Real Love and Real Hatred

Love is a word that is often spoken but seldom understood. I recently wrote about love and how it applies to the conservative movement, but many still do not understand what all that entails and means.

“Real love involves real hatred: whoever has lost the power of moral indignation and the urge to drive the Sellers from the Temple has lost a living, fervent love of Truth.” — Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Yep, you read that right: real love involves real hatred. In fact, I will take it a step further than the Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen did and say that true love requires true hatred. It is absolutely necessary to understanding love.

Why?

We must hate what is evil. And it must be a passion-filled, undying hatred too. To falter in our zealous hatred of evil would greatly impact our approach to truth. We would become spineless and ineffective in arguing for the Good, True, and Beautiful.

Sheen talks about the Sellers in the Temple, a reference to Matthew 21: 12, where Jesus entered the Temple and overturned tables because merchants were treating the Temple as a common marketplace and disrespecting the reverence and holiness the Temple demands. Just hatred and just anger are very much a part of Christ’s actions.

And they need to be a part of our actions too. We must hate what is evil, and love what is good.

Pope Francis

However, simply rejecting evil is not enough. We must attack it with everything we have. The forces of darkness are working tirelessly to overcome the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. Why would we act as if defenseless when we are armed with something far more powerful than any weapon made by man? We have the truth. And we cannot be conquered.

“Do not grow accustomed to evil, defeat it.” — Pope Francis

So, in response to the famous Beatles song “All You Need Is Love,” I say yes, we do indeed need love. But we must also have a healthy dose of hatred to accompany the love. Hatred of what is evil and a love for what is true.

Our salvation depends on it.