"if love were to be so perfect that the difficulty vanished altogether—it would be more meritorious still."

"the difficulty which is found in loving an enemy does not constitute the reason for meriting, except insofar as perfect charity is demonstrated by it, which overcomes the difficulty. Thus, if there would be such a perfect charity as to take away all difficulty, to this extent it would be more meritorious."

"Non . . . difficultas quae est in dilectione inimici, facit ad rationem meriti, nisi in quantum per hoc demonstratur perfectio caritatis, quae hanc difficultatem vincit; unde si esset tam perfecta caritas quae totam difficultatem tolleret, adhuc esset magis meritorium."

     St. Thomas Aquinas, Quaest. disp. de caritate 8.ad 17 (=de virtutibus in communi 2.8.ad 17), trans. Kendzierski.  Trans. Pieper (Leisure:  the basis of culture II ((San Francisco:  Ignatius Press, 2009 [1952]), 34):  "It is not the difficulty of loving one’s enemy that matters when the essence of the merit of doing so is concerned, excepting in so far as the perfection of love wipes out the difficulty. And therefore, if love were to be so perfect that the difficulty vanished altogether—it would be more meritorious still."  Latin from Corpus Thomisticum.  I was reminded of this by SPU University Scholar John Goodhew.