Feast of Saint Matthias, Apostle
(Click Here for Readings)
Gospel of John 15:9-17
"This is my
commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater
love than this,
to lay down one’s
life for one’s friends...."
Easy to hate After reading this gospel passage, a question came to mind: Why is it so easy to hate? Everywhere I turn someone is "hating" this or that. A person hates his or her job, so the complaining begins. One country hates another country, so a war erupts. A extremist group hates the idea of God, so vicious trolls attack religious blogs with vile comments.
People get so easily offended these days. This offense quickly turns into anger, rage, and vehement hate. I attribute the growing hate to the melting pot of different cultures living and working together, excessive individualism, obsession with social media, and overall societal pessimism. The news media does an outstanding job of suffocating our minds with murders, suicides, bad economic news, and other tragedies on a regular basis. Then, social media allows us to compare ourselves to others which in turn encourages envy, jealousy and hate. Overall, "Hate one another" appears to be the new catch phrase. Maybe if a person can be a good enough hater he/she can star in their own reality tv show.
Harder to love To love somebody unconditionally is much more difficult! It demands a caring and humble heart. Any hate flowing through our arteries and veins must be purged and purified. Hate only leads to cardiac arrest of the soul. Why not convert that hate into love? Why not turn around the pessimistic thinking into optimism? Why not try to see the goodness in others and our surroundings? If God is willing to lay down his life for his enemies and those who persecute him, we can do it, too.
Our hearts were designed to love. Yet, this love is a challenging emotion. So many people break our hearts on a regular basis. This is the reason hate has such a strangle on each one of us. Satan "loves" if we habitually hate, hate, hate! This is the opposite of Christ's call to love, love, love!
Love one another Through prayer and emerging ourselves in the sacraments, we can grow to love one another despite our differences, weaknesses, and prejudices. When the world seems destined for hateful nothingness, love changes the course directing the world into spiritual happiness.
-J.
People get so easily offended these days. This offense quickly turns into anger, rage, and vehement hate. I attribute the growing hate to the melting pot of different cultures living and working together, excessive individualism, obsession with social media, and overall societal pessimism. The news media does an outstanding job of suffocating our minds with murders, suicides, bad economic news, and other tragedies on a regular basis. Then, social media allows us to compare ourselves to others which in turn encourages envy, jealousy and hate. Overall, "Hate one another" appears to be the new catch phrase. Maybe if a person can be a good enough hater he/she can star in their own reality tv show.
Harder to love To love somebody unconditionally is much more difficult! It demands a caring and humble heart. Any hate flowing through our arteries and veins must be purged and purified. Hate only leads to cardiac arrest of the soul. Why not convert that hate into love? Why not turn around the pessimistic thinking into optimism? Why not try to see the goodness in others and our surroundings? If God is willing to lay down his life for his enemies and those who persecute him, we can do it, too.
Our hearts were designed to love. Yet, this love is a challenging emotion. So many people break our hearts on a regular basis. This is the reason hate has such a strangle on each one of us. Satan "loves" if we habitually hate, hate, hate! This is the opposite of Christ's call to love, love, love!
Love one another Through prayer and emerging ourselves in the sacraments, we can grow to love one another despite our differences, weaknesses, and prejudices. When the world seems destined for hateful nothingness, love changes the course directing the world into spiritual happiness.
-J.
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