What does our Lord mean when he says, "you shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Mt 22:39)? In this short post I'd like to look at St Thomas Aquinas' commnetary on this section of Matthew's gospel and offer some thoughts along the way. Here's where I'm reading from.
It should not be understood to mean as much as yourself, for this would be against the order of charity, but ‘as yourself’, i.e., for the same end as yourself, or in the same way as yourself.
By this Aquinas means that we are to love ourselves more than our neighbor. In the Summa he writes: "it seems to follow that man's love for himself is the model of his love for another.But the model exceeds the copy. Therefore, out of charity, a man ought to love himself more than his neighbor" (source).
For the same end, because you should not love yourself for your own sake, but for God’s sake; so also your neighbor. The Apostle: do all to the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31). Likewise by the fact that you love yourself, you love yourself in that in which you will good to yourself and such a good as is in accord with you and with the law of God, and this is the good of righteousness. So also you should choose the good of righteousness for your neighbor; hence you should love him either because he is righteous, or that he may be righteous.
That last line above sums pretty much everyone up, doesn't it? Even the knuckle heads on Twitter.
Likewise you should love him in the same way as yourself, because when I say, I love this man, I say I will good to him.
This is Aristotle's understanding of love which Aquinas rightly adopts. Today many people think, "I love you" means, "I feel a strong desire for you," or, "I don't want to live without you," but really these two statements are still about the "lover"—what he feels, what he wants—and not the beloved. But If by, "I love you" I mean, "I want your good and will do what is reasonable to bring it about." That's a love worth giving yourself over to. This distinction between what we should mean by love and what love is often taken to mean shows why fornication, adultery, etc. cannot be acts of love. Both are harmed by these actions. Anyway, moving on...
Hence the act of love falls upon two things: either on the one who is good, or on that good which I will to myself; hence I love this man, because I will him to be good for me. So some love temporal goods because they know that those goods are for them; but some love a thing because it is good in itself. And you should love yourself in this way, and also your neighbor.
In wanting my wife as a good for me I don't thereby not want her good. The two aren't mututally exclusive. But if I want her as a good without wanting her good, this is not love.
Would "love" to hear your thoughts below.
