Quomodo mens ad Dei et proximi dilectionem ratione moveatur
Reason as the Guide of Sacred Love
When emotion is absent, reason moves the soul toward the love of God and neighbor, and the more purely reason guides, the more refined and sacred that love becomes.
For when no emotion moves the soul toward the love of God and neighbor, reason most often does — and the more securely it moves it, the more sacred the motion; the more purely, the more refined. And indeed, the more refined the love, the more purely reason guides it — for nothing guided by rational love can be more useful, or more pure.
Three Arguments for Loving God
Reason urges the soul to love God on three grounds — necessity, advantage, and fitness — because without Him we are wretched, with Him we are blessed, and He who needed nothing chose poverty for our sake.
Therefore, in order to rouse the soul — now growing lukewarm — to desire its Creator, reason rests on three arguments: namely, our own necessity or advantage, and His dignity. Reason urges that God is to be loved — because this is necessary for us, because it is to our advantage, and because it is fitting. Necessary, that we may avoid damnation; advantageous, that we may gain glorification; fitting, because He Himself, having first loved us, rightly demands a return of love, as His love deserves. God is to be desired by us as our own good — without whom we must always be wretched; with whom we cannot be anything but most blessed. He who needs nothing of ours chose to become poor for our sake.
From Reasoned Consent to Active Desire
When the will consents to reason's prompting, desire for God is aroused and moves toward action, and reason further presses the soul to love the neighbor as oneself.
If the mind consents to this reasoning — even if not from emotion, yet from the will — and rouses itself toward the desire for God, reason immediately follows through, proving by His precepts that one must press on diligently, if one wishes to obtain what one desires. And so the desire born deep within, compelled by reason, moves toward action. Because indeed among His precepts this is found to be the greatest: that a person care for their neighbor as they care for themselves. And so reason presses on, urging the soul to be moved toward bestowing kindness on the neighbor.
Classifying the Neighbor: Friend, Non-Enemy, Enemy
Every neighbor is classified as friend, non-enemy, or enemy — distinguished by utility, harm, innocence, or injury, and grounded in blood, grace, or wrongdoing.
Now, every neighbor is either a friend or not a friend — or even an enemy. A friend — because he is useful, or has been useful; not an enemy — because he does not harm and has not harmed; an enemy — because he is harmful, or has been harmful. A friend by blood or by grace; a non-enemy by innocence; an enemy by injury.
Degrees of Obligation to Friend, Non-Enemy, and Enemy
Reason assigns three grounds for kindness to a friend (nature, duty, precept), two to a non-enemy (nature, precept), and only one to an enemy — the Lord's command to love him.
So when a person resolves to devote himself to a friend, reason sets forth three considerations; to a non-enemy, two; to an enemy, one. To a friend, kindness is owed — by nature, by duty, and by precept. By nature, because he is a fellow human being — even a member of one's household; by duty, because he is a friend; by precept, because he is a neighbor. To a non-enemy, however — by nature, because he is a human being; by precept, because he is a neighbor. To an enemy, only by precept — because the Lord's command is that an enemy be loved.✦1
Merit Without Feeling: Love That Obeys Reason
Even when the soul does not feel affection, yielding to reason's arguments and showing kindness to friend and enemy alike ensures that the merit of love is not lost.
Given all this, if the soul has resolved to show kindness not only to a friend but also to an enemy — even without feeling the affection — it will not lose the merit of love.
Read the original Latin
Nam animum, quem ad Dei proximique dilectionem nullus movet affectus plerumque movet ratio, tanto utique sacratius, quanto securius, quanto defaecatius; tanto autem defaecatius, quanto rationabili amore nihil utilius potest esse, vel purius. Igitur ratio ut ad desiderium conditoris sui animum excitet tepescentem, tribus innititur argumentis : nostrae videlicet necessitati vel utilitati, illius autem dignitati. Suadet ratio Deum esse diligendum, quia necessarium hoc nobis, quia commodum, quia dignum. Necessarium, ut caveamus damnationem ; commodum, ut acquiramus glorificationem ; dignum, quia ipse prius diligens nos merito ipsius dilectionis exigit compensationem. Desiderandus est homini Deus tanquam bonum suum, sine quo necesse est eum semper miserum esse; cum quo non potest nisi beatissimus esse; qui bonorum nostrorum non indigens, pro nobis voluit miser esse. Huic igitur rationi si mens consenserit, etsi non ex affectu, ex voluntate tamen in Dei desiderium se excitaverit; prosequitur statim ratio necessarium probans illius praeceptis gnaviter insistendum, si adipisci voluerit desideratum. Sic innatum internis visceribus desiderium ratione compellente procedit ad actum. Quia vero inter ejus praecepta id maximum invenitur, ut homo proximo suo consulat sicut sibi; instat ratio, ut ad beneficium proximo impendendum animus moveatur.
Omnis autem proximus aut amicus est, aut non amicus, vel etiam inimicus. Amicus, quia prodest, vel profuit ; non inimicus, quia non nocet nec nocuit; inimicus, quia obest, vel obfuit. Amicus ex sanguine vel gratia; non inimicus ex innocentia; inimicus ex injuria. Igitur ut amico se impendat homo, tria quaedam proponit ratio; ut non inimico, duo ; ut inimico, unum. Amico debetur beneficium ex natura, ex officio, ex praecepto. Ex natura, quia homo, vel etiam domesticus est; ex officio, quia amicus est ; ex praecepto, quia proximus est. Non inimico vero ex natura, quia homo est; ex praecepto, quia proximus est. Inimico tantum ex praecepto, quia ut inimicus diligatur, praeceptum Domini est.
His igitur rationibus cedens animus, si ad beneficium impendendum non solum amico, sed etiam inimico sese paraverit; etsi non sentiat affectum, charitatis tamen meritum non amittet.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Matt.5.44 — But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Notes
- 1 ↩The ut clause (ut inimicus diligatur) gives the content of the precept: love of enemies. This echoes the dominical command (Matt. 5:44; Luke 6:27), though the specific citation is left to the scripture-allusion resolution stage.
Speculum caritatis (The Mirror of Charity) companion
Reorder one love at a time, daily
Use the study map with the free Chosen Portion app's daily readings to work through Aelred at a sustainable pace.
Aelred wrote the Mirror as a rule for daily interior discipline in community, and Chosen Portion carries that discipline forward as a short ordered reading each day.
- All 3 books and 102 chapters mapped into 4 weekly themes with page-level pointers
- Aelred's choice-motion-fruit test, turned into a one-page self-examination worksheet
- 16 discussion questions ready for personal journaling or a 4-session small group