God is Love

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Summa Theologiae I, Q20, A1, and SCG I.91
 
In this article, Thomas uses the word ‘amor’ for love, which is a generic term for loving attitudes and relationships. In the third objection to article 2, Thomas distinguishes two kinds of love: the love of desire (concupiscence) and the love of friendship (amicity). Friendship cannot between an irrational creature and anything else, since it is possible only if both parties can love the other. God loves creatures with the love of desire (concupiscence), since He uses them for the good of creation. God loves all creatures with this love, since all creatures, insofar as they exist, are good. To every existing thing, God wills some good. To love something is to will good to that thing, so God must love everything.
 
God, of course, has no passions, since He has no passive potentialities. In God, love is pure act, God’s delight in His own perfect goodness, and His love for all creatures insofar as they are expressions of His super-abundant goodness.
 
Is love a passion? Thomas says, No, not in general. Sensual love, the first act of the sensitive appetite, is a passion. But love as an act of the will in desiring or delighting in some good is purely active.
 
In article 4, Thomas argues that God loves better things more than He loves worse things. A hard case (objection 4) for this claim is Jesus’ pronouncement that there is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 100 righteous men (Luke 15:7). Surely the righteous men are “better” and so deserve more love. Thomas replies that penitent sinners often rise from sin “more cautious, humble, and fervent.” A penitent sinner who has been forgiven might experience thereby a greater love for God and so receive more love in return.
 
In SCG I.91, paragraph 6, Thomas introduces an important component of the love of friendship that seems to be missing in the Summa Theologiae: the fact that to love is to move toward union with the beloved. Thomas argues that God moves all things to union with Himself, insofar as they are capable of such union. For rational creatures, that ultimately takes the form of the beatific vision.