The quotation makes the distinction of the evil man being the enemy ‘in so far as he is evil.’
So that we hate the evil in men, and love the good. In so far as a man is evil, we hate him, in so far as a man is good we love him.
It would be unnatural and diabolical to love the evil in a man, or to love his sins.
The revelations
can be read here.
On the other hand, the part of his sin that is the mere outward act, but not the moral evil, we can still love, but I am going into issues of Providence by talking about that. ‘Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence’ is a good book to read and clarifies some of it.
TAN Books or
Our Lady of the Rosary Library have it.
We forgive people and wish them only good, to go to Heaven, to repent, to assuage God’s justice, etc. God instructs us to do this because ‘vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord’.
Jesus Christ in His time on Earth prays and urges for forgiveness of all men. But this forgiveness and forbearance is something which ends for many when He comes in Judgement, in other words, for the unrepentant, eventually the forbearance is over and the judgement comes. (See the book of Revelation or Apocalypse).
Then the Justice of God, which men experience in their sins as anger or hatred, truly blazes forth, fulfilled completely.
Hate and anger are useful and necessary, and at times without it you are sinning by not having it. They do however, all all the rest of our interior matters, have to be properly under control, and properly oriented.
‘You that love the Lord, hate evil: the Lord preserveth the souls of his saints, he will deliver them out of the hand of the sinner.’
Psalm 96:10
“If therefore you wish to obtain that love, do as I did in the Temple in my earliest youth. For I would rise in the middle of the night and, standing before the altar with complete concentration of mind, I would ask the Lord for his grace by which I might be able to keep these commandments I have mentioned, and I would make seven petitions, one after the other, in prayer before the altar. . . The third was, that I should be able to fulfill the third commandment and that he should make me hate the enemy of the human race because from him derive vice, sin, and whatever he himself hates.”
The Blessed Virgin to St. Elizabeth, from ‘The Revelations of St. Elizabeth of Toss’
‘They [Saints Catherine and Margaret] love that which our Lord loves, and hate that which God hates.’
St. Joan of Arc
Always, O sons, have within yourselves this proper hatred to make you humble, and you will always know yourselves to be humble. It will make you patient in adversity, moderate in prosperity, fixed in all right ways, pleasing and acceptable to God and men." And she [St. Catherine] would add, “Beware, O beware, of anyone who does not have this holy hatred, for where it is missing love of self must necessarily reign, and that is the stagnant pool from which come all sins, the root cause of every evil lust.” This was the sort of thing she would say to her followers every day, to foster in them the holy hatred and to incite them to fight against self-love.’
Bl. Raymond of Capua
'The virtues are in us by nature, and there is an affinity of soul to them untaught by men and due to nature itself. For as no instructions are needed to make us hate disease, and we have a natural aversion to things which give pain, even so the soul has an untaught aversion from vice, and all vice is a disease of the soul.
And so it is not difficult for us, if we will, to conceive a love of virtue and a hatred of evil. For God has given every faculty to the natural soul for a good purpose; as that of love, so likewise that of hatred, in order that under the guidance of reason, we may love virtue and hate vice. For there is a true and good use of hatred; – Do I not hate them, O Lord, that hate Thee?’
St. Basil the Great
'It is true that highwaymen, grave-robbers, and sorcerers have their sides torn to pieces; it is also true that the martyrs undergo this same suffering. What is done is the same, but the purpose and reason why it is done is different. And so it is that there is a great difference between the criminals and martyrs.
In these cases we not only consider the torture but we first look for the intention and the reasons why the torture is inflicted. And this is why we love the martyrs - not because they are tortured but because they are tortured for the sake of Christ. But we turn our backs on the robbers - not because they are being punished but because they are being punished for their wickedness.
So, too, in the matter of fasting, you must pass a judgment. If you see people fasting for the sake of God, approve what they do; if you see that they do this against God’s will, turn your back on them and hate them more than you do those who drink, revel, and carouse. And in the case of this fasting we must inquire not only into the reason for fasting but we must consider also the place and the time.’
St. John Chrysostom
