"We become what we hate".
There is an old saying "We become what we hate". It is a paradox, absurd, yet when I attack someone on whatever grounds, I tend to become the very thing I am fighting.
It is as if we have seeds laying within, more or less dormant, and they only take root when watered by someone who is out front with their opinions that I do not agree with You have to fight fire with fire, which only makes a very big bonfire.
It is all very intimate, yet based on something other than love.
I do not always like my reactions to others, especially when I am looking at some injustice being done. I tend to want to take 'vengeance', which is not justice at all, so I become what I am fighting if I allow that to take deep root. I just add to the bonfire.
The more I seek to live the Gospel, the more the Lord allows me to see that there is a lot I have to bring to the light before I can move deeper in that direction. I don't do it, but self-knowledge allows me to be open to my need for inner healing and grace.
One day a woman asked me what our lives are about. I had to say I do not know, I doubt there is some simple answer. However I added when you look at the world, and our part in it, we can see that our emotions and passions cause a great deal of havoc. Just look at what 'greed' does to the world.
Sin is self-destruction, short sidedness, and it flows from not understanding what our lives are about. Jesus says that how we treat others, love others, love ourselves, is central, and perhaps the only thing important. All else flows from that. Love and do what you will, is not as easy as it sounds. We have layers of instinct to deal with, as well as past events that can make anyone angry, distrustful, and lead to having relationships that in the end are based on manipulation and oppression.
Sartre was right up to a point: "Hell is other people". Yes, but only if we are clueless about our own interior lives, and what we actually want, and how we treat others the way that we want to be treated. None of us is a commodity, but unconsciously we can live on that premise. We do inherit the whirlwind, and it seems to be getting worse from generation to generation.
Healing comes from not running away from ourselves, and allow our souls to be naked before God, just as Adam and Eve were in the Garden. Not as easy as it sounds, but important for developing a loving relationship with God and others. Compassion and empathy are essential, they are learned through suffering, not running away from it.--Br.MD
