“Then in anger his master handed him over to the tortures”
What is hatred? Hatred is “a voluntary act by which someone or something is regarded with bitter aversion.” [1] There are many kinds of hatred and levels of hatred. The first and primary is hatred towards God. “On the first level hatred is directed against either God or some rational being; on the second level it is directed against some quality in another but without hatred of the individual personality.” [2]
“Personal hatred of God may take the form of disgust, when a person detests God because he punishes sinners. It is a grave sin because it is contrary to the justice of God. Another form is the hatred of enmity, when a person actually wishes evil to God. Such hatred is of its nature diabolical, and is the most grievous of all sins, since it approximates the enmity that the devils have against God.” [3]
There is also hatred towards another person. “Personal hatred of a human being is the direct opposite of the virtue of love. Where love inspires a person to wish well to another, hatred arouses the desire to do harm or have harm befall the one hated, not as a source of possible good, but precisely as evil. The gravity of such sins of personal hatred depends on how serious the hard wished or intended, and on how deliberately the malicious desires are harbored.” [4]
What does Jesus teach us about anger? Jesus teaches us what God revealed in the commandments, thou shall not kill. However, Jesus expands and perfects the understanding of this teaching on the Sermon on the Mount. “In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord recalls the commandment, ‘You shall not kill,’ and adds to it the proscription of anger, hatred, and vengeance.” [5] In the parable today we see two examples of anger and the action that follows the feeling. The anger of God, in the parable, the master is an anger that leads to justice. The master “handed him over to the tortures until he should pay back the whole debt.” The anger of man, in the parable, the servant is an anger that leads to violence and hatred. The servant “seized him and started to choke him”. Anger is not a sin. How we handle anger is a matter of vice or virtue. “If anger reaches the point of a deliberate desire to kill or seriously wound a neighbor, it is gravely against charity; it is a mortal sin.” [6] The servant in the parable let his anger reach the point of deliberate violence against his neighbor.
When is hatred a sin? “Deliberate hatred is contrary to charity. Hatred of the neighbor is a sin when one deliberately wishes him evil. Hatred of the neighbor is a grave sin when one deliberately desires him grave harm.” [7]
Search: Violence and Hatred
Is it ever okay to hate? Yes. We can hate evil. However we should never hate a person, because every person is made in the image and likeness of God, has a soul and they are inherently good due to the fact that they are created by God. “Hatred of a quality in someone may be either sinful or not. If the hatred is directed only toward some evil quality that a person has, but does not touch that person, it is not sinful. It becomes sinful only if the hatred extends to the person who has some admittedly evil trait or sinful habit. Moreover, it becomes especially sinful when the hatred is directed at some virtue that a person possesses, even when the enmity does not extend to the individual personally.” [8] What is an example of hating a virtue? If we become bitter or angry that a person is prayerful, generous, kind, charitable, etc. this is sin. At the root of this sin is pride and spiritual envy.
Forgiveness and mercy is a pillar of the Christian life. When Jesus taught us to pray the Our Father, He taught us to ask for four particular human needs: forgiveness, food (bodily and spiritual), strength in temptation and deliverance from evil and the evil one. Forgiveness made the top four! “The teaching of Christ goes so far as to require the forgiveness of offenses. He extends the commandment of love, which is that of the New Law, to all enemies. Liberation in the spirit of the Gospel is incompatible with hatred of one’s enemy as a person, but not with hatred of the evil that he does as an enemy.” [9] We hate the evil that our enemy commits, but we don’t hate our enemy. It has been said that we are our own worst enemy. That being said we must know our sin, hate our sin and confess our sin. If we do not hate our sin, we will not confess our sin. Just we must hate the sin and love the sinner, we must also love our self enough to eradicate our sin. We must hate sin as a mother hates the cancer that is spreading in her child.
What is the opposite of hatred? Love. By consistently loving someone we are forgiving of their shortcomings. God loves us infinitely and that is why he forgives seventy times seven. “There are many passions. The most fundamental passion is love, aroused by the attraction of the good. Love causes a desire for the absent good and the hope of obtaining it; this movement finds completion in the pleasure and joy of the good possessed. The apprehension of evil causes hatred, aversion, and fear of the impending evil; this movement ends in sadness at some present evil, or in the anger that resists it.” [10] We have then fear and love. In the midst of evil, which is what we face in today’s Gospel, we can have fear or love. Saint John tells us, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives our fear…” (1 John 4:18).
The servant has an apprehension or anxiety for the evil of being owed money. This fear leads to hatred, aversion and violence. The master show both mercy and justice in the midst of evil. His mercy and justice flow from love, not fear. At first the master forgives the debt showing great mercy, this is out of love and compassion for the servant and his family. The master later, after hearing of the servant grave offense, punishes the servant. Why does he punish him? The punishment is out of love and justice. The master desires the servant to be reconciled and reformed and so he must stay in prison until he pays the whole debt. His debt is not about money, for he has been forgiven the monetary debt. His debt is the offense against his fellow servant and against his master. Our debts are against the master (God) and fellow servants (neighbor).
Where does hatred spring out from? Hatred comes from the deadly sin of envy. Envy is sadness and jealousy of seeing someone with things that you wished you had. It also wishes grave harm to another person or at the very least that the person will mess up in some way. In short envy is when we are happy when another sad and we are sad when then are happy. It is the opposite of the beatitude, “Blessed are those who mourn” (Matthew 5:4). Saint Augustine thought of envy as “the diabolical sin.” [11] Saint Gregory the Great said, “From envy are born hatred, detraction, calumny, joy caused by the misfortune of a neighbor, and displeasure caused by his prosperity.” [12]
Discussion Questions
Why do people fall into envy so easily?
What steps can people do to not be envious?
How have you let go of hate in your life?
[1] Fr. John Hardon, Modern Catholic Dictionary pg. 244
[2] Ibid
[3] Ibid
[4] Ibid
[5] Catechism of the Catholic Church - CCC 2262
[6]CCC 2302
[7] CCC 2303
[8] Fr. John Hardon, Modern Catholic Dictionary pg. 244
[9] CCC 1933
[10] CCC 1765
[11] Cf. St. Augustine, De catechizand is rudibus 4, 8: PL 40, 315-316
[12] St. Gregory the Great, Mo ralia in Job 31, 45: PL 76, 621