Charity is more excellent than all other virtues because it is not self-seeking.
Since God is both infinite and simple, His love for Himself is identical with Himself. It is therefore infinite - a boundless ocean of love, a limitless uncreated fire of love embracing forever the supreme goodness which is God. Charity - man's share in this infinite love - is a created gift. It is a created, limited participation in divine love. Because man is a creature because his will is created will, he cannot love God with that same infinite love with which God love Himself. But through charity he can love God as God loves Himself, that is, he can possess God as the source of infinite happiness, he can possess God as He is in Himself, as the supreme
Good.
Charity is a virtue whose rule or measure is God Himself as the supreme Good. It unites man to God Himself as the supreme Good. It is a virtue distinct from from all other virtues because its object is God Himself considered as the object of eternal happiness. It is more excellent than all other virtues because it is not self-seeking. It rests in God simply because He is God, the supreme Good. It is more excellent than the moral virtues because they are concerned only with the means that lead man to his goal, whereas charity attains the goal itself, God as He is Himself. It is more excellent than the theological virtues of faith and hope because faith and hope attain God in so far as we derive from Him the knowledge of truth or the assurance of happiness, whereas charity attains God to rest in Him without any thought or desire for personal gain or advantage.
Moreover, since charity attains God precisely as the goal of man, no other virtue can be truly perfect unless its acts are directed by charity to the ultimate goal of all human activity, God as He is in Himself. Human acts of prudence or justice or even of faith or hope do not lead man to his ultimate goal unless they are directed to that goal by charity which unites man to God, the goal of all human act.
Because the object of charity is God considered as the goal or end of human life, charity is a virtue of the will. It is the will which seeks goals, above all the ultimate goal of all human activity. Charity then, which unites man to the ultimate goal, must be a virtue of the rational appetite, or will of man.
Picture credit: 'Good Samaritan' by J.F. Millet, National Museum of Wales
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