Thus Thomas’s, or rather, say the Christian doctrine as to angels, becomes a corollary necessary to Christian theism, and true at least symbolically. But—and this is the last point as to these ministering spirits—do the angels who love without passion, grieve and suffer when those over whom they minister are lost?
“Angels grieve neither over the sins nor the punishment of men. For, as says Augustine, sadness and grief arise only from what contravenes the will. But nothing happens in the world that is contrary to the will of the angels and other blessed ones. For their will is entirely fixed (totaliter inhaeret) in the order of the divine righteousness (Justitiae); and nothing takes place in the world, save what takes place and is permitted by the same. And so, in brief, nothing takes place in the world contrary to the will of the blessed” (Qu. cxiii. Art. 7).
We come to man. He has will, and free will or choice, as the angels have. Will is part of the intellectual nature: it is as the intellectivus appetitus. But man differs from the angels in possessing appetites which belong to his sense-nature and do not perceive the good in its common aspects; because sense does not apprehend the universal, but only the particular.[608] Sometimes Thomas speaks of amor as including every form of desire, intellectual or pertaining to the world of sense. “The first movement of will and of any appetitive faculty (virtus) is amor.”[609] So in this most general signification amor “is something belonging to appetite; for the object of both is the good.”
“The first effect of the desirable (appetibilis) upon the appetitus, is called amor; thence follows desiderium, or the movement toward the desirable; and at last the quies which is gaudium. Since then amor consists in an effect upon the appetitus, it is evidently passio; most properly speaking when it relates to the yearning element (concupiscibile), but less properly when it relates to will” (Pars prima, Qu. xxvi. Art. 2).
Further distinguishing definitions are now in order:
“Four names are applied to what pertains to the same: amor, dilectio, caritas, et amicitia. Of the three first, amor has the broadest meaning. For all dilectio or caritas is amor; but not conversely. Dilectio adds to amor a precedent choice (electionem praecedentem) as its name indicates. Hence dilectio is not in the concupiscent nature, but in the will, and therefore in the rational nature. Caritas adds to amor a certain perfectionem amoris, inasmuch as what is loved, is esteemed as very precious, as the name shows” (Ibid. Art. 3).
Moreover, amor may be divided into amor amicitiae, whereby we wish good to the amicus, and amor concupiscentiae, whereby properly we desire a good to ourselves.
The Good is the object and, in that sense, the cause, of amor (Qu. xxvii.).
“But love requires a cognition of the good which is loved. Therefore the Philosopher says, that bodily sight is the cause of amoris sensitivi. Likewise contemplation of spiritual beauty or goodness is the cause of amoris spiritualis. Thus, therefore, cognition is the cause of love, inasmuch as the good cannot be loved unless known.”
From this broad conception of amor the argument rises to amor in its purest phases, which correspond to the highest modes of knowledge man is capable of. They are considered in their nature, in their causes, and effects. It is evident whither we are travelling in this matter.