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De Trinitate

VIII.

[VIII 12] Nemo dicat: ‚Non novi quod diligam.‘ Diligat fratrem et diligat eandem dilectionem; magis enim novit dilectionem qua diligit quam fratrem quem diligit. Ecce iam potest notiorem deum habere quam fratrem, plane notiorem quia praesentiorem, notiorem quia interiorem, notiorem quia certiorem. Amplectere dilectionem deum et dilectione amplectere deum. Ipsa est dilectio quae omnes bonos angelos et omnes dei servos consociat vinculo sanctitatis, nosque et illos coniungit invicem nobis et subiungit sibi. Quanto igitur saniores sumus a tumore superbiae tanto sumus dilectione pleniores. Et quo nisi deo plenus est, qui plenus est dilectione?

‚At enim caritatem video et, quantum possum, eam mente conspicio et credo scripturae dicenti: Quoniam deus caritas est, et qui manet in caritate in deo manet. Sed cum eam video, non in ea video trinitatem.‘ Immo vero vides trinitatem, si caritatem vides. Sed commonebo, si potero, ut videre te videas; adsit tantum ipsa ut moveamur caritate ad aliquod bonum. Quia cum diligimus caritatem, aliquid diligentem diligimus propter hoc ispum quia diligit aliquid. Ergo quid diligit caritas ut possit etiam ipsa caritas diligi? Caritas enim non est quae nihil diligit. Si autem se ipsam diligit, diligat aliquid oportet ut caritate se diligat. Sicut enim verbum indicat aliquid, indicat etiam se ipsum, sed non se verbum indicat nisi se aliquid indicare indicet; sic et caritas diligit quidem se, sed nisi se aliquid diligentem diligat, non caritate se diligit. Quid ergo diligit caritas nisi quod caritate diligimus? Id autem ut a proximo provehamur frater est. Dilectionem autem fraternam, quantum commendet Iohannes apostolus, attendamus. Qui diligit, inquit, fratrem suum in lumine manet, et scandalum in eo non est. Manifestum est quod iustitiae perfectionem in fratris dilectione posuerit; nam in quo scandalum non est, utique perfectus est. Et tamen videtur dilectionem dei tacuisse. Quod numquam faceret nisi quia in ipsa fraterna dilectione vult intellegi deum. Apertissime enim in eadem epistula paulo post ita dicit: Dilectissimi, diligamus invicem quia dilectio ex deo est, et omnis qui diligit ex deo natus est et cognovit deum. Qui non diligit non cognovit deum, quia deus dilectio est. Ista contextio satis aperteque declarat eandem ipsam fraternam dilectionem (nam fraterna dilectio est qua diligimus invicem) non solum ex deo, sed etiam deum esse tanta auctoritate praedicari. Cum ergo de dilectione diligimus fratrem, de deo diligimus fratrem; nec fieri potest ut eandem dilectionem non praecipue diligamus qua fratrem diligimus. Unde colligitur duo illa praecepta non posse sine invicem. Quoniam quippe deus dilectio est, deum certe diligit qui diligit dilectionem; dilectionem autem necesse est diligat qui diligit fratrem. Et ideo quod paulo post ait: Non potest deum diligere quem non videt, qui fratrem quem videt non diligit, quia haec illi causa est non videndi deum: quod non diligit fratrem. Qui enim non diligit fratrem non est in dilectione, et qui non est in dilectione non est in deo, quia deus dilectio est. Porro qui non est in deo non est in lumine, quia deus lumen est, et tenebrae in eo non sunt ullae. Qui ergo non est in lumine, quid mirum si non videt lumen, id est non videt deum, quia in tenebris est? Fratrem autem videt humano visu quo videri deus non potest. Sed si eum quem videt humano visu, spiritali caritate diligeret, videret deum qui est ipsa caritas visu interiore quo videri potest. Itaque qui fratrem quem videt non diligit, deum quem propterea non videt quia deus dilectio est, qua caret qui fratrem non diligit, quomodo potest diligere? Nec illa iam quaestio moveat: quantum caritatis fratri debeamus impendere, quantum deo. Fratri enim quantum nobis ipsis; nos autem ipsos tanto magis diligimus quanto magis diligimus deum.

