Is hatred ever appropriate for Christians?

[goofyjim]

Is hate ever an option in the Christian approach to the world? I have attained certain levels in my spiritual life and one time a priest asked me if God loves Satan. Being, by no means, an expert in God’s ways and never having studied theology, I told him I was unsure. I then proceeded to have spiraling relapse into my psychiatric illness which I thought I was recovering from. Since then I have not only recovered again medically but have reasoned, and I hope justly, that God is Love and hate, even of Satan is incompatible with that. Why then in many areas, including some other forums on this website, does the word hate come in as the attidtude even for those people not living in conformity with the Catholic moral teaching. This is causing me much heartache as I do not see this building the Kingdom of God.

 

[Fr.Vincent_Serpa]

Dear G,

To love the good is to hate its opposite: evil. To the degree that there is good in Satan, it is possible to love that. Metaphysically he has goodness. His act of existing shows forth God’s goodness as does all that exists. But that which is evil about him we must hate.

It is of great importance that we understand this. We must love the sinner, but hate the sin. To love the sin would be the worst thing that we can do for the sinner.

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.