The Literal Meaning of Genesis (continued)
BOOK ELEVEN 147 from the pursuit of the common good to one's own individual good out of a destructive self-love.
In the stricter meaning of the word, avarice is what is more commonly called love of money. But St. Paul in using the word intended to go from the special to the general meaning and wished avarice to be understood in the broad sense of the word when he said, Avarice is the root of all evils. For it was by this vice that the Devil fell, and yet he certainly did not love money but rather his own power. Hence, it is perverse love of self that deprives (privat) this puffed-up spirit of the company of the holy angels, and his wretched state oppresses him as he yearns to have his fill of iniquity. In another place, then, where St. Paul said, For men will be lovers of self, he immediately added J/overs of money,*? going from the general notion of avarice, of which pride is the source, to this special sense, which is applied properly only to men. For men would not be lovers of money unless they thought that their excellence depended on their wealth. Opposed to this disease is charity, who seeks not her own,*> that is, does not rejoice in her own (privata) excellence; it is right to say, therefore, that she is not puffed up.*4
20. There are, then, two loves,*> of which one is holy, the other unclean; one turned towards the neighbor, the other centered on self; one looking to the common good, keeping in view the society of saints in heaven, the other bringing the common good under its own power, arrogantly looking to domination; one subject to God, the other rivaling Him; one tranquil, the other tempestuous; one peaceful, the other seditious; one preferring truth to false praise, the other eager for praise of any sort, one friendly, the other envious; one wishing for its neighbor what it wishes for itself, the other seeking to subject its neighbor to itself; one looking for its neighbor's advantage in ruling its neighbor, the other looking for its own advantage. These two loves started among the angels, one love in the good angels, the other in the bad; and they have marked the limits of the two cities established among men under the sublime and wonderful providence of God, who administers and orders all that He creates; and one city is the city of the just, and the other city is the city of the wicked.