689 the first word our souls, David finally says to God: “If I have [...] plundered my enemy without cause, let the enemy pursue me and overtake me [...] and lay my soul in the dust.” (Ps 7:5-6) [NAB]. Oh, how many people we can find in this completely corrupt world, whose sins surpass the number of [their] hairs, whose misdeeds have exceeded all measure! So what would each of them do to free themselves from the weight of their crimes? I do not doubt that they would turn to St. Peter, because this Pontiff was given the [power of ] binding and loosing the sinners. Christ said to Peter: “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Mt 16:19). All is well, good sinner. I will go to Peter with you. But did you hear what Peter insists that we must do in this matter? He says, “Above all hold unfailing your love for one another” (1 Pet 4:8). Peter advises the best and not the most difficult of things. We can love one another without undue annoyance or strenuous effort. However, lest we might err in this love (because it can easily happen), St. Gregory the Great stipulates for us the proper way to proceed. He stated: “Let no one, when he loves someone, think too quickly that he possesses charity, unless he examines beforehand the very motive of his love. For if he loves someone — but does not love for God’s sake — he does not possess charity… For charity is true, if the friend is loved in God and the enemy is loved for God’s sake… Undoubtedly, therefore, he who for God’s sake loves someone by whom he knows that he is not loved, possesses charity” (Hom. 38).8 Thus, according to Peter, “love covers a multitude of sins,” but — according to St. Gregory’s explanation — only the love with which one “loves enemies for God’s sake.” Sinners, love your enemies! Do good unto those who hate you: Forgive, and you shall be forgiven! Once a king called his servants to settle accounts, as our Savior told us in Matthew. Among them, a debtor was brought before him who owed [the king] 10,000 talents. For a servant, that is 8 Gregorius, Homiliae XL in Evangelia, hom. XXXVIII: S. Gregorii Papae I, Cognomento Magni Opera Omnia: PL 76, 1289, n. 1640.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mw==