Annotation CCLXXXIV

”Let us work good toward all, but especially toward the domestics of faith.” — Galatians 6:10

Whether all men are to be loved with an equal affection of charity.

Augustine, in the exposition of the epistle to the Galatians, seems to hint that all men are to be loved with an equal affection of love, although in effect — that is, in the exhibition of service — a distinction is to be kept. “For to all,” he says, “eternal life is to be wished with equal love, although the same offices of love cannot be exhibited to all.” Which sentence, expressing more clearly [in] the first book On Christian Doctrine, chapter 28, he says: “ALL men are to be loved equally: but since thou canst not be of profit to all, those especially are to be consulted [cared for] who, by the opportunities of places and times, or of any matters, are more closely joined to thee, as [by] a certain lot.” And [in] the eighth book On the Trinity, chapter 8, affirming that all are to be loved equally as ourselves, he says: “NOR let that question move [us], how much we ought to spend upon the charity of a brother, how much [upon that] of God — incomparably more to God than to ourselves; but to a brother, as much as to ourselves.” To this sentence seems opposed [that] of Origen,

—and the definition of nearly all the theologians, establishing, in the order of charity, [that] first God is to be loved, secondly [our] parents, then [our] children, but afterward [our] domestics [household]. The Master of the Sentences, [in] book 3, distinction 29, discussing these passages, writes these [things]: “[THAT which] Augustine says — that all are equally to be loved, and eternal life is to be wished for all with equal love — can be so taken, that the equality be referred not to the affection, but to the good which is wished them: because by charity we ought to wish for all, that they may merit equal goods, as the Apostle says, ‘I wish all men to be as [I am] myself.’ For the perfection of the greater [ones] is to be wished for the lesser, that they themselves may be made perfect, and so may merit an equal beatitude: or ‘with equal love,’ that is, with the same love, all are to be loved. Likewise [that] which he says, ‘that we love [our] brethren as much as ourselves,’ can be so understood — that is, that we love [our] brethren unto as much good as [we love] ourselves: that we wish them as much good in eternity, as [we wish] for ourselves; although not with so great an affection. Or there [in the word] ‘as much’ [there] is [a matter] of similitude, not of quantity.”