1 John 3:11-21
Psalm 100:1-5
John 1:43-51
Why did Cain kill Abel? St. John says that it was because Abel was righteous and Cain was unrighteous and the unrighteous always want to kill the righteous. The unjust always hate the just. Those who delight in sin hate the saints. The unrighteous say, “Let us lie in wait for the righteous one, because he is obnoxious to us. To us he is the censure of our thoughts; merely to see him is a hardship for us, because his life is not like that of others, and different are his ways.”
Many people do not even live up to their own standards. They hate themselves for not being better, but they do not want to actually put in the effort required to be better, so they turn their hatred out on those who do. Consider the hatred directed at those who have many children by those who use birth control. Consider the hatred directed at newlyweds who were faithful to chastity by those who have never practiced it. Consider the hatred directed at those who serve the poor by those who serve themselves.
This hatred first takes the form of ridicule. They call the saints fools. They call them repressed and psychologically immature. But if ridicule does not work, if the people are obviously happy doing what is right, clearly happier than those who choose sin, the hatred becomes an accusation: The sinner thinks, “I cannot be good, therefore no one can be good. It is not possible. They are just pretending.” Finally, the hatred become pure anger. “How dare they live according to some set of rules? Do they think that they are better than the rest of us?”
It is this hatred that is behind martyrdom. It is because of this hatred that 80% of religious persecution in the world happens to the 20% who are Christian. This is the hatred that killed Abel. This is the hatred that killed Jesus Christ. This is the hatred of Satan himself who cannot stand that anyone should go to heaven when he does not.
We have to admit that this hatred is a danger for every one of us. We are all susceptible to the temptation to hate those who are better than us. Do not be deceived just because you do not kill the person you are jealous of; everyone who hates their brother or sister is a murderer.
Daily Homilies
Showing posts with label Hatred. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hatred. Show all posts
May 12, 2012 - Saturday of the Fifth Week of Easter
Acts 16:1-10
Psalm 100:1-3, 5
John 15:18-21
Not only in our Gospel reading today but in many other places, Jesus makes it clear that the world is going to hate his disciples. He is so adamant about this that we can be sure that if the world hates us we are doing well, and if the world loves us we are doing something wrong, but this benchmark requires some clarification. What kind of hatred exactly is a good sign? If we are obnoxious, the world will hate us too. The world hates many things; not all of them are good.
There are those who are always taking the “common sense position” which means the position that most people are going to take. They are not rooted in the truth, so they float wherever the prevailing winds take them. A disciple of Jesus Christ is not like this. We are attached to the truth. Anything which tries to pull us away from the truth will hate us because we will not go.
The hatred of the world is frustration and anger. The world tried to conquer but failed, so it throws a temper tantrum. What we want to inspire in the world is not just hatred at us because we are mean and selfish but confusion because we are not. Many people have made peace with the world because they were convinced that they could not be good or that there was no such thing as good. The true disciple of Jesus is a living contradiction to the world.
Mother Theresa is a perfect case study for this question. She was loved by the vast majority of people. She did not compromise the truth to make this happen. She freely preached against abortion and other evils. Still there were those who hated her. One man wrote a book filled with lies arguing that she was a terrible person. The world does not refer to the majority of people, nor even to any group of people rather than another. The world refers to the love of sin which lives in our own souls.
The people that a Christian should delight to be hated by are those who have embraced sin and made their attachment to sin public. Above all, each Christian should see a war within themselves. An excellent sign that we are doing well is when a part of us, the old self, hates the new life we are living, even though we are truly happy.
Psalm 100:1-3, 5
John 15:18-21
Not only in our Gospel reading today but in many other places, Jesus makes it clear that the world is going to hate his disciples. He is so adamant about this that we can be sure that if the world hates us we are doing well, and if the world loves us we are doing something wrong, but this benchmark requires some clarification. What kind of hatred exactly is a good sign? If we are obnoxious, the world will hate us too. The world hates many things; not all of them are good.
There are those who are always taking the “common sense position” which means the position that most people are going to take. They are not rooted in the truth, so they float wherever the prevailing winds take them. A disciple of Jesus Christ is not like this. We are attached to the truth. Anything which tries to pull us away from the truth will hate us because we will not go.
