Some Chapters on Charity.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

The order according to which we should regulate our love of our neighbour. The extent and reasons for our love even of bad men.

It is true, as we have before said, that the virtue of charity requires us to love all men, the good and the bad, sinners as well as just men; we must, however, regulate our love, extending more of it to the good and just than to the bad and wicked. Sinners are to be loved on the ground that they are our neighbours, capable of and created for happiness; also because Christ loved them, and through that love gave His life for them, and now calls and sanctifies them, and, if they turn to obey Him, will make them happy. Another reason for loving them is, that this same Lord desires and commands us to love them, and takes delight in our doing so; while to those who thus love them He promises an eternal reward, but threatens never-ending punishment to those who hate them.

In our love of bad men this distinction, however, must be observed: we are to love them according to that nature which in each one is of or from God, not according to that sin in them which is of man, and which we are bound to hate. We should love them as creatures of God, made after His image, and we should desire and strive to procure for them every good that is of use either to body or soul, but do our best to purify their souls of all guilt and sin. In this way, to hate them as sinners is to love them, for it implies the desire to deliver them out of sin through the help of God's grace. As St. Augustine explains, "No

sinner, in so far as he is a sinner, is worthy of our love; but every sinner, in so far as he is a man, is to be loved for the sake of God.”* And in another place he writes: "He who is the servant of God should have a perfect and holy hatred of sinners, yet so as neither to hate the man himself because of his sin, nor to love the sin because of the man who is guilty of it; but so as to hate the sin while he loves the man.”†

Let us inquire briefly how we are to detect the principle on which we really act. It is shown by our compassionating the sinner, grieving over his sin, and desiring the safety of his soul and all the temporal good for him that can help towards his salvation; and if we desire that God, or one having authority over him, should visit him with some punishment, we do this only in the hope of his correcting and amending himself, and of preventing his injuring others. Punishment that is not necessary, or that is useless to this end, should not be desired by us, but we would rather leave it in God's hands to correct him in the way that most pleases Him. Thus St. Gregory: "True justice and sanctity feels compassion for a neighbour when in a state of sin; false sanctity conceives great indignation against him. Though even good men are indignant with sinners, as sinners; but that zeal which is enkindled by pride, is of a very different stamp from the zeal of holy correction," which aims at amending the sinner and deterring others. It is not, then, in hatred, but in love that they "stir up a persecution against the wicked, for though externally and as matter of discipline they find very heavy fault with them, yet privately charity makes them gentle towards them." St. Gregory well distinguishes a proper indignation from that which is false and inconsistent, in that the latter wishes evil to the man who has sinned for his injury, because he hates him, whereas the former wishes him to be punished for his good, because he loves him.

* St. Augustine, lib. i. De Doct. Christ. cap. xxvii.

+ Idem, De Civit. Dei, lib. xiv. cap. vi.

Idem. Hom. xxxiv. In Evang.

Certain philosophers, and amongst them Aristotle, considered it lawful, nay, an act of virtue, to grieve over the temporal good of a bad man, his health, for instance, life, riches, honour, on the plea that the sinner is unworthy of such benefits as these, and that it is a pity he should have them. But such an opinion is opposed to the Divine law and to right reason. Were this displeasure caused by the injury such success would have on the sinner himself, and on others through him, then it would not be wrong, because it would be directed to the good of our neighbour, and would spring from charity. But displeasure merely at his possessing what he does not deserve is bad, and is condemned in Scripture: it would be even a great sin if the good in question were of a decided value. The bad man, indeed, may not deserve it, but yet God in His infinite goodness has willed to bestow benefits upon the unworthy as upon all men without exception, seeing that all men were, through sin, undeserving of any good, and deserved only eternal death: it is not therefore for our merits' sake that God has conferred His benefits on us. In truth, God manifests His infinite goodness precisely in communicating Himself and in doing good to all, and very especially does He do so in granting His benefits to sinners unworthy of any one good thing.

Besides this manifestation of His goodness, God has other objects in view, most worthy of Himself, for in the temporal advantages which He grants to the wicked He recompenses them for certain morally good actions which they may have done, though justice does not strictly bind Him to this, He by the same means often brings them to the knowledge of their sinfulness and to turn to repentance. By the favours which He shows to the bad He inspires great hope in the good men that He will take still more care of them in giving them those spiritual favours which they earnestly pray to Him for, since He is so very liberal in temporal gifts to sinful men who prize them most. Now, seeing that this dispensation of

God's providence is so excellent, and is so worthy of God, for a man to grieve over the benefits which God, either directly from Himself, or through His creatures, grants to the sinner, and to wish that he should be deprived of them, is an act of injustice against both God and his neighbour. This fault was condemned by Christ in His Gospel, when, under the figure of a householder, He rebuked those labourers who complained that He had paid their fellow-workmen above their deserts. "Is thy eye evil because I am good? "'* In other words, from My goodness and liberality in paying at a higher rate than I am bound or have promised, dost thou take occasion to judge rashly and murmur against that which you ought to approve of and praise?

Let us then, rejecting those principles of the world which only deceive it, and following rather the teaching brought down from Heaven to us by Christ, love our neighbours truly from our hearts, even though they be wicked and sinful, and let us in their regard obey the law of true charity, wishing them and extending to them every necessary good, grieving over their faults, and rejoicing in whatever spiritual and temporal benefit they have; for thus shall we be conforming ourselves to the will of their Lord and Heavenly Father, "Who," in the words of His only-begotten Son Jesus Christ, "maketh His sun to rise upon the good and bad, and raineth upon the just and unjust." +

CHAPTER XL.

In what degree the good are to be more loved by us than the bad.

IF sinners are to be beloved by us as we have described, for the sake of God, how much more are the just and holy to share our love? Although according to the substance of the good which we desire for our neighbours, we are bound to love all men equally, wishing that all should be saved and attain the blessed sight and possession of God in Heaven; yet in respect of the degree of affection wherewith we desire this for them, and the result which our help is likely to bring about; in respect also of the greater perfection in which this infinite good is possessed through grace here on earth, and fully entered upon in the glory of Heaven, we love, and we ought to love one neighbour more than another.

Hence, all other points being equal, the good are more to be beloved by us than the bad; in the first place, because the good are more closely united to God, are more like Him, more fully participate in Him, and are more beloved by Him. And since we are bound to love sinners because they share in our common human nature, and in a limited love from God, moving Him to communicate to them natural and temporal benefits and good inspirations, much more ought we to love the just on account of the grace dwelling in them, of the glory waiting for them, and of that absolute and wholly perfect love which God bears to them, communicating to them His supernatural gifts of grace, and confirming them with the pledge and right to eternal beatitude, into which He will in due time admit them. St. Ambrose exclaims: "More, most certainly, should we love those neighbours, in whose company we expect and hope to dwell for ever, than those with whom we spend this life only." *

* St. Amb. lib. i. De Officio, cap. vii.