Commentaria in Deuteronomium
From the Hebrews the Egyptians received this mystery, among whom this oracle of Serapis to king Thulis is extant in Suidas under the word Thulis:
First God, then the Word, and the Spirit with them. These are connatural, and meeting together in one.
5. THOU SHALT LOVE THE LORD THY GOD.—The Hebrew, Chaldee and Septuagint have, “and thou shalt love.” Jansenius on chapter lxxi of the Gospel Concord, and others, lay the force on the “and,” as if to say: Because our God is one, as went before, therefore thou shalt place and lay all thy hope and love in one God, not in many. But “and” among the Hebrews it is often redundant; and so our Interpreter here omitted it as redundant.
This is the most eminent precept of the most eminent virtue, namely charity; for as among metals gold excels, among elements fire, among heavens the empyrean heaven, among planets the sun, among angels the Seraphim, so among virtues charity, or the love of God and of neighbour, excels and surpasses. For it is the most radiant gold, by which heavenly goods are purchased: it is a heavenly fire, which inflames the minds of all around it: it is the empyrean heaven, in which God and the Blessed dwell: it is the sun, which enlightens, fructifies and quickens all things: it is the seraphic virtue, which made St. Francis and others, burning with charity, burning Seraphim. Would you have more? Take eight praises of charity: first, charity is as a queen, ruling and moderating the other virtues.
Secondly, it is as a mother nourishing, refreshing, strengthening and sustaining the other virtues, says Laurence Justinian, book On the Tree of Life, chapter ii.
Thirdly, charity makes us friends and sons of God, and his heirs and co-heirs of Christ; hence St. John says, epistle 1, chapter iv: “Everyone that loveth is born of God.”
Fourthly, charity alone divides the sheep from the goats: “It divides between the sons of the eternal kingdom and the sons of eternal perdition,” says St. Augustine, On the Trinity, book XV, chapter xviii.
Fifthly, charity is as the form and soul of the virtues, and gives them the power of meriting; hence St. Augustine says: “Charity alone leads to God.”
Sixthly, charity is the bond of perfection, Colossians iii, 14, which binds us most closely to Christ and to our neighbours; hence Paul says: “Who shall separate us from the charity of Christ?” etc.; and St. Bernard, sermon 83 on the Canticle: “Conformity with the Word in charity,” he says, “weds the soul to the Word.”
Seventhly, charity is an inextinguishable fire, which conquers and overcomes all things, even hard as iron. For love conquers all things; and: “Love is strong as death, jealousy is hard as hell.” “What is more violent than love? Love triumphs over God,” says St. Bernard, sermon 64 on the Canticle. Charity commands hatred, anger, fear, covetousness, eyes, ears, hands, etc., and directs all things to God.
Eighthly, charity, like an eagle the sun, that is, God, gazes on him with unbent eyes; and flies to him on two fiery wings, namely the love of God and of neighbour, says St. Augustine on Psalm cxxi. Hence the same Augustine on 1 John iv: “Once,” he says, “a short precept is given thee: Love, and do what thou wilt.”
WITH THY WHOLE HEART, AND WITH THY WHOLE SOUL, AND WITH THY WHOLE STRENGTH.—Note: for “with thy whole strength” the Hebrew is bechol meodecha, that is, with all thy very much, which the Chaldee refers to external goods, and translates, with all thy substance, or with all thy riches; but better our version and the Septuagint translate, ex holes dynameos sou, that is, with all thy power, that is, strength, which St. Luke, chapter x, verse 27, translates, with all thy strength, and with all thy mind. But St. Matthew, chapter xxii, verse 37, translates, with thy whole mind. Thou shalt love God, then, with all thy very much, that is, thou shalt love God with all thy faculty and possibility, and, as Vatablus translates, with all thy manhood.
You will ask whether and how these three are distinguished, namely thou shalt love God with thy whole heart, with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength, that is, with all thy forces?
First, Rabanus here: The rational soul, he says, which consists of memory, intellect and love, commends the faith of the Holy Trinity in this, that it says: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength, as though to love with the whole heart were to love with the whole memory, which is ascribed to the Father; with the whole soul, with the whole intellect, which is given to the Son; with the whole strength, with the whole will, which is accommodated to the Holy Ghost. But Nyssen, in the book On the Creation of Man, takes by soul the vegetative part of the soul, by heart the sentient, by mind the intelligent.
Again St. Augustine, On Christian Doctrine book I, chapter xxii, takes by heart the thoughts, by soul the life, by mind, or strength, the intellect, as though God here commanded that we bring all these to him who bestowed them on us. Hear St. Augustine: “When he says: Thou shalt love with thy whole heart, with thy whole soul, with thy whole mind, he left no part of our life which ought to be idle and as it were give place to wish to enjoy some other thing, but whatever else comes into the mind to be loved, it is snatched thither whither the whole impetus of love runs. For so, loving his neighbour as himself, he refers the whole love of himself and of him to that love of God, which suffers no rivulet to be drawn out of it, by the draining of which it would be lessened.”
Bernard expounds it thus: “To me,” he says, “it seems that the love of the heart pertains to zeal of affection, the love of the soul to industry or the judgment of reason, but the love of strength to constancy or vigour of mind; as if he said: Love the Lord thy God with the whole and full affection of the heart; love with the whole vigilance and circumspection of reason; love also with all thy strength, so that thou fear not even to die for love of him. For love is strong as death, jealousy is hard as hell.”
Thirdly, and better, these three according to the Hebrew phrase may be taken more simply as signifying one and the same thing; for this triple repetition is made only for greater energy and inculcation. The sense is therefore, as if to say: Thou shalt love God with the whole will, and with all its affection and endeavour. A sign of this sense, and that it is the genuine one, is that Scripture from these three sometimes puts three, sometimes only two, as in chapter x, verse 12: “That thou love him, etc., with thy whole heart and with thy whole soul.” Similar is 4 Kings xxiii, 3. Sometimes it adds a fourth, namely “with thy whole mind,” as is plain from Luke x, 27. All these, therefore, signify the same thing, namely: Thou shalt love God with thy whole heart, whole soul, whole strength and whole mind, that is, with thy whole spirit and affection, so that thou fulfil all the commandments of God, and give no part of thy love to an idol or to anything contrary to God, as though thou hadst many gods. For thy God is one; therefore thy love is not to be divided among many gods, but one God is to be loved by thee, and him alone is to be enjoyed by thee, as St. Augustine says, book I On Christian Doctrine, chapter xxii; to him, therefore, thou must refer all thy things, so that in general thou wishest him to be the end of all thy thoughts, actions and loves, that thou mayest deserve to come to where, in continual and most intent act, thou mayest love God for ever;
which love cannot be rendered here, but will be given as a reward in heaven; wherefore neither is it commanded here according to the letter (for it is the end of the precept, which by the precept itself is not commanded, but only the means to the end), but is only insinuated according to the anagogical sense. In which sense St. Augustine takes these words, in his book On the Spirit and the Letter, last chapter, where he denies that this precept of the love of God can be fulfilled by us in this life; as he also asserts in the same place that the precept, Thou shalt not covet, cannot be fulfilled by us here, but that we tend to fulfil it in heaven, namely according to the anagogical sense; for according to the literal sense it is only commanded that we try to pluck out evil desires altogether, and this we can try in this life; but according to the anagogical sense it is intimated that there be no such desires in us: which is not commanded to be fulfilled here, but will be the reward of the present struggle in heaven.