The Crosses of Love and Hate

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

(Proofread)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here. That you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My immaculate mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

It’s my good fortune to belong to a church which is hated. Truly indeed it is loved by those who know its divine character. But it’s also hated by thousands who regard it as antiquated, as behind the times, as superstitious, and even diabolic.

It is spoken of as a mother by those who receive its spiritual benefits. But it’s also despised by others. That it has been driven from some countries, has been tolerated by others, and regardless of how much other sects may differ among themselves, it is still considered their one common enemy.

A parallel of the attitude of the world to the Catholic Church is to be found in its attitudes towards Christ. He too was loved, but he was also hated. We do not find such love towards any other person as we do towards him.

Neither do we find such an abiding hate. There is therefore a parallel between the two questions: Why is Buddhism not hated and why is Catholicism hated? And two other questions, why is Buddha not hated and why is Christ hated? First a word about the love and hatred towards the person of Christ and then about his church.

There are two great passions which entwine themselves around the life of Our Lord. As they do about no other person who ever lived. The passion of love and the passion of hate.

He said he would be loved, he said he would be hated. He said he would be adored, he said he would be scorned. He said he would be loved unto folly. He said he would be hated unto fury. And that the duel would go on until the end of time.

Haters would lift him up on a cross. But once on it he would lift all lovers onto his heart which is love. We are told in St. John that Our Lord said “When I am lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all men to myself” (John 12:32). He said he would be loved more than fathers and mothers loved children, and more than children loved fathers and mothers.

This did not mean not loving parents or not loving children. It meant only loving them in him. He did not say we should love one another less, but only that we must love him more. And is this not reasonable? Should not the whole be loved more than the part? Should not the fire be preferred to the spark? Should not the circumference be loved more than the arc? The temple more than the pillar? Should not the creator be loved more than his creatures? Should not God be loved more than men, and love, loved more than the lovely?

Open the pages of history and name one single man who has ever been so loved after his death to a point of sacrifice and prayer. His cross has been deluged with tears of love in every age and century. To it all generations as enthusiasts of love have come crying in the language of Paul, who said to the Romans, “Who will separate us from the Christ’s love? I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, neither height nor depth, nor any other created being will be able to separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:35, 38–39).

Napoleon saw this as all great men saw it before him. In his isolation at Saint Helena, he reflected upon the vanity of his own life and that of Louis the Fourteenth, of whom he said that great king is long dead, and even now he is alone in his room at Versailles abandoned by the courtesans and perhaps the object of their scorn. He is no longer their master. He’s a cadaver, a coffin, and a horror. Not long now and it shall be my lot too. That is what will happen to me.

What an abyss between my profound misery and the reign of Jesus Christ. Preached, loved, adored, and living in all the universe. If you would prove it further, go lay your hand over certain hearts that receive him in daily communion and you will feel the flame that his love has enkindled. Go knock at the portals of the Carmelites, the Poor Clares, and the hundred other retreats of the saintly. And ask the question the world always foolishly asks such saintly souls. Did you enter into this place of prayer because you were disappointed in love? And the answer will flash back to you: No I’m not here because I was disappointed in love. I was never disappointed in love. My first love is my only love. The eternal love of my Lord and my God.

There is no need of multiplying witnesses. Even your very thirst for perfect love is a thirst for him for whom you were made. And without whom you cannot be happy. He sought love in poor, weak, frail hearts like our own. And unlike any other heart that has ever beat, his sacred heart has been loved above all things else, even life. There is only one conclusion we can draw, in the language of Pascal: Jesus Christ wished to be loved, he is loved, therefore he is God.

Now let us turn to the other fact about the life of Our Lord which proves he is divine. And that is hate. Hated he said he would be, by the world until the end of time. Not the material universe, not by people in general in it, but hated rather by what his own apostles have called the spirit of the world. Recall some of the incidents of his life and you will see how the world hated him from the very beginning. When only eight days of age the venerable old Simeon told his mother that he was “a sign to be contradicted” (Luke 2:34). Which was just a paraphrase of John’s tragic note that “He came into the world, and the world received him not” (John 1:10–11).