The hatred of the world is frustration and anger. The world tried to conquer but failed, so it throws a temper tantrum. What we want to inspire in the world is not just hatred at us because we are mean and selfish but confusion because we are not. Many people have made peace with the world because they were convinced that they could not be good or that there was no such thing as good. The true disciple of Jesus is a living contradiction to the world.
Mother Theresa is a perfect case study for this question. She was loved by the vast majority of people. She did not compromise the truth to make this happen. She freely preached against abortion and other evils. Still there were those who hated her. One man wrote a book filled with lies arguing that she was a terrible person. The world does not refer to the majority of people, nor even to any group of people rather than another. The world refers to the love of sin which lives in our own souls.
The people that a Christian should delight to be hated by are those who have embraced sin and made their attachment to sin public. Above all, each Christian should see a war within themselves. An excellent sign that we are doing well is when a part of us, the old self, hates the new life we are living, even though we are truly happy.
January 5, 2012 - Memorial of Saint John Neumann, Bishop
Today's Readings
Why did Cain kill Abel? St. John says that it was because Abel was righteous and Cain was unrighteous and the unrighteous always want to kill the righteous. The unjust always hate the just. Those who delight in sin hate the saints. The unrighteous say, “Let us lie in wait for the righteous one, because he is obnoxious to us. To us he is the censure of our thoughts; merely to see him is a hardship for us, because his life is not like that of others, and different are his ways.”
Many people do not even live up to their own standards. They hate themselves for not being better, but they do not want to actually put in the effort required to be better, so they turn their hatred out on those who do. Consider the hatred directed at those who have many children by those who use birth control. Consider the hatred directed at newlyweds who were faithful to chastity by those who have never practiced it. Consider the hatred directed at those who serve the poor by those who serve themselves.
This hatred first takes the form of ridicule. They call the saints fools. They call them repressed and psychologically immature. But if ridicule does not work, if the people are obviously happy doing what is right, clearly happier than those who choose sin, the hatred becomes an accusation: The sinner thinks, “I cannot be good, therefore no one can be good. It is not possible. They are just pretending.” Finally, the hatred become pure anger. “How dare they live according to some set of rules? Do they think that they are better than the rest of us?”
It is this hatred that is behind martyrdom. It is because of this hatred that 80% of religious persecution in the world happens to the 20% who are Christian. This is the hatred that killed Abel. This is the hatred that killed Jesus Christ. This is the hatred of Satan himself who cannot stand that anyone should go to heaven when he does not.
We have to admit that this hatred is a danger for every one of us. We are all susceptible to the temptation to hate those who are better than us. Do not be deceived just because you do not kill the person you are jealous of; everyone who hates their brother or sister is a murderer.
Why did Cain kill Abel? St. John says that it was because Abel was righteous and Cain was unrighteous and the unrighteous always want to kill the righteous. The unjust always hate the just. Those who delight in sin hate the saints. The unrighteous say, “Let us lie in wait for the righteous one, because he is obnoxious to us. To us he is the censure of our thoughts; merely to see him is a hardship for us, because his life is not like that of others, and different are his ways.”
Many people do not even live up to their own standards. They hate themselves for not being better, but they do not want to actually put in the effort required to be better, so they turn their hatred out on those who do. Consider the hatred directed at those who have many children by those who use birth control. Consider the hatred directed at newlyweds who were faithful to chastity by those who have never practiced it. Consider the hatred directed at those who serve the poor by those who serve themselves.
This hatred first takes the form of ridicule. They call the saints fools. They call them repressed and psychologically immature. But if ridicule does not work, if the people are obviously happy doing what is right, clearly happier than those who choose sin, the hatred becomes an accusation: The sinner thinks, “I cannot be good, therefore no one can be good. It is not possible. They are just pretending.” Finally, the hatred become pure anger. “How dare they live according to some set of rules? Do they think that they are better than the rest of us?”
It is this hatred that is behind martyrdom. It is because of this hatred that 80% of religious persecution in the world happens to the 20% who are Christian. This is the hatred that killed Abel. This is the hatred that killed Jesus Christ. This is the hatred of Satan himself who cannot stand that anyone should go to heaven when he does not.
We have to admit that this hatred is a danger for every one of us. We are all susceptible to the temptation to hate those who are better than us. Do not be deceived just because you do not kill the person you are jealous of; everyone who hates their brother or sister is a murderer.