Ex una igitur eademque caritate deum proximumque diligimus, sed deum propter deum, nos autem et proximum propter deum.

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The Fifteen Books of Aurelius Augustinus, Bishop of Hippo, on the Trinity

Chapter 8.--That He Who Loves His Brother, Loves God; Because He Loves Love Itself, Which is of God, and is God.

12. Let no one say, I do not know what I love. Let him love his brother, and he will love the same love. For he knows the love with which he loves, more than the brother whom he loves. So now he can know God more than he knows his brother: clearly known more, because more present; known more, because more within him; known more, because more certain. Embrace the love of God, and by love embrace God. That is love itself, which associates together all good angels and all the servants of God by the bond of sanctity, and joins together us and them mutually with ourselves, and joins us subordinately to Himself. In proportion, therefore, as we are healed from the swelling of pride, in such proportion are we more filled with love; and with what is he full, who is full of love, except with God? Well, but you will say, I see love, and, as far as I am able, I gaze upon it with my mind, and I believe the Scripture, saying, that "God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God;" ¹ but when I see love, I do not see in it the Trinity. Nay, but thou dost see the Trinity if thou seest love. But if I can I will put you in mind, that thou mayest see that thou seest it; only let itself be present, that we may be moved by love to something good. Since, when we love love, we love one who loves something, and that on account of this very thing, that he does love something; therefore what does love love, that love itself also may be loved? For that is not love which loves nothing. But if it loves itself it must love something, that it may love itself as love. For as a word indicates something, and indicates also itself, but does not indicate itself to be a word, unless it indicates that it does indicate something; so love also loves indeed itself, but except it love itself as loving something, it loves itself not as love. What therefore does love love, except that which we love with love? But this, to begin from that which is nearest to us, is our brother. And listen how greatly the Apostle John commends brotherly love: "He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him." ² It is manifest that he placed the perfection of righteousness in the love of our brother; for he certainly is perfect in whom "there is no occasion of stumbling." And yet he seems to have passed by the love of God in silence; which he never would have done, unless because he intends God to be understood in brotherly love itself. For in this same epistle, a little further on, he says most plainly thus: "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love." And this passage declares sufficiently and plainly, that this same brotherly love itself (for that is brotherly love by which we love each other) is set forth by so great authority, not only to be from God, but also to be God. When, therefore, we love our brother from love, we love our brother from God; neither can it be that we do not love above all else that same love by which we love our brother: whence it may be gathered that these two commandments cannot exist unless interchangeably. For since "God is love," he who loves love certainly loves God; but he must needs love love, who loves his brother. And so a little after he says, "For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen"? ³ because the reason that he does not see God is, that he does not love his brother. For he who does not love his brother, abideth not in love; and he who abideth not in love, abideth not in God, because God is love. Further, he who abideth not in God, abideth not in light; for "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." ⁴ He therefore who abideth not in light, what wonder is it if he does not see light, that is, does not see God, because he is in darkness? But he sees his brother with human sight, with which God cannot be seen. But if he loved with spiritual love him whom he sees with human sight, he would see God, who is love itself, with the inner sight by which He can be seen. Therefore he who does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God, whom on that account he does not see, because God is love, which he has not who does not love his brother? Neither let that further question disturb us, how much of love we ought to spend upon our brother, and how much upon God: incomparably more upon God than upon ourselves, but upon our brother as much as upon ourselves; and we love ourselves so much the more, the more we love God. Therefore we love God and our neighbor from one and the same love; but we love God for the sake of God, and ourselves and our neighbors for the sake of God.