Page:Ninety-nine homilies of S. Thomas Aquinas upon the epistles and gospels for forty-nine Sundays of the Christian year (IA ninetyninehomili00thom).pdf/108

 God. For so great is the goodness of God, that if He never had done or never will do any good to man, nevertheless he ought ever to love Him.'’ (2) On account of His love—as in text, “ We love God because He first loved us. S. August., “I, wretched, as much as possible, ought to love my God, Who made me what I was not; Who redeemed me when I was about to perish; Who when I was sold on account of my sins, gave Himself for me, and Who loved me so much that He gave the price of His blood for me.” (3) We ought to love God on account of our profit, for He has prepared good things which are not able to be spoken of for those who love Him —1 Cor. ii. 9, “ Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.”

III. On the third head it is to be noted that we ought to love our neighbour for three reasons. (1) On account of the command (S. John xiii. 34), “ A new commandment I give unto you.” (2) On account of the example of nature, for we see that all things naturally love similar things— Eccl. xiii. 15, 16, “ Every beast loveth its like, so also every man him that is nearest to himself : all flesh shall consort with the like to itself.” (3) On account of the evil which follows him who does not love his neighbour, because he incurs the death of sin and hell—1 S. John iii. 14, “ He that loveth not his brother abideth in death;” from which death may He deliver us, &c.

Four considerations are to be noted in these words. Firstly, the prosperity of the wicked in the present life : “ thou in thy lifetime receivedst the good things.” Secondly, the short adversity of the just in this world: “Lazarus evil