On Hatred
Love sinners, but hate their deeds, and do not disdain sinners for their failings, so that you yourself do not fall into the temptation in which they abide… Do not be angry at anyone and do not hate anyone, neither for their faith, nor for their shameful deeds… Do not foster hatred for the sinner, for we are all guilty… Hate his sins, and pray for him, so that you may be made like unto Christ, who had no dislike for sinners, but prayed for them.
This quote from St. Isaac the Syrian, that honey tongued holy poet of old, brings a light to me and reminds me of an old memory— at least old in my 24 years. My mom and my child-self said a prayer every night. We learned this prayer after she taught me a lesson from the bible and I blurted it out. It went like this “O Lord, help us to love the bad guys but not what they do.”
O’ if only I were still so innocent to blurt out wisdom without effort. I think the same spirit that animated the great saint inspired that exclamation that night. And yet I now fail to live up to my very own child’s-prayer. I’ve grown weary of bad men. I’ve overenjoyed the activity of knowing other’s souls to justify my own failings.
But where has this brought me? It has only made me acutely aware of the external evil that dwells in this world and left me with very little knowledge of my own failings. To nurse this sweet-poison of self-satisfaction I continue to focus my attention on the exterior, the other, the sinner beyond myself. In so doing, I enter into a fiction. A lie. Death.
If I wish to be pleasing to God and of use to my brothers it seems better to me to focus first on my own folly. The withdraw of that sweet-poison will sting but like an alcoholic going through withdraw I must endure some suffering to reach the end of it…
But such suffering is easily endured once the end toward which I strive comes into view. Like a sailor in a storm spotting port, I can cheer to endure the short bit of rough sea between me and the land of salvation. All the while working dutifully to make sure this boat does not crash against some crag or endure a Remora.