When still under two years of age the soldiers of Herod drew swords to slaughter the innocents in a vain attempt to kill innocence. Then later on in the full bloom and blossom of life, picture this humble artisan with his apostles on the very night before he died. Looking down the corridors of time and saying to all future generations that he would be hated by the world. That hatred would be so personal he went on to say that anyone who loved him would in turn be hated by the world. “If the world hates you,” he said, “remember that it hated me before you. If you had been of the world, the world would have loved its own. But because you’re not of the world, but instead I chose you from the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to you. A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. But they’ll do all these things to you because of my name. Because they don’t know the one who sent me” (John 15:18–21).

He shall be hated. What a peculiar prophecy. What had he ever done to be hated? He was meek and humble of heart. His life he offered for the redemption of many. His gospel was the gospel of love, even for his enemies. His last act was pardon, forgiveness for those who put him to death. It was all a hatred as he said without cause. There was a terrible perversity about it all. He healed their wounds and they wounded him. He brought back their dead to life and they took away his life. He called men from evil to good and yet evil men nailed him to a cross. He brought divine life to make all men friends, and enemies gave him an ignominious death. Neither was there any reason for hating him in those who loved him.

They were to be poor as he was poor. They strove to be perfect as their heavenly father was perfect. And humble like him who washed their feet. Even when persecuted they rejoiced. When cursed they blessed. As if the insult of wicked men was the consecration of their own goodness. He went on to say that whoever would kill them would think that they were doing a service to God. How well that has been fulfilled. Today the martyrs in Mexico and Russia and Spain and Germany who fall under the sword of the executioner and the mud thrown at them by the impure a pledge of their own purity. There is nothing to hate in such a life nor in such a doctrine.

We must look outside of him and his gospel then if we are to find the reason for the immortality of that hatred. Can it be that he was an imposter and that his religion an imposture? But if he is an imposter then our love for him is false. And the world’s hatred for him is true. But if the world’s hatred is true, then it ought to renovate society and transform human hearts. If our love for him has done so much to remake men and our love is a vain dream, then what great things the world’s hatred ought to do which overthrows such an idol? But name one thing that the world’s hatred for Our Lord has done. Where are the good works of such hatred? What peoples have been drawn from vice and corruption? What souls have been consoled? What hearts have been sweetened? There are men and women in the world dying in sorrow, crying out for the bread of everlasting life. And there are sinful hearts pleading there for forgiveness. Where, oh where, hatred of Christ is your consolation? Your mercy and your peace for such souls? No, the hatred of Christ is not to be found in the fact that he was an imposter. For hatred is a negation and a negation is an assertion of his existence. There are too many minds in all ages who have studied and bent the knee to admit he was an imposter.

Where then find a reason for the hatred? There must be some reason peculiar to him and him alone which accounts for it. In no one else in all history do you find an abiding hatred except against Our Lord. No other founder of a world religion ever said he would be hated, and no one ever was hated. Buddha is not hated, Mohammed is not hated, Zoroaster is not hated. Some men when they while they lived were hated. Nero was hated while he lived, even by his own countrymen. Genghis Khan was hated by a great mass of humanity. Bismarck was hated by many of his own countrymen. But who hates any of them today? There are no fists uplifted in desecration against Nero. There are no oaths of bitterness against Genghis Khan. There’s no hymn of hatred sung over the tomb of Bismarck. Hatred died with them. Not even the Kaiser who was hated by part of the world and by some of his own people after the first world war is hated today.

