Salmos 139

Salmos 139:21

Now indeed your neighbor, whom you are truly bound to love as yourself, that he too may savor to you as he is, will surely savor to you no differently than you to yourself, who is what you are: for he is a man. You therefore who love yourself only because you love God; consequently all who similarly love him, you love as yourself. Furthermore an enemy, since he is nothing, inasmuch as he does not love God: he cannot indeed be loved as yourself, who love God; yet you will love him so that he may love. But it is not the same thing, to love so that he may love, and to love because he loves. Accordingly that he too may savor to you as he is, he will savor to you, not indeed for what he is, since he is certainly nothing; but for what he perhaps will be in the future -- which is close to nothing, inasmuch as it still hangs in doubt. For concerning one of whom it is established that he will never return to the love of God, he must savor to you not close to nothing, but altogether nothing, inasmuch as he is nothing for eternity. That one therefore excepted, who is now not only not to be loved, but moreover to be held in hatred, according to that: "Did I not hate those who hated you, O Lord, and waste away on account of your enemies?" (Ps 139:21.) For the rest, charity -- rightly ambitious in this respect -- permits that not even the most hostile man be denied some small measure of affection. Who is wise, and will understand these things? — Sermons on the Song of Songs, Sermon 50