Article — Merkelbach, Summa Theologiae Moralis
Article IV: On Sinners to Be Loved
S. Th. II-II, q. 25, aa. 6 and 7.
889. Sinners are to be loved. - "Every sinner," says Augustine, l. 1 de Doctr. chr., c. 27, "insofar as he is a sinner, is not to be loved, and every man, insofar as he is man, is to be loved on account of God." Therefore sinners according as fault is in them are not to be loved, but rather to be held in hatred, that is, fault in sinners is to be held in hatred; but according to nature, insofar as they are men capable of eternal beatitude, they are to be loved from charity.
To desire evil for a sinner insofar as it is evil is always illicit. But sometimes it is permitted to desire a temporal evil for him under the aspect of a greater good, either for the amendment of fault (for example, illness or adversity so that he may be converted), or for the conservation of justice (for example, that he be punished for a crime committed), or for the common good (for example, the death of a heresiarch lest he lead others away from the faith). But it is illicit to desire for any wayfarer that he be damned or that he sin, because this is simply evil.
890. Sinners do not love themselves from charity. - "Sinners," say the Mechlin theologians, n. 60, q. 2, "do not truly love themselves; because they do not love themselves according to that which is principal in them, that is, according to the soul and spiritual goods; but according to that which they ought to hate and deny, namely, according to the corruption of the exterior man. Whence, says St. Thomas (Q. D. de Virt. 2, a. 12, ad 6), the sinner 'hates himself more than he loves himself according to Ps. X, 6: He who loves iniquity hates his own soul.' Nevertheless natural love from love of his own being remains."
St. Thomas illustrates the matter, q. 25, a. 7: "To love oneself in one way is common to all, in another way is proper to the good, in a third way is proper to the evil... Man is said to be something: In one way according to his substance and nature; and according to this... all men, good and evil, love themselves, insofar as they love the conservation of themselves. In another way man is said to be something according to principality...: for what is principal in man is the rational mind, but what is secondary is sensitive and corporeal nature, the first of which the Apostle names the interior man, the second the exterior (II Cor. IV, 16). But the good esteem rational nature, or the interior man, as principal in themselves, whence according to this they esteem themselves to be what they are. But the evil esteem sensitive and corporeal nature, namely, the exterior man, as principal in themselves. Hence, not rightly knowing themselves, they do not truly love themselves, but love that which they reckon themselves to be. But the good, truly knowing themselves, truly love themselves.
"And the Philosopher proves this by five things which are proper to friendship. For each friend 1. wills his friend to be and to live; 2. wills goods to him; 3. works goods for him; 4. lives together with him delightfully; 5. agrees with him, as if delighted and saddened in the same things. And according to this the good love themselves, as regards the interior man, because 1) they will him to be preserved in his integrity; and 2) they wish goods for him, which are spiritual goods; and 3) they also devote effort to attaining them; and 4) they return delightfully to their own heart, because there they find both good thoughts in the present, and the memory of past goods, and the hope of future goods, from which delight is caused. Likewise also 5) they do not suffer dissension of will in themselves, because their whole soul tends to one thing. - On the contrary, the evil 1) do not will to be preserved in the integrity of the interior man; 2) nor do they desire spiritual goods for him; 3) nor do they work for this; 4) nor is it delightful for them to live with themselves by returning to the heart, because there they find evils, present, past, and future, which they abhor; 5) nor do they agree with themselves on account of a remorseful conscience.
"And by the same things it can be proved that the evil love themselves according to the corruption of the exterior man; but the good do not thus love themselves."