Vigils Reading – Office for the Dead

LOVE AND HATE

From “New Seeds of Contemplation” by Thomas Merton

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There is in every weak, lost and isolated member of the human race an

agony of hatred born of his own helplessness, his own isolation. Hatred is the

sign and the expression of loneliness, of unworthiness, of insufficiency. And in

so far as each one of us is lonely, is unworthy, each one hates himself. Some of us

are aware of this self-hatred, and because of it we reproach ourselves and punish

ourselves needlessly. Punishment cannot cure the feeling that we are unworthy.

There is nothing we can do about it as long as we feel that we are isolated,

insufficient, helpless, alone.

Others, who are less conscious of their own self-hatred, realize it in a

different form by projecting it on to others. There is a proud and self-confident

hate, strong and cruel, which enjoys the pleasure of hating, for it is directed

outward to the unworthiness of another. But this strong and happy hate does

not realize that like all hate, it destroys and consumes the self that hates, and not

the object that is hated. Hate in any form is self-destructive, and even when it

triumphs physically it triumphs in its own spiritual ruin.

Strong hate, the hate that takes joy in hating, is strong because it does not

believe itself to be unworthy and alone. It feels the support of a justifying God, of

an idol of war, an avenging and destroying spirit. From such blood-drinking

gods the human race was once liberated, with great toil and terrible sorrow, by

the death of a God who delivered himself to the Cross and suffered the

pathological cruelty of his own creatures out of pity for them.

In conquering death he opened their eyes to the reality of a love which

asks no questions about worthiness, a love which overcomes hatred and

destroys death. But men and women have now come to reject this divine

revelation of pardon, and they are consequently returning to the old war gods,

the gods that insatiably drink blood and eat the flesh of others. It is easier to

serve the hate-gods because they thrive on the worship of collective fanaticism.

To serve the hate-gods, one has only to be blinded by collective passion. To serve

the God of Love one must be free, one must face the terrible responsibility of the

decision to love in spite of all unworthiness whether in oneself or in one’s

neighbor.