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Objection 1: It would seem that God cannot be loved wholly. For
love follows knowledge. Now God cannot be wholly known by us, since
this would imply comprehension of Him. Therefore He cannot be wholly
loved by us.
Objection 2: Further, love is a kind of union, as Dionysius shows
(Div. Nom. iv). But the heart of man cannot be wholly united to
God, because "God is greater than our heart" (1 Jn.
3:20). Therefore God cannot be loved wholly.
Objection 3: Further, God loves Himself wholly. If therefore
He be loved wholly by another, this one will love Him as much as God
loves Himself. But this is unreasonable. Therefore God cannot be
wholly loved by a creature.
On the contrary, It is written (Dt. 6:5): "Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with thy whole heart."
I answer that, Since love may be considered as something between
lover and beloved, when we ask whether God can be wholly loved, the
question may be understood in three ways, first so that the
qualification "wholly" be referred to the thing loved, and thus God
is to be loved wholly, since man should love all that pertains to
God.
Secondly, it may be understood as though "wholly" qualified the
lover: and thus again God ought to be loved wholly, since man ought
to love God with all his might, and to refer all he has to the love of
God, according to Dt. 6:5: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with thy whole heart."
Thirdly, it may be understood by way of comparison of the lover to the
thing loved, so that the mode of the lover equal the mode of the thing
loved. This is impossible: for, since a thing is lovable in
proportion to its goodness, God is infinitely lovable, since His
goodness is infinite. Now no creature can love God infinitely,
because all power of creatures, whether it be natural or infused, is
finite.
This suffices for the Replies to the Objections, because the first
three objections consider the question in this third sense, while the
last takes it in the second sense.
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