|
Objection 1: It seems that fear decreases when charity increases.
For Augustine says (In prim. canon. Joan. Tract. ix): "The
more charity increases, the more fear decreases."
Objection 2: Further, fear decreases when hope increases. But
charity increases when hope increases, as stated above (Question
17, Article 8). Therefore fear decreases when charity
increases.
Objection 3: Further, love implies union, whereas fear implies
separation. Now separation decreases when union increases. Therefore
fear decreases when the love of charity increases.
On the contrary, Augustine says (Qq. lxxxiii, qu. 36) that
"the fear of God not only begins but also perfects wisdom, whereby we
love God above all things, and our neighbor as ourselves."
I answer that, Fear is twofold, as stated above (Articles
2,4); one is filial fear, whereby a son fears to offend his father
or to be separated from him; the other is servile fear, whereby one
fears punishment.
Now filial fear must needs increase when charity increases, even as an
effect increases with the increase of its cause. For the more one
loves a man, the more one fears to offend him and to be separated from
him.
On the other hand servile fear, as regards its servility, is entirely
cast out when charity comes, although the fear of punishment remains as
to its substance, as stated above (Article 6). This fear
decreases as charity increases, chiefly as regards its act, since the
more a man loves God, the less he fears punishment; first, because
he thinks less of his own good, to which punishment is opposed;
secondly, because, the faster he clings, the more confident he is of
the reward, and, consequently the less fearful of punishment.
Reply to Objection 1: Augustine speaks there of the fear of
punishment.
Reply to Objection 2: It is fear of punishment that decreases when
hope increases; but with the increase of the latter filial fear
increases, because the more certainly a man expects to obtain a good by
another's help, the more he fears to offend him or to be separated
from him.
Reply to Objection 3: Filial fear does not imply separation from
God, but submission to Him, and shuns separation from that
submission. Yet, in a way, it implies separation, in the point of
not presuming to equal oneself to Him, and of submitting to Him,
which separation is to be observed even in charity, in so far as a man
loves God more than himself and more than aught else. Hence the
increase of the love of charity implies not a decrease but an increase
in the reverence of fear.
|
|