Why then has hatred died against everyone else and still endures against Our Lord? Here we come to the real reason. What causes hatred? Hatred is caused by that which annoys or creates an obstacle to something we desire. Why was Nero hated when alive? Because his vices were an obstacle to social justice for which the Romans yearned. And now that Nero’s vices are corrupted with his flesh no one hates him. No one today hates Tiberius or Domitian or Ivan the Terrible or Nestorius. Even the word contempt is too strong for them. They have ceased to be objects of hatred because they’ve ceased to be obstacles. But with Our Lord it’s different. The hatred against Christ has never weakened even after twenty centuries. And the reason it still endures is because Christ is still an obstacle. An obstacle to sin. To selfishness, to godlessness. And to the spirit of the world. The spirit of Christ still lives in those who love him. He is still a hindrance to nations who would forget God. Still a stumbling block to those who cease to pray. Still a reproach to those who sin and atone not. Still a divinity refusing to step down from the cross to win the plaudits of an hour. Still a voice calling uneasy hearts away from the spirit of the world to the glorious liberty of the children of God. Hatred still endures because he still lives. But if he still lives then he is divine. If he is divine then until the spirit of the world dies there shall be distress for his followers. But when it dies, victory. We are told in Saint John, “You will have suffering in the world, but take courage, I have conquered the world” (John 16:33).

Here then is the key to the hatred of the church. Our Lord was intensely loved and intensely hated because he was divine. Only the perversion of the sovereign love of God could ever explain such hate. Only that which continues that divine life could ever be the object of such a hate. Newman says if there is a form of Christianity now in the world which is accused of gross superstition, of borrowing its rites and customs from the heathen, and of ascribing to forms and ceremonies an occult virtue. A religion which is considered to burden and enslave the mind by its requisitions. To address itself to the weak-minded and ignorant, to be supported by sophistry and imposture. And to contradict reason and exalt mere irrational faith. A religion which impresses on the serious mind very distressing views of the guilt and consequences of sin. Sets upon the minute acts of the day one by one their definite value for praise or blame. And thus casts a grave shadow over the future. A religion which holds up to admiration the surrender of wealth and disables serious persons from enjoying it if they would. A religion the doctrines of which be they good or bad are to the generality of men unknown, which is considered to bear on its very surface signs of folly and falsehood so distinct that a glance suffices to judge it. And that careful examination is preposterous. A religion that such men look at a convert to it with curiosity, suspicion, fear, disgust as the case may be. As if something strange had befallen him. As if he had an initiation into a mystery, and had come into communion with dreadful influences. As if he were now one of a confederacy which claimed him, absorbed him, stripped him of his personality, reduced him to a mere organ or instrument of a whole. A religion which men hate as proselytizing, anti-social, revolutionary as dividing families, separating chief friends, corrupting the maxims of government, making mock of law, dissolving the empire, the enemy of human nature. And a conspirator against its rights and privileges. A religion which they consider the champion and instrument of darkness and a pollution calling down upon the land the anger of heaven. A religion which they associate with intrigue and conspiracy, which they speak about in whispers, which they detect by anticipation in whatever goes wrong, and to which they impute whatever is accountable. A religion the very name of which they cast out as evil, and use simply as a bad epithet, and which from the impulse of self-preservation they would persecute if they could. If there could be such a religion now in the world it is not unlike Christianity as the same world viewed it when it first came forth from its divine author.

If you would find Christ today then find the church that does not get along with the world. Look for the church that is hated by the world as Christ was hated by the world. Look for the church which is accused of being behind the times as Our Lord was accused of being ignorant and never having learned. Look for the church which men sneer at as socially inferior, as they sneered at Our Lord because he came from Nazareth. Look for the church which is accused of having a devil as Our Lord was accused of being possessed by Beelzebub the prince of devils. Look for the church which in seasons of bigotry men say must be destroyed in the name of God. As men crucified Christ and thought they had done a service to God. Look for the church which the world rejects because it claims it is infallible. As Pilate rejected Christ because he called himself the truth. Look for the church which is rejected by the world as Our Lord was rejected by men. Look for the church which amid the confusion of conflicting opinions its members love as they love Christ, and respect its voice as the very voice of its founder, and the suspicion will grow that if the church is unpopular with the spirit of the world then it is unworldly. And if it is unworldly it is otherworldly. Since it is otherworldly it is infinitely loved and infinitely hated as was Christ himself. But only that which is divine can be infinitely hated and infinitely loved. Therefore the church is divine. Therefore it is the life of Christ among men. Therefore we love it. Therefore we hope to die in its blessed embrace.

I thank you my God for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My immaculate mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

EW