September 11, 2011 - Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today's Readings
I was watching the news coverage from ten years ago last night. I suppose a lot of you have done that in recent days, along with all the memorials on television. It was so sad to watch those planes hit knowing that I was watching hundreds of people die, knowing that almost 3000 would be dead before the day was over, remembering the passengers of United 93 who fought back and successfully prevented a fourth attack.
The attacks of September 11th, 2001 present a troubling question for Christians: should we forgive the terrorists? After considering this question over the past 10 years, I believe the answer is No. There are two teachings on forgiveness that pervade the Gospels. On the one hand, Jesus tells us that we ought to forgive freely and often, that no crime is so bad that we would not forgive. On the other hand, there is an intrinsic relationship between forgiveness and repentance. Throughout the Scriptures there is nothing that suggests that we should forgive someone who is not sorry. Our Gospel last Sunday, which comes before this Gospel on forgiveness, was all about how to seek repentance from someone who has harmed us.
If Osama bin Laden had appeared a year ago and asked for forgiveness, it would have been the duty of every Christian to forgive him, from the families of the dead to every American, but he did not. Even if we forgave him, he would have still been arrested. Forgiveness does not mean the removal of all consequences but the acceptance of repentance. We would have been eager to forgive him, if he had been sorry, but he was not so we cannot.
We do not even withhold forgiveness until we are satisfied that the person is truly sorry. Just the beginning of sorrow is enough. We do not have to wait for an elaborate heartfelt apology. As soon as a person is even the slightest bit sorry, we must forgive immediately but to forgive without repentance is meaningless; it is an insult to the meaning of forgiveness to try and forgive someone who is not sorry.
Consider this: Jesus did not forgive those who crucified him but he did forgive the repentant thief crucified next to him. About the others, he said “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” This is an example for us. We cannot forgive those who do not show repentance, so we hand over the work of forgiveness to our Heavenly Father who knows the depths of each man’s heart. If he finds repentance there, he can forgive them. If he does not, he can lead them to repent.
As for us, what should we do, having handed over the work of forgiveness to our Father? I think that the proper word for someone who we cannot forgive is an enemy, and we have clear instructions for what to do to our enemies: Jesus says, “Love you enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” There are some people who we cannot forgive, so we love them instead.
But how? How do we love our enemies? Love consists of three parts: attraction, desire, and goodwill. Attraction means seeing the good in the other person. This is particularly important with enemies. Sometimes we have to struggle to see the good. In the end, if we cannot see any other good, we can begin by remembering that they were created by God and he loves them just like us.
Concentrating of the good of the other person, be it ever so small, is important because it prevents us from hating them, from concentrating on the bad. As our first reading from Sirach says, “Wrath and anger are hateful things, yet the sinner hugs them tight.” If we do not actively work at loving our enemies we will start hating them, staying up at night going over our grievances against them, letting anger burn us like acid, until we are destroyed. Hatred is poison for our souls, so we must fight it with love.
The second part of love is desire. The desire of true love is all about respect. Once we get past anger, the temptation is to despise our enemy. If we desire the love of our enemy, that means that we respect them as human beings; we wish that they were not our enemy. If we think that our enemy is less than human, we are wrong. They are just like us. As Sirach says, “Could anyone refuse mercy to another like himself?” The hijackers were men just like us, even though they are horribly mistaken.
The third part of love is goodwill, wishing and doing good things for others. We should wish our enemies well. This does not mean wishing them success, but it does mean that we hope to see them in heaven someday. Goodwill is opposed to revenge, which we must always avoid. Sirach tells us that “The vengeful will suffer the LORD's vengeance”, and it is written in another place “God says, ‘Vengence is mine. I will repay.’” It is written in Scripture, not once but twice, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” There is no revenge as satisfying as helping someone who has hurt you, because you get to be the better person.
Love everyone, especially your enemies. It feels good to nurse hatred at first, but hatred will ruin us in the end. There is no reason to hate anyone at all since we can love them instead. Hatred is more our enemy than any person. The attacks ten years ago were motivated by hatred. The death and destruction is a testament to what hatred can do. We will never end hatred with wars or security checkpoints. These are only coping with the symptoms. We must attack the root of it all, we can destroy the root of it all, which is hatred, only with love. Love is powerful enough to take on hatred and win.
