Bible
Study: Colossians1:24-2:3.
/ Luke 6:6-11.
The word ‘hatred’
can be defined as a “deep and emotional extreme dislike. It can be directed
against individuals, groups, entities, objects, behaviours, or ideas. Hatred is
often associated with feelings of anger, disgust and a disposition towards
hostility.”
According
to St. Maria Gorretti in the movie produced about her life, “Hatred is worse
than malaria.” Hatred is a deep seated poisonous substance which when allowed
to go into our heart affects and corrupts us in so many ways.
A person
who hates is in a sense BLIND because hatred prevents him from appreciating his
fellow human being as a person made in the image and likeness and God. He only
sees loopholes and faults
Hatred also
makes a person DEAF in that he only wants to hear about negative things about
the victim of his hatred and even when you tell him something good about that
person, he becomes enraged with vicious criticism.
Hatred also
makes a person DUMB in that he finds it difficult and impossible to use his
mouth to speak well about the victim of his hate. He ceases every occasion to
discredit the person painting him or her as worse than the devil.
Most times,
we tend to disguise our hatred in the pretence of fighting a just course or we
may claim to be obeying certain laws but the fact is that once there is hatred
in our hearts, our worship of God is useless.
Once the
Scribes and Pharisees allowed this poison enter their hearts, they found it
difficult to appreciate anything good in Jesus Christ. They said he healed
people by the power of Beelzebub, they said he had no regard for the Sabbath,
they said he was a super-arrogant and proud person claiming power that only God
has by attempting to forgive somebody’s sins. All these things, they did not
voice out, but Jesus could read their hearts, he saw their hatred.
In today’s
Gospel passage, Jesus was in a Synagogue (the Jewish word for Church) and there
was a man there with a withered hand. Already filled with hatred, they did not
think of the pain this man was going through, they did not consider the fact
that he needed healing irrespective of whether or not it was a Sabbath day,
they did not realise that the essence of the law of the Sabbath rest was to
enable people gather for the worship of God of which this man had done no wrong
by coming to the Synagogue, all they could see was an opportunity to deal with
Jesus.
This is
the destructive venom of hatred. It affects our thinking completely. Jesus, being
God knew their hearts, he wanted to show them by this occasion that by healing
this man, he wasn’t doing so just because he had no regard for the law but that
even the law itself was not superior to the natural law of goodness which God
himself has engraved in our hearts. Beckoning on the man to come out in the
open view of all, he asked a simple question: “Is it against the law to do good
or to do evil on the Sabbath day?”
The hidden
meaning of this question that even when we may claim to be keeping the law, we
could at the same time be doing evil if our keeping of the law becomes fuelled by
hatred. As much as people may clap for us for keeping the law, God who sees the
heart is not impressed.
They couldn’t
answer Jesus’ question so he said to the man: “Stretch forth your hand.” And
instantly, he became well. Others were rejoicing and praising God but those who
had the poison in them who had become blind, deaf and dumb went about planning
on how to destroy Jesus.
When we
experience hatred from others, how are we to react?
The answer
is FORGIVENESS AND MERCY. As much as Jesus was the victim of much hatred which
eventually led to his crucifixion, there was no time, he allowed this poison of
hatred to come into his system. He deliberately refused to hate the Scribes and
Pharisees, he simply pitied them and knew that they were acting out of ignorance.
This was why he was able to say on the cross “Forgive them father for they know
not what they do.”
In the first reading, we see how Paul reacts to the suffering and
hardships he endured in the hands of people who simply hated him for
proclaiming Christ. He says “I REJOICE in my sufferings for your sake, and in
my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ…”
Hatred is deadly. Do not let it reign in your heart. Do not become
infected by it simply because of what others do to you. The real victim of
hatred is not one who is hated but the one who allows this poison into his/her
system.
Let us
pray:
Let Jesus,
help me to love you above everything else and to love my neighbour as myself.
Amen.
Good morning.
Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. Happy new week.
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