight
returns and bravely pursues the enemy, more than him who has never
fled, but has never done a brave deed."
Or it may be answered that gifts of grace, equal in themselves, are
more as conferred on the penitent, who deserved punishment, than as
conferred on the innocent, to whom no punishment was due; just as a
hundred pounds [marcoe] are a greater gift to a poor man than to a
king.
Reply to Objection 5: Since God's will is the cause of goodness
in things, the goodness of one who is loved by God is to be reckoned
according to the time when some good is to be given to him by divine
goodness. According therefore to the time, when there is to be given
by the divine will to the predestined sinner a greater good, the sinner
is better; although according to some other time he is the worse;
because even according to some time he is neither good nor bad.
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