Choose a topic from Part 2B:
1. It is possible for a debased human will to hate God.God is altogether lovable, but to the sinner who incurs thenecessary penalties of sin, hatred of the divine justice, whichimposes the penalties, is possible.
2. Hatred of God is manifestly the worst of sins. For theevil of sin consists in the fact that it turns the soul away fromGod. And there can be no more complete and dreadful turning fromGod than by hatred of God.
3. It is always a sin to hate one's neighbor. For, asSt. John says (I John 2:9): "He that hateth his brother is indarkness." We are to hate sin in our brother, but we are tolove our brother.
4. Our hatred of our neighbor is a sin less hurtful to himthan other sins, such as theft, or murder, or adultery. Therefore,it is not true to say that hatred is the most grievous of sinsagainst a neighbor.
5. Hatred is not listed with the capital sins. For, thoughother sins may arise from hatred as from their capital source,hatred itself is not promptly present to fallen nature, but comesas the result of the gradual deterioration and destruction oflove.
6. Hatred grows out of the capital sin of envy, which issorrow over a neighbor's good. Envy makes a neighbor's goodhateful to the envious man, and thus, as St. Augustine says in hisRule: "Out of envy cometh hatred."
"A man should keep himself down, and not busy himself in mirabilibus super se."
St Philip Neri
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"Whom do you seek, friend, if you seek not God? Seek him, find him, cleave to him; bind your will to his with bands of steel and you will live always at peace in this life and in the next."
St Alphonsus de Liguori
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"The more you know and the better you understand, the more severely will you be judged, unless your life is also the more holy. Do not be proud, therefore, because of your learning or skill. Rather, fear because of the talent given you."
Thomas á Kempis
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