Admonition IX: Love
As used in films, on television and in novels the word love almost always presumes an attraction of one person for another or of a person for some object. It is difficult for us to use the word love of anything that does not attract us. Yet in the Gospels our Lord speaks of the need to love our enemies. In general we use the word enemy of anyone or anything that we harms us or that we would want to harm. Francis in his ninth Admonition used the word enemy of anyone who hurts us. A hurt can come to us in many ways. We can be hurt by people wanting to hurt us and we can be hurt by people who are unaware they are hurting us and who do not intend to hurt us. How often we are offended and upset by a thoughtless remark. Francis always thought first of God. So when someone hurt him, his first reaction was to think of how he had hurt God by his sins. In spite of his sins God continued to love him and so he in turn had to show love to those who hurt him. He showed this love by what he did. He said: 'That person truly loves his enemy who is not hurt by an injury but, because of love of God, is stung by the sin of his soul. Let him show him love by his deeds'. In this Admonition we see again just how conscious Francis was of the presence of God in his life. He lived in the presence of God and tried to gauge all his actions by the standards of the Gospel.
