Whether We Ought to Love Sinners Out of Charity?
Objection 1: It would seem that we ought not to love sinners out of
charity. For it is written (Ps. 118:113): "I have hated the unjust."
But David had perfect charity. Therefore sinners should be hated
rather than loved, out of charity.
Obj. 2: Further, "love is proved by deeds" as Gregory says in a
homily for Pentecost (In Evang. xxx). But good men do no works of the
unjust: on the contrary, they do such as would appear to be works of
hate, according to Ps. 100:8: "In the morning I put to death all the
wicked of the land": and God commanded (Ex. 22:18): "Wizards thou
shalt not suffer to live." Therefore sinners should not be loved out
of charity.
Obj. 3: Further, it is part of friendship that one should desire and
wish good things for one's friends. Now the saints, out of charity,
desire evil things for the wicked, according to Ps. 9:18: "May the
wicked be turned into hell [*Douay and A. V.: 'The wicked shall be,'
etc. See Reply to this Objection.]." Therefore sinners should not be
loved out of charity.
Obj. 4: Further, it is proper to friends to rejoice in, and will the
same things. Now charity does not make us will what sinners will, nor
to rejoice in what gives them joy, but rather the contrary. Therefore
sinners should not be loved out of charity.
Obj. 5: Further, it is proper to friends to associate together,
according to _Ethic._ viii. But we ought not to associate with
sinners, according to 2 Cor. 6:17: "Go ye out from among them."
Therefore we should not love sinners out of charity.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (De Doctr. Christ. i, 30) that
"when it is said: 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor,' it is evident that
we ought to look upon every man as our neighbor." Now sinners do not
cease to be men, for sin does not destroy nature. Therefore we ought
to love sinners out of charity.
_I answer that,_ Two things may be considered in the sinner: his
nature and his guilt. According to his nature, which he has from God,
he has a capacity for happiness, on the fellowship of which charity
is based, as stated above (A. 3; Q. 23, AA. 1, 5), wherefore we ought
to love sinners, out of charity, in respect of their nature.
On the other hand their guilt is opposed to God, and is an obstacle
to happiness. Wherefore, in respect of their guilt whereby they are
opposed to God, all sinners are to be hated, even one's father or
mother or kindred, according to Luke 12:26. For it is our duty to
hate, in the sinner, his being a sinner, and to love in him, his
being a man capable of bliss; and this is to love him truly, out of
charity, for God's sake.
Reply Obj. 1: The prophet hated the unjust, as such, and the object
of his hate was their injustice, which was their evil. Such hatred is
perfect, of which he himself says (Ps. 138:22): "I have hated them
with a perfect hatred." Now hatred of a person's evil is equivalent
to love of his good. Hence also this perfect hatred belongs to
charity.
Reply Obj. 2: As the Philosopher observes (Ethic. ix, 3), when our
friends fall into sin, we ought not to deny them the amenities of
friendship, so long as there is hope of their mending their ways, and
we ought to help them more readily to regain virtue than to recover
money, had they lost it, for as much as virtue is more akin than
money to friendship. When, however, they fall into very great
wickedness, and become incurable, we ought no longer to show them
friendliness. It is for this reason that both Divine and human laws
command such like sinners to be put to death, because there is
greater likelihood of their harming others than of their mending
their ways. Nevertheless the judge puts this into effect, not out of
hatred for the sinners, but out of the love of charity, by reason of
which he prefers the public good to the life of the individual.
Moreover the death inflicted by the judge profits the sinner, if he
be converted, unto the expiation of his crime; and, if he be not
converted, it profits so as to put an end to the sin, because the
sinner is thus deprived of the power to sin any more.
Reply Obj. 3: Such like imprecations which we come across in Holy
Writ, may be understood in three ways: first, by way of prediction,
not by way of wish, so that the sense is: "May the wicked be," that
is, "The wicked shall be, turned into hell." Secondly, by way of
wish, yet so that the desire of the wisher is not referred to the
man's punishment, but to the justice of the punisher, according to
Ps. 57:11: "The just shall rejoice when he shall see the revenge,"
since, according to Wis. 1:13, not even God "hath pleasure in the
destruction of the wicked [Vulg.: 'living']" when He punishes them,
but He rejoices in His justice, according to Ps. 10:8: "The Lord is
just and hath loved justice." Thirdly, so that this desire is
referred to the removal of the sin, and not to the punishment itself,
to the effect, namely, that the sin be destroyed, but that the man
may live.
Reply Obj. 4: We love sinners out of charity, not so as to will what
they will, or to rejoice in what gives them joy, but so as to make
them will what we will, and rejoice in what rejoices us. Hence it is
written (Jer. 15:19): "They shall be turned to thee, and thou shalt
not to be turned to them."
Reply Obj. 5: The weak should avoid associating with sinners, on
account of the danger in which they stand of being perverted by them.
But it is commendable for the perfect, of whose perversion there is
no fear, to associate with sinners that they may convert them. For
thus did Our Lord eat and drink with sinners as related by Matt.
9:11-13. Yet all should avoid the society of sinners, as regards
fellowship in sin; in this sense it is written (2 Cor. 6:17): "Go out
from among them . . . and touch not the unclean thing," i.e. by
consenting to sin.
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