The Command Of Love

Quam affectuose, quam sincere, quam suaviter, quam dulciter Deum diligere tenearis, Dominus per Moysen docet dicens: Diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo, et ex tota anima tua, et ex tota mente tua, hoc Dei praeceptum exactissimam observantiae necessitatem sibi habet implicitam, Potest equidem aliquis excusare, quod vigilare, jejunare, aut laborare idoneus non sit, sed nullus excusare se potest, quod amare non possit. De virginitate datur consilium, non praecepium. Qui potest, inquit Dominus, capere capiat. Et apostolus: De virginibus quidem praeceptum non habeo, consilium autem do. Caritas autem a Deo praecipitur, ipsiusque praeceptum fortiter et obnixe, et sub interminatione poenali, cordibus humanis indicitur. Mandavit equidem hoc mandatum Dominus custodiri nimis: et ut ipsum cordibus nostris altius, quam clavum infigeret, velut crebros ictus, saepius inculcavit prius ut diligeremus ex tota corde, postea subjungit quod ex tota anima, demum adjecit, quod ex tota virtute nostra. Vide, quia clavus aut stimulus est hoc praeceptum. Nam sicut Salomon dicit: Verba sapientiae stimuli sunt, et quasi clavi in altum defixi. Nonne plusquam stimulis est, aut clavus sermo Dei vivus, et efficax, et penetrabilior omni gladio ancipiti ? Sane duritia cordis nostri hanc exigebat inculcationis instantiam, ut hoc praeceptum ad nostrorum cordium interiora transiret: sicut duro stipiti clavus crebra percussione infigitur, donec interius adigatur. Expediebat etiam nobis, quorum corda mundanus amor infecerat, et interius animae latebras obtinebat, ut ejiceretur foras exulans a corde nostro, ut in Deo maneret, et Deus in eo. Petrus Blenensis, De Caritate Dei et Proximi, Cap. XXV Source: Migne PL 207.924c-925a

With what affection, with what sincerity, with what sweetness and delight, one should hold to the love of God, the Lord teaches through Moses, saying: 'You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind,' 1 which command of God emphasises the extreme neccesity of its observance. Certainly someone may excuse himself that he is not capable of vigils and fasts and labours, but no one is able to excuse himself from being unable to love. Concerning virginity counsel is given, not a command. 'He who is able,' says the Lord, 'let him receive it.' 2 And the Apostle says: 'Regarding virgins I have no command, but I will give counsel.' 3  But love is ordained by God with a strong and emphatic commandment and it is proclaimed to human hearts under threat of punishment. Certainly the Lord commands that this commandment be kept strictly, and that it be fixed more deeply in our hearts than a nail with repeated blows, and so frequently He first insists that we should love 'with the whole heart', and then He adds, 'with the whole soul,' and finally he adds, 'with the whole of our strength.' Note that this command is a nail and goad. For as Solomon says: 'The words of the wise are goads, and as a nail deeply fixed.' 4 What is more of a nail and goad than the living word of God which is effective and cuts more deeply than any sword? 5 Truly the hardness of our hearts demands this insistent command, that the precept might pass into the interior, as a nail is fixed into hard wood by repeated blows, until it is driven within. Indeed it was to our advantage, who had a worldly love infused in the heart, one which had gained the inner chambers of the soul, that it was cast out and exiled from our hearts, so that the heart remain in God and God in it. 6 Peter of Blois, On Love Of God And One's Neighbour, Chap 25 1 Deut 6.5, Mt 22.37, Lk 10.27 2 Mt 19.12 3 1 Cor 7.25 4 Eccl 12.11 5 Heb 4.12 6 cf 1 Jn 4.16