Is it right to say that we should love every good thing in the degree of its goodness?

[fakename]

Is it right to say that we should love every good thing in the degree and/or rank of its goodness?

And that we should dislike it the more it loses this degree?

For instance should you love every pleasure but not when that pleasure leads to your own destruction because you should love yourself above pleasure?

Likewise a thing should not be loved to such an extent that it assumes exaggerated importance in relation to other good things (e.g. God should not be loved above the world in the sense that love of God would necessitate the corruption of nature)?

 

[Aelred_Minor]

It’s not just the thing’s goodness but also its relation to us.

 

[Corpus_Cristi]

This question is far more philosophical in its nature than it is moral. You would probably get better answers if you asked this in the Philosophy Forum, but that’s just my take. I’m not going to answer because the Church doesn’t teach us how much we should like anything. It would be conjecture and ultimately leave you with only one of a plethora of possible answers to this question.

God bless,

Rob

 

[John21652]

Is it right to say that we should love every good thing in the degree and/or rank of its goodness?

And that we should dislike it the more it loses this degree?

For instance should you love every pleasure but not when that pleasure leads to your own destruction because you should love yourself above pleasure?

Likewise a thing should not be loved to such an extent that it assumes exaggerated importance in relation to other good things (e.g. God should not be loved above the world in the sense that love of God would necessitate the corruption of nature)?

How does one rank the ‘goodness’ of a thing?
You see, I have terrible trouble with Broccoli.

 

[thistle]

Is it right to say that we should love every good thing in the degree and/or rank of its goodness?

And that we should dislike it the more it loses this degree?

For instance should you love every pleasure but not when that pleasure leads to your own destruction because you should love yourself above pleasure?

Likewise a thing should not be loved to such an extent that it assumes exaggerated importance in relation to other good things (e.g. God should not be loved above the world in the sense that love of God would necessitate the corruption of nature)?

Under your thought process we should then hate our enemies whereas Jesus told us to love them and pray for them!

 

[fakename]

“Under your thought process we should then hate our enemies whereas Jesus told us to love them and pray for them!”

Well, we should love our enemies not as such, but as human beings and that is also why my question should be more intelligible on this forum as “should we love/hate people/things in different ways?”.

For instance, if I dislike broccoli because it holds a bad flavor, but I know that it is good for me, then should I not eat it anyways because I know that good health is better than bad taste? Is that the thought process?

Now this same process could lead to embarrassing results (like my ever-so-overused example of praising hitler’s mustache). But then again, perhaps it is because I don’t know enough about praise itself that i fall into embarrassment. For instance, if only I knew that praise is not an appropriate response to all good things, then I would not have praised the good of the mustache. So that in general, it is my fault and not the principle’s fault, that I have made moral mistakes…

So is it true that one should love that which is good and not love that which is evil, and if good and evil exist in the same thing but in different ways or in any combination whatsoever, should your love/hate be proportioned to those different combinations and modes or should you unequivocally dislike that which has a grave enough fault and love unequivocally, that which is good enough?

 

[Viola_Incognita]

“God should not be loved above the world”

How does one formulate a statement that says, “God should not be loved”? God is love.

The first commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and will all your soul, and with all your mind.”

“Love of God would necessitate the corruption of nature”

Nature was corrupted by the Fall. Loving God is a commandment.

I think you need to go back to basics.

 

[fakename]

user Viola Incognita:

How does one formulate a statement that says, “God should not be loved”? God is love.

The first commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and will all your soul, and with all your mind.”

Bad use of words on my count; I just meant one shouldn’t be fanatical. I also meant that per se, God’s glory does not imply that the world should be destroyed.