Enmity

Many of the issues that divide us are difficult issues. It really matters what we do about abortion. Questions about women in our families and in society are absolutely important. Race relations and immigration involve difficult problems. We face enormous political and economic problems that we must solve. If we listen to the still small voice of the Holy Ghost rather than to the shouts we hear from each other, we are more likely to be able to find adequate answers to the problems we face, especially if we are prepared to allow him to surprise us.

As we come to answers to our current problems, we may have strong, well-considered views on those and other matters, and we ought not to whitewash our opinions or keep silent in public merely to get along. But, because these are important matters, we naturally become emotionally involved in them. And as soon as we do, we run the risk that our enmity toward evil will become enmity toward our brothers and sisters.

Sometimes we say things like, "I respect your right to have a different opinion." But often such words are only a veil for what otherwise would count as hatred. We must do more than respect the other person's right to differ with us. We must respect the other person.

The Gospel teaches us how to do that. Christ suffered our enmity in order to overcome enmity. We must do the same. His suffering, a suffering that never became a cause of enmity in him, puts us under a moral imperative not to have enmity toward any other person even in our battle against real evil.

The cliché says, "Hate the sin, not the sinner." Like all clichés, it has been so over-used that it often has little meaning. We say it thoughtlessly, as something to fill in conversational gaps or as something we say in our default mode of speaking about particular issues.

However, like most clichés, it has become a cliché because it says something we recognize to be profoundly true. God needs us to remember that cliché and to practice it in regards to everyone, whether like us or not. We must not pervert our hatred of evil into hatred of another.