22. Inequality is good
22. INEQUALITY IS GOOD
Is God an egalitarian? Does He love all these many things He created equally?
Augustine says: God loves all things that He has made, and amongst them rational creatures more, and of these especially those who are members of His only-begotten Son; and much more than all, His only-begotten Son Himself.
I answer that. . . in a twofold way anything may be loved more or less. In one way on the part of the act of the will itself, which is more or less intense. In this way God does not love some things more than others, because He loves all things by an act of the will that is one, simple, and always the same. In another way, on the part of the good itself that a person wills for the beloved. In this way, we are said to love that one more than another for whom we will a greater good, though our will is not more intense. In this way we must needs say that God loves some things more than others. For since God’s love is the cause of goodness in things, as has been said, no one thing would be better than another if God did not will greater good for one than for another (I,20,3).
We will find this diversity and inequality and hierarchy even in Heaven (perhaps especially in Heaven): Of those who see the essence of God, one sees Him more perfectly than another . . . because one intellect will have a greater power or faculty to see God than another. The faculty of seeing God . . . does not belong to the created intellect naturally, but is given to it by the light of glory, which establishes the intellect in a kind of deiformity (Godlikeness). . . . Hence the intellect which has more of the light of glory will see God more perfectly.
And he will have a fuller participation in the light of glory who has more charity; because where there is more charity, there is the more desire, and desire in a certain degree makes the one desiring apt and prepared to receive the object desired. Hence he who possesses the more charity will see God the more perfectly, and will be the more beatified (1,12,6).
God is our standard. What God wills, we should will. What God loves, we should love.
And God loves inequality, hierarchy, the superiority of one thing over another. For that is the natural order, and He designed and willed and created that order.
Therefore we should accept, and will, and love this order too. Not in politics—that’s our invention—but in nature—that’s God’s invention. God loved natural inequality into being. He made it.
God is just. Justice consists in two things, not just one: it consists in equality and inequality. Justice means giving each his due, and that means treating equals equally and unequals unequally.
How do we apply this principle? In three ways:
(1) All men are equal in essence, in sharing essential human nature; therefore humans have equal rights and equal value in everything essential.
(2) All men are also unequal in properties connected with the human essence, properties that are in all human beings but in different degrees, such as IQ, strength, wisdom, virtue, beauty, health, etc. Therefore the wiser, e.g., have more right to rule than the less wise, and the virtuous have more right to be admired and imitated than the vicious.
(3) And all men are also unequal in accidents, such as wealth, political power, good luck, and success in sports. These therefore are also naturally and rightly unequal and to be treated unequally. When Boston beats Vancouver in hockey, Vancouver should not be given half the Stanley Cup.
But even here there is always the essentially human, and therefore the essentially equal, dimension that deserves respect; and it is always the more important dimension since it flows from the essence and the essence is always more important than the accidents or properties.
Above all, the reason for egalitarianism should never be envy. There is no envy in Heaven, even though there is inequality. There, you will rejoice that another is more blessed than you.
Be Heavenly here.