"There will soon be none left," said S. Francis de Sales, "who will love
poor sinners but GOD and myself."
Oh! why do we fail in love towards those poor sinful ones! Are they not
very much to be pitied?
When they are prosperous, pray for them; but when misfortune comes (and
trouble weighs heavily upon the wicked), death depriving them of the only
beings they did not hate, afflicting them with a loathsome disease,
delivering them up to scorn and misery--oh! then, when all this comes upon
them, love them freely. It is by affection alone that we can reach the
worst characters, and the souls that are steeped in sin.
How many have died impenitent, who, if only some one had cared for them
and shown them love, might have become at last saints in heaven! Oh! the
sins that are committed, oh! the souls we suffer to wander from GOD, and
all because we are so wanting in love towards them.