Matt V
- You have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thy enemy.
- But I say to you, Love your enemies: do good to them that hate you: and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you
Gloss.,
non occ.: The Lord has taught above that we must not resist one who
offers any injury, but must be ready even to suffer more; He now
further requires us to shew to them that do us wrong both love and
its effects. And as the things that have gone before pertain to the
completion of the righteousness of the Law, in like manner this last
precept is to be referred to the completion of the law of love,
which, according to the Apostle, is the fulfilling of the Law.
Aug.,
de Doctr. Christ., i, 30: That by the command, “Thou shalt love thy
neighbour,” all mankind were intended, the Lord shewed in the
parable of the man who was left half dead, which teaches us that our
neighbour is every one who may happen at any time to stand in need of
our offices of mercy; and this who does not see must be denied to [p.
205] none, when the Lord says, “Do good to them that hate you.
”
Aug.,
Serm. in Mont., i, 21: That there were degrees in the righteousness
of the Pharisees which was under the old Law is seen herein, that
many hated even those by whom they were loved. He therefore who loves
his neighbour, has ascended one degree, though as yet he hate his
enemy; which is expressed in that, “and shalt hate thy enemy;”
which is not to be understood as a command to the justified, but a
concession to the weak.
Aug.,
cont. Faust., xix, 24: I ask the Manichaeans why they would have this
peculiar to the Mosaic Law, that was said by them of old time, “thou
shalt hate thy enemy?” Has not Paul said of certain men that they
were hateful to God? We must enquire then how we may understand that,
after the example of God, to whom the Apostle here affirms some men
to be hateful, our enemies are to be hated; and again after the same
pattern of Him “Who maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the
good,” our enemies are to be loved.
Here
then is the rule by which we may at once hate our enemy for the
evil’s sake that is in him, that is, his iniquity, and love him for
the good’s sake that is in him, that is, his rational part. This
then, thus uttered by them of old, being heard, but not understood,
hurried men on to the hatred of men, when they should have hated
nothing but vice.
Such
the Lord corrects as He proceeds, saying, “I say unto you, Love
your enemies.” He who had just declared that He came “not to
subvert the Law, but to fulfil it,” by bidding us love our enemies,
brought us to the understanding of how we may at once hate the same
man for his sins whom we love for his human nature.
Gloss.
ord.: But it should be known, that in the whole body of the Law it is
no where written, Thou shalt hate thy enemy. But it is to be referred
to the tradition of the Scribes, who thought good to add this to the
Law, because the Lord bade the children of Israel pursue their
enemies, and destroy Amalek from under heaven.
Pseudo-Chrys.:
As that, Thou shalt not lust, was not spoken to the flesh, but to the
spirit, so in this the flesh indeed is not able to love its enemy,
but the spirit is able; for the love and hate of the flesh is in the
sense, but of the spirit is in the understanding. If then we feel
hate to one who [p. 206] has wronged us, and yet will not to act upon
that feeling, know that our flesh hates our enemy, but our soul loves
him.
Greg.,
Mor., xxii, 11: Love to an enemy is then observed when we are not
sorrowful at his success, or rejoice in his fall. We hate him whom we
wish not to be bettered, and pursue with ill-wishes the prosperity of
the man in whose fall we rejoice. Yet it may often happen that
without any sacrifice of charity, the fall of an enemy may gladden
us, and again his exaltation make us sorrowful without any suspicion
of envy; when, namely, by his fall any deserving man is raised up, or
by his success any undeservedly depressed.
But
herein a strict measure of discernment must be observed, lest in
following out our own hates, we hide it from ourselves under the
specious pretence of others’ benefit. We should balance how much we
owe to the fall of the sinner, how much to the justice of the Judge.
For when the Almighty has struck any hardened sinner, we must at once
magnify His justice as Judge, and feel with the other’s suffering
who perishes.
Gloss.
ord.: They who stand against the Church oppose her in three ways;
with hate, with words, and with bodily tortures. The Church on the
other hand loves them, as it is here, “Love your enemies;” does
good to them, as it is, “Do good to them that hate you;” and
prays for them, as it is, “Pray for them that persecute you and
accuse you falsely.”
Jerome:
Many measuring the commandments of God by their own weakness, not by
the strength of the saints, hold these commands for impossible, and
say that it is virtue enough not to hate our enemies; but to love
them is a command beyond human nature to obey. But it must be
understood that Christ enjoins not impossibilities but perfection.
