Dist. 30
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/3/d/30/q/bon-sent-III-d30-littera
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### DISTINCTION XXX.

### Sole chapter. *Whether it is better to love enemies than friends.*

Here it is wont to be asked which is the more excellent and of greater merit: to love friends, or to love enemies. But this comparison is ambiguous. For if the love of friends only is compared with the love both of friends and of enemies, the resolution is plain. But if the question is which of these is the more excellent in some one man, who loves at once a friend and an enemy, the answer is obscure, because the matter concerns a motion of the mind, about which judgment is not easy for us — whether it is one and the same motion toward friend and enemy, but more intense toward the friend; or whether they are two motions, one toward the enemy, which is called *more difficult,* the other toward the friend, which seems *more fervent.* And it is not unfitting that the one which is *more fervent* be reckoned the better; or, if it is one and the same, that the same be esteemed — not improperly — the more excellent where it is more ardent. — Augustine, however, seems to hold that it is greater to love an enemy than a friend; for he says that to love enemies and to do good to them belongs to the perfect, and that this is not fulfilled by so great a multitude as is heard in the Lord's Prayer, when it is said: *Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.* For he says that that promise is fulfilled by many who do not yet love their enemies. For he speaks thus: «It is a great thing to be benevolent and beneficent toward one who has done you no harm; it is something far greater and of most magnificent goodness, that you should love even your enemy, and that toward him who wishes you evil and, if he can, does it, you should always will good and do what you can, hearing Jesus who says: *Love your enemies, and do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute and slander you.* But since this belongs to the perfect sons of God — to which indeed every faithful soul ought to extend itself and to bring the human spirit to this disposition, by praying to God and by striving and wrestling with itself — yet, because this so great good is not of so great a multitude as we believe is heard when it is said in the prayer: *Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors,* without doubt the words of this promise are fulfilled if a man, who has not yet so advanced as even to love an enemy, nevertheless, when he is asked by the man who has sinned against him to forgive him, forgives from the heart; and who also wishes to be forgiven when he himself asks, when he prays and says: as we also forgive our debtors». «But whoever asks the man against whom he has sinned, if he is moved by his own sin to ask, is not to be reckoned still an enemy, so that to love him should be difficult, as it was when he was carrying on enmities. But whoever does not forgive one who asks and repents, let him not suppose that his own sins are forgiven by the Lord; because the Truth cannot lie, who, when he had taught the prayer, commended this sentence set within it, saying: *If you forgive men their sins, your Father also will forgive you. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father forgive you your sins*». — Behold, from this it seems to be gathered, what we also noted beforehand, namely that it is of greater virtue to love an enemy and to do good to him than to love one who has done us no harm, or a friend. — But if anyone is unwilling to concede this simply, saying: a friend is loved more intensely than an enemy, and therefore that is to be preferred to this; let him determine these things according to the aforesaid understanding, saying that there the comparison was made between the love by which only a friend is loved, and that by which both friend and enemy are loved. — But that which follows moves us more, namely that he says that to love enemies is not of so great a multitude as is heard, when it is said: *Forgive us* etc.; you are given to understand that sins are forgiven by God to someone who does not love his enemy, provided nevertheless that he forgives a brother who asks, who has sinned against him. But since sins are not forgiven to any adult unless he have charity; it follows that he has charity who does not love his enemy. How then is every man understood under the name of *neighbor* in that commandment: *You shall love your neighbor as yourself?* For if *every* man is a neighbor, then also an *enemy:* we are therefore commanded to love even enemies. And because that precept is *general,* it is commanded to *all* to love all men, even enemies. — Some, wishing to hold simply what is here said, determine that precept, saying that there it is given to the perfect as a precept to love every man, even an enemy; but to the lesser it is given as a *counsel,* while as a *precept* it is given to them to *love* those who have done them no harm, and *not to hate* enemies. — But it is better that it be understood that by that commandment all are commanded to love all, even enemies; to which sense the authorities set down above and many others bear witness. But that statement of Augustine set down last is understood as spoken of *perfect* charity, which belongs only to the perfect, who love perfectly and do good not only to friends but even to enemies; and this *perfection* of love is not of so great a multitude as is heard in the Lord's Prayer. And this is truly a great thing and of exceeding goodness, namely to love an enemy *perfectly;* and so too, when he says: «that the words of that promise are fulfilled by a man who has not so advanced as to love an enemy»; it is to be taken of *perfect* love.

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