I was watching the news coverage from ten years ago last night. I suppose a lot of you have done that in recent days, along with all the memorials on television. It was so sad to watch those planes hit knowing that I was watching hundreds of people die, knowing that almost 3000 would be dead before the day was over, remembering the passengers of United 93 who fought back and successfully prevented a fourth attack.
The attacks of September 11th, 2001 present a troubling question for Christians: should we forgive the terrorists? After considering this question over the past 10 years, I believe the answer is No. There are two teachings on forgiveness that pervade the Gospels. On the one hand, Jesus tells us that we ought to forgive freely and often, that no crime is so bad that we would not forgive. On the other hand, there is an intrinsic relationship between forgiveness and repentance. Throughout the Scriptures there is nothing that suggests that we should forgive someone who is not sorry. Our Gospel last Sunday, which comes before this Gospel on forgiveness, was all about how to seek repentance from someone who has harmed us.
If Osama bin Laden had appeared a year ago and asked for forgiveness, it would have been the duty of every Christian to forgive him, from the families of the dead to every American, but he did not. Even if we forgave him, he would have still been arrested. Forgiveness does not mean the removal of all consequences but the acceptance of repentance. We would have been eager to forgive him, if he had been sorry, but he was not so we cannot.
We do not even withhold forgiveness until we are satisfied that the person is truly sorry. Just the beginning of sorrow is enough. We do not have to wait for an elaborate heartfelt apology. As soon as a person is even the slightest bit sorry, we must forgive immediately but to forgive without repentance is meaningless; it is an insult to the meaning of forgiveness to try and forgive someone who is not sorry.
Consider this: Jesus did not forgive those who crucified him but he did forgive the repentant thief crucified next to him. About the others, he said “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” This is an example for us. We cannot forgive those who do not show repentance, so we hand over the work of forgiveness to our Heavenly Father who knows the depths of each man’s heart. If he finds repentance there, he can forgive them. If he does not, he can lead them to repent.
As for us, what should we do, having handed over the work of forgiveness to our Father? I think that the proper word for someone who we cannot forgive is an enemy, and we have clear instructions for what to do to our enemies: Jesus says, “Love you enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” There are some people who we cannot forgive, so we love them instead.
But how? How do we love our enemies? Love consists of three parts: attraction, desire, and goodwill. Attraction means seeing the good in the other person. This is particularly important with enemies. Sometimes we have to struggle to see the good. In the end, if we cannot see any other good, we can begin by remembering that they were created by God and he loves them just like us.
Concentrating of the good of the other person, be it ever so small, is important because it prevents us from hating them, from concentrating on the bad. As our first reading from Sirach says, “Wrath and anger are hateful things, yet the sinner hugs them tight.” If we do not actively work at loving our enemies we will start hating them, staying up at night going over our grievances against them, letting anger burn us like acid, until we are destroyed. Hatred is poison for our souls, so we must fight it with love.
The second part of love is desire. The desire of true love is all about respect. Once we get past anger, the temptation is to despise our enemy. If we desire the love of our enemy, that means that we respect them as human beings; we wish that they were not our enemy. If we think that our enemy is less than human, we are wrong. They are just like us. As Sirach says, “Could anyone refuse mercy to another like himself?” The hijackers were men just like us, even though they are horribly mistaken.
The third part of love is goodwill, wishing and doing good things for others. We should wish our enemies well. This does not mean wishing them success, but it does mean that we hope to see them in heaven someday. Goodwill is opposed to revenge, which we must always avoid. Sirach tells us that “The vengeful will suffer the LORD's vengeance”, and it is written in another place “God says, ‘Vengence is mine. I will repay.’” It is written in Scripture, not once but twice, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” There is no revenge as satisfying as helping someone who has hurt you, because you get to be the better person.
Love everyone, especially your enemies. It feels good to nurse hatred at first, but hatred will ruin us in the end. There is no reason to hate anyone at all since we can love them instead. Hatred is more our enemy than any person. The attacks ten years ago were motivated by hatred. The death and destruction is a testament to what hatred can do. We will never end hatred with wars or security checkpoints. These are only coping with the symptoms. We must attack the root of it all, we can destroy the root of it all, which is hatred, only with love. Love is powerful enough to take on hatred and win.
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