“We observe how the Lord often focuses attention on our disdain for one another. We encounter this common attitude in ourselves every day. Even when it does not lead to murder, the Lord teaches that such disdain puts us “in danger of hell fire” (Mt 5:22). Whenever there is antipathy, disdain, or anger in our hearts, reconciliation with God is our foremost need, followed by reconciliation with our brother (vss. 23-26).” (Dynamis 6/10/2020)
“Hell is where no one has anything in common with anyone else except the fact that they all hate one another and cannot get away from each other and from themselves.” (Thomas Merton)
“In my family, in my parish, and among my coworkers, am I guilty of sins which cause or deepen division and conflict? Do I ask forgiveness when I realize I am in the wrong? Or am I always justifying what I do, no matter what pain or harm it causes others? Do I regard it as a waste of time to communicate with opponents? Do I listen with care and respect to those who irritate me? Do I pray for the well-being and salvation of adversaries and enemies? Do I allow what others say or what the press reports to define my attitude toward those whom I have never met? Do I take positive steps to overcome division? Are there people I regard as not bearing God’s image and therefore innately evil?” (Jim Forest)
“The triumph of sin, the main sign of its rule over the world, is division, opposition, separation, hatred. Therefore, the first break through this fortress of sin is forgiveness: the return to unity, solidarity, love. To forgive is to put between me and my "enemy" the radiant forgiveness of God Himself. To forgive is to reject the hopeless "dead-ends" of human relations and to refer them to Christ. Forgiveness is truly a "breakthrough" of the Kingdom into this sinful and fallen world.” (Father Alexander Schmemann)
“Our task is to love America… And that love, if it is to be truly Christian…, must arise from the context of a deep humility, presenting Christ not unto judgment or condemnation, but unto the healing of the soul and body of America—unto its sanctification, transfiguration, and eternal salvation—and our own…You cannot save what you do not love. And to love all requires total humility. Christ comes in love to all, because despite His moral, ethical, liturgical, theological, spiritual, and ascetical perfection, He condemns none except those whose formal religious status or conceit tempts them to disdain others. Christ alone has every reason and right to critique, judge, and condemn us all, for He, as Perfect Man, has succeeded where we have all failed. His holiness, His sanctity, His perfection are manifest in meekness, self-emptying, in humility.” (Fr. Michael Oleksa)