De arte praedicatoria

By these authorities man is instructed in the love of neighbor: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.¹ Whatsoever you wish men to do to you, do also to them.² Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you.³ Sixtus also says: "The foundation and beginning of the worship of God is to love men." St. Gregory: "Charity is true if a friend is loved in God, and an enemy is loved for God's sake." God himself is not loved without neighbor, nor is neighbor loved without God. Again Bede: "It is called love because it binds two, God and man, or joins each neighbor with another." For although the love of God is greater in the dignity of charity, the love of neighbor is greater in operation, because through the love of neighbor one arrives at the love of God.

O man, love your neighbor as yourself; do not envy another the good things you wish for yourself; if you wish more for yourself than for another, you are envious; if more for another than for yourself, you are foolish. Consult nature; she will teach you to love your neighbor as yourself. For nature herself made all things common, made one origin for all, since

Every race of men descends from a like origin.

If you deny to another what you wish done to yourself, you fight against nature, you weaken the common law.

Impose on no one what you yourself could not bear; show to others what you wish shown to yourself. How can you despise your own nature in another, when you embrace that same nature in yourself? Every animal loves its like, so every man ought to love his neighbor. All flesh is joined to fellowship with its like. The Samaritan of the Gospel, though a stranger to the wounded man, nonetheless cared for the sick man, and how can you not love your neighbor? Be, then, a friend to every neighbor in the time of persecution and not only of prosperity; be not a friend of the table or of fortune but of tribulation, so that you make his adversities your own by suffering with him, so that you make his sorrow your own by grieving with him; make his suffering your own by compassion, which is a greater charity than to lay down one's life for one's friends, and to extend charity even to enemies.

These are wonderful things in the law of the Lord. As God has mercy on his creature, so have mercy on your own nature in your neighbor. How praiseworthy is the charity that binds neighbors, joins together the diverse, reduces plurality to unity, brings diversity back into identity? This is a harmonious dissonance, a united plurality, an agreeing dissent, a joining variety. This is the tunic of Christ, woven throughout without seam.⁴

This is the tunic of Joseph, adorned with varied embroidered work.⁵ This is the variety by which the queen is read to be clothed about, of whom it is said: The queen stood at your right hand in gilded clothing, surrounded with variety.⁶ Of this unity of charity it is said: Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!⁷ In unity, not so much as to place as to mind. For to dwell in one place and not be of one mind is punishment, not delight. This unity leads to the heavenly unity, of which it is said: One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek,⁸ etc. This unity enriches a man in his neighbor, gladdens him in another's happiness; this unity brings a particular good into the common good, increases another's good, does not extinguish it. Let Christians be ashamed not to be bound to one another by the bond of charity, when we read that pagans were bound as equals in friendship by the mere bond of natural love! Since temporal love has made many one in friendship, will not heavenly love bind the faithful by the bond of charity? If trivial causes produce friendship among many, will not eternal rewards be able to do the same?

O how great is the sweetness in the true love of neighbor, which is produced not by human favor, not by earthly advantage, not by human carnality, but by charity alone! This is what in Samuel prays for Saul.⁹ This is what pleads with God for the people in Moses,¹⁰ this weeps in David¹¹ for Jonathan, for Jerusalem in Jeremiah. Surely he who alienates himself from love of neighbor strays from the love of God, because: He who does not love his neighbor whom he sees, how can he love God whom he has not seen?¹² O man, do you not wish your neighbor to love you for God's sake? Love him for your own sake. As the moral philosopher Seneca says: "If you wish to be loved, love." O happy love, which is not driven by external causes, but is content with itself, having the inborn form of the highest good, free of envy. Such love has its love within itself, is not anxious; it is set in tranquility, does not dissolve through mockeries. O how pleasant it is to find yourself in another! It is a mark of sluggishness and negligence to leave the practice of charity unused, and not to exercise the noblest of virtues.

It is glorious to be a craftsman of true friendship, which purges the dregs of superficial affection. Have a friend not merely so that he may visit you when sick, not merely so that he may feed you when famished, not merely so that he may console you when imprisoned, but so that you may visit him in prison, feed him when hungry, give drink to him when thirsty, receive him when wandering. If you love a poor neighbor, you give alms by love alone, for the alms of the heart is much greater than that of the body; for charity suffices in almsgiving, without earthly substance. Even that which is given bodily is not enough unless it is given with a kindly spirit. Keep, then, the order of charity. Love God above all things, yourself below him, your neighbor next, the flesh below that. Love your flesh not so as to serve it, but so as to correct it with discipline; love it toward the good, not toward the luxury of the world. Do not follow its will, but compel it to follow your will. Like a good physician, tend in it what is weak, what is diseased, what is sick; so let it grieve for a time that it may rejoice together forever, let it feel for a time the sharpness of the medicine, that it may obtain the benefit of eternal health.