Such was the temper of David towards Saul and Absalom; the Martyr
Stephen also prayed for his enemies while they stoned him, and Paul
wished himself anathema for the sake of his persecutors. [Rom 9:3]
Jesus both taught and did the same, saying, “Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do.” [Luke 23:34]
Aug.,
Enchir., 73: These indeed are examples of the perfect sons of God;
yet to this should every believer aim, and seek by prayer to God, and
struggles with himself to raise his human spirit to this [p. 207]
tempter. Yet this so great blessing is not given to all those
multitudes which we believe are heard when they pray, “Forgive us
our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”
Aug.,
Serm. in Mont., i, 21: Here arises a question, that this commandment
of the Lord, by which He bids us pray for our enemies, seems opposed
by many other parts of Scripture. In the Prophets are found many
imprecations upon enemies; such as that in the 108th Psalm, “Let
his children be orphans.” [Ps 109:9]
But
it should be known, that the Prophets are wont to foretell things to
come in the form of a prayer or wish. This has more weight as a
difficulty that John say, “There is a sin unto death, I say not
that he shall pray for it;” [1 John 5:16] plainly shewing, that
there are some brethren for whom he does not bid us pray; for what
went before was, “If any know his brother sin a sin, &c.”
Yet
the Lord bids us pray for our persecutors. This question can only be
resolved, if we admit that there are some sins in brethren more
grievous than the sin of persecution in our enemies. For thus Stephen
prays for those that stoned him, because they had not yet believed on
Christ; but the Apostle Paul does not pray for Alexander though he
was a brother [2 Tim 4:14], but had sinned by attacking the
brotherhood through jealousy.
But
for whom you pray not, you do not therein pray against him. What must
we say then of those against whom we know that the saints have
prayed, and that not that they should be corrected, (for that would
be rather to have prayed for them), but for their eternal damnation;
not as that prayer of the Prophet against the Lord’s betrayer, for
that is a prophecy of the future, not an imprecation of punishment;
but as when we read in the Apocalypse the Martyrs’ prayer that they
may be avenged. [Rev 6:10]
But
we ought not to let this affect us. For who may dare to affirm that
they prayed against those persons themselves, and not against the
kingdom of sin? For that would be both a just and a merciful avenging
of the Martyrs, to overthrow that kingdom of sin, under the
continuance of which they endured all those evils. And it is
overthrown by correction of some, and damnation of such as abide in
sin. Does not Paul seem to you to have avenged Stephen on his own
body, as he speaks, “I chastise my body, and bring [p. 208] it into
subjection.” [1 Cor 9:27]
Pseudo-Aug.,
Hil.
Quaest. V. and N. Test. q. 68: And the souls of them that are slain
cry out to be avenged; as the blood of Abel cried out of the ground
not with a voice, but in spirit [margin note: ratione]. As the work
is said to laud the workman, when he delights himself in the view
thereof; for the saints are not so impatient as to urge on what they
know will come to pass at the appointed time.
Chrys.:
Note through what steps we have now ascended hither, and how He has
set us on the very pinnacle of virtue. The first step is, not to
begin to do wrong to any; the second, that in avenging a wrong done
to us we be content with retaliating equal; the third, to return
nothing of what we have suffered; the fourth, to offer one’s self
to the endurance of evil; the fifth, to be ready to suffer even more
evil than the oppressor desires to inflict; the sixth, not to hate
him of whom we suffer such things; the seventh, to love him; the
eighth, to do him good; the ninth, to pray for him. And because the
command is great, the reward proposed is also great, namely, to be
made like unto God, “Ye shall be the sons of your Father which is
in heaven.”
The good that men can do to their enemies is to exert a puissant resistance to their heresies and blasphemies while also praying for their conversion for it is the will of Our Triune God that all may be saved.
Prayer
for conversions
O
Mary, Mother of Mercy and Refuge of sinners, we beseech thee, be
pleased to look with pitiful eyes upon poor heretics and schismatics.
Thou who art the Seat of Wisdom, enlighten the minds that are
miserably enfolded in the darkness of ignorance and sin, that they
may clearly know that the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church is
the one true Church of Jesus Christ, outside of which neither
holiness nor salvation can be found. Finish the work of their
conversion by obtaining for them the grace to accept all the truths
of our Holy Faith, and to submit themselves to the Supreme Roman
Pontiff, the Vicar of Jesus Christ on earth; that so, being united
with us in the sweet chains of Divine charity, there may soon be one
only fold under the same one Shepherd; and may we all, O Glorious
Virgin, sing forever with exultation: Rejoice, O Virgin Mary, thou
only hast destroyed all heresies in the whole world. Amen.
Pope
Pius IX