Hidden Hate

It is all too common in our society. We treat people one way when they are watching, and we treat them another way when they are not watching. It goes well beyond gossip. When we are face to face, we are kind. When our backs are turned, we are filled with hidden hate.

About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught. The Jews marveled at it saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me; if any man’s will is to do his will, he shall know whether the teacher is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. He who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but he who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is not falsehood. Did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?” The people answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?” Jesus answered them, “I did one deed, and you all marvel at it. Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man upon the sabbath. If on the sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the sabbath I made a man’s whole body well? Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? Yet we know where this man comes from; and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.” So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from? But I have not come of my own accord; he who sent me is true, and him you do not know. I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.” So they sought to arrest him; but no one laid hands on him, because his hour had not yet come.

John 7.14-30

We often keep our hate hidden because we are afraid of others. The ‘elites’ wanted to kill Jesus because He healed on the Sabbath. They hid their hate not because they were ashamed of themselves, but because they were afraid of those who loved and believed Jesus.

We keep our hate hidden pretending to be polite. In truth we are frauds, but the answer isn’t being ‘honest’ about our hate. The answer is eliminating the hate we feel in the first place. The real fraud is thinking we love Jesus when we can hate anyone, hidden or otherwise.

God knows our hearts, so the only ones we are fooling are ourselves. Others learn of our hate too. In my experience hate ‘leaks out’ through words and behaviors. What credibility do we have when someone witnesses our fraud? We will be known as haters, even when we love.

In today’s Gospel the hidden hate for Christ festered through the crowd’s selfishness. Christ pointed out they too ‘broke the law’ but it was Christ who had to be killed for His actions, not them. That’s what hidden hate does. It blinds us to our sins. It kills us, not others.

The only cure to hidden hate is love. We learn to love through God’s grace. We learn to love through prayer. We learn to love by seeing others as God sees them. If you want to kill hate, pray that God warms your heart. Hate is our problem, not anyone else’s problem.

Expose your hate in your prayers and through Holy Confession. Do not expose your hate to others in the name of honesty. Defeat hate in the name of honesty. It requires hard work and honesty with yourself and your spiritual father to defeat hate.

God already knows our hate. He will not condemn us because we confess our hate. He will forgive us when we confess and battle against our hate. We have seen that hidden hate produces death. We have also seen how love defeats hate, by God’s grace.

Hidden hate kills. Love kills hidden hate.