To love to be hated, and to hate to be loved
1 min • Digitized on January 9, 2022
From The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales, page 123
By His friend, Jean Pierre Camus, Bishop of Belley
TO LOVE TO BE HATED, AND TO HATE TO BE LOVED.
This maxim of our Blessed Father’s seems strange and altogether contrary to his sweet and affectionate nature. If, however, we look closely into it, we shall find that it is full of the purest and most subtle love of God.
When he said that we ought to love to be hated, and hate to be loved, he was referring in the one case to the love which is in and for God alone, and in the other to that merely human love, which is full of danger, which robs God of His due, and of which, therefore, we should hate to be the object. He expresses himself thus:
Those who have nothing naturally attractive about them are very fortunate, for they are well assured that the love which one bears them is excellent, being all for God’s sake alone.