DO GOOD TO THOSE WHO HATE YOU March 30, 2025

We live in an era in which verbal attack is commonplace. Politically, much of western society has become divided to the point of extreme polarization, in which one side views the other as positively evil. One politician running for the most senior office in her country infamously described the supporters of the opposition as “a basket of deplorables”.

     Judging by comments posted on Catholic social media it seems that the atmosphere of attack that has taken possession of public discourse has also taken root within the Church. It is, of course, to be expected that when the stakes are high passions will simmer and boil. Perhaps the stakes have never been higher. Issues which for Catholics are crucially important – the sanctity of human life, the divine institution and the meaning of Holy Matrimony, the special sovereignty of the family, and the intrinsic value of each and every human being, including freedom from medical experimentation – are all under ferocious attack from various quarters.

     It can be tempting for us to demonize the opposition, especially when the tactics used to undermine the principles that we treasure are duplicitous and unscrupulous. But however hard we battle to defend these principles we must resist the temptation to dehumanize our opponents in this war.

     In the Gospel Our Lord instructs us: “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.” What we have to remember is that each and every human being is created in the image of God. This indelible divine image is universal throughout the whole human race. When God looks at any of us, He sees a potential for great beauty of soul and holiness. If He also finds sin within our hearts, then that is an obstacle to our growth which He, with our cooperation, desires to remove so that we might flourish. We must strive to see our fellows with this same divine vision.

     Witnessing the concerted efforts of the earthly powers-that-be to contaminate the innocence of children in schools with pathological ideologies, we might feel inclined to identify the human agents promoting such evil with the diabolical forces which are ultimately their inspiration. Demonization of any human being is however a grave sin against charity and a denial of the Divine Providence. Even a man who has given himself over to wicked depravity is capable with God’s grace (and the help of our prayers) of conversion to the life of grace which elevates the image of God in his soul to a supernatural likeness, at least while he still has breath in his lungs.

     The injunction to love our enemies is certainly not a commandment to like them. Liking is based on feeling, and feelings are neither here nor there when it comes to sanctification. Feelings wax and wane, and our control over them is generally limited. Loving is an act of the will, and exercise of this virtue even has the power to affect how we feel towards one another.

     So does the Gospel insist that we must never put up a fight? Is it a charter for pacifism? Certainly not. There are times when we must fight for what is true and just. It does, however, correct our perspective. We may not wish our enemies victory; but we must desire their salvation. And in the culture wars that rage around us we are not called to be pacifists, but we are obliged to be pacifiers.                                                               ~ FR. PAUL DOBSON