Volume I, Treatise IV, Chapter III

Certain Reasons Taken from Holy Scripture, Which Evince the Obligation We Are Under of Living in the Spirit of Union, &c

Saint JoHN having spoken of the exceedingly great love God testified to us, by giving his only Son, concludes thus: “But if God has thus loved us, we ought also to love one another.” ( (John 17:11)) We may with reason here object and ask, why the conclusion he draws from the love that God has for us is, that we ought to love our neighbour; since it would seem a more just and natural one to infer, that we are obliged to love God, because he has in so extraordinary a manner loved us? To this objection many answers may be given. The first is, that the apostle speaks in this manner to let us see the excellency of the love of our neighbour, and what a great value God sets on it. It is for this reason that, as St. Matthew relates, a doctor of the law asking our Saviour Jesus Christ, “‘ What was the greatest commandment in the law?”’ our Saviour answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind; behold here the first and greatest of all the commandments: as to the second, it is like the first, you shall love your neighbour as yourself.” (Mat. xxii. 36.) They asked him only about the first commandment; why therefore does he speak of the second? It is to shew the excellency of the love of our neighbour, and in what esteem God holds 1.

The second answer that may be given is, that the love of God and the love of our neighbour are like two rings joined together, and put upon a finger, one of which rings cannot be taken off without the other; but both must be pulled off together. The love of God and the love of our neighbour are, in like manner, inseparable. The one can never subsist without the other; so that it is but one love of pure charity which makes us love God, and our neighbour for God. We can therefore neither love God without loving our neighbour, nor love our neighbour with the love of pure charity, without loving God himself; because the motive we have to love our neighbour is God. Wherefore the same apostle, wishing to shew us that we cannot love God without loving our neighbour, presently adds: “If we mutually love each other, God remains with us, and his charity is perfect within us.” (1 John 4:12) And afterwards, to he us also that the love of our neighbour is included in the love of God: “It is a commandment,” says he, “‘ which we have received from God, that he who loves God must also love his brother.” (1 John 4:21)

One evident proof, that God loves man exceedingly, and that he desires we should in like manner love one another, is, that we cannot love God without loving our neighbour, nor offend our neighbour without offending God. If a king loved one of his subjects so well, as to interpose himself between all the blows that should be aimed at him, so that they could never hurt his subject without first hurting himself, would not this be a very great love? This is what God does to man; he always so interposes himself, that you cannot offend your neighbour without offending God: and he does this to hinder you from offending your brother, through fear of offending him. ‘‘ Whosoever shall touch you,” says our Lord, “touches me in the very apple of my eye.” (Zacharias 2:8) So that by offending our neighbour we offend God; and by loving our neighbour we love God, and by loving God we love also our neighbour. But because the love of God and the love of our neighbour go always together, and are included one in the other, and can never be divided, St. John might as well have concluded in behalf of the one as of the other love; because the obligation we have to love the one, necessarily implies our obligation to love the other. But he would rather conclude in the behalf of the love of our neighbour, than in behalf of the love of God; because the love of God is a truth and principle known of itself, and principles are not proved, but admitted. Wherefore he passes to this conclusion, that we ought to love our neighbour; and expressly does so; because perhaps another would not have drawn this consequence from the proposition he had advanced.

The third answer is, that St. John speaks in this epistle, not of a dry and sterile, but of a fruitful and profitable love—of a love that is accompanied with benefits and good works. “Dear

children,” says he, “let us not love in words, and in our tongue, only; but let us love in effect and in truth.” (1 John 1:18) And in order to inform us that it is for the good of our neighbours and brethren that God desires we should perform these works, according to the passage repeated in the gospel, out of Osee, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice” (Matthew 12:7); he draws no other conclusion from his proposition than the love of our neighbour. It happens very often that a creditor, who is absent, writes thus to his debtor:—You will do me a favour by paying to such a one what you owe me; and what you shall give him I shall consider as received by myself. It is after this manner that St. John, speaking in God’s behalf, to whom we owe so much for the many obligations and benefits received, says to us: “If God has loved us in so extraordinary a manner, we ought also to love one another.” The love which each of us owe him is a debt he has transferred to our neighbour; and the charity you exercise towards your brother, you exercise towards God, who receives it as if it were done to himself. It is this which Jesus Christ declares in these words: “Verily, Isay unto you, that whatsoever you do to the least of my brethren, you have done it unto myself.” (Ibid. 25:40) And without doubt this ought to be a powerful motive to excite us to love our brethren, and to do them all the good we can; because though it seems to us that we do it to those to whom we owe nothing, yet if we look upon God, and reflect upon the infinite obligations we have to him, and consider that he has transferred all his right to them, we shall find that we are indebted to them for all we have. Father Avila, therefore, speaking on this subject, says, when the carnal man that is within you shall represent to you, what great obligations have I to such a one, to move me so far as to do him any favour? And how canI be able to love him, since he has so much injured me? Answer him, that perhaps you should give ear to what be says against your neighbour, if your neighbour were the only motive, object, or cause of this your love; but that Jesus Christ himself is the cause and object thereof, and it is he himself who receives the good you do to your neighbour, and who looks upon the pardon you bestow upon your neighbour as if it were a favour and a pardon you bestowed upon himself; and thus, whosoever your neighbour is, and whatsoever injury he can have done you, yet there is nothing that ought to cool your charity towards him, or hinder its effects, since it is not him, but Jesus Christ; you ought to consider in all your thoughts and actions. Wherefore, it is a most just consequence that St. John draws, who, after he had proved the great love that God has for us, infers the obligation we therefore have to love our neighbour. We ought to observe farther, that to move us the more, he takes notice of the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God, in the same proposition from which he draws this conclusion. For, setting before our eyes, “That God hath sent his only Son into the world” (1 John 4:9), he gives us occasion to consider, that God has allied himself to men, and consequently would have us think that since they are allied to God, and brothers of Jesus Christ, we ought to love them as such.

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