Lenin said “The essence of communism is hate.” There is no “God of Love” in the Mohammedan faith. These two foes of Catholicism have a profound lack of love in common.
Their mutual lack of love does not make them allies. They hate each other as much as they hate The Church. They hate everyone else, too.
Hate, hate, hate. That’s all they do, hate. What does it get them? Tyranny. Prison camps. Death. Boring societies. Repressed people. Poverty.
Hatred comes from vanity, which leads the vainest of people to say, “I am better than you are.” An increased dose of vanity leads them to add, “so you must do what I say.” That leads other people to say, “I am just as good as you are, and I won’t do it.”
That leads the very vainest to attack, and whomever gains the most power gets his way, and tries to maintain that power by force. The idea that “I am better than you are.” is a direct result of Eve eating the apple.
The Hate-o-meter.
By now, you understand that Catholic Fundamentalists love to quantify. Like the Catholics of a century ago, who concluded that “stealing more than $25.00 is a mortal sin”, Catholic Fundamentalists think that hate can, and should, be quantified. There is no other way to tell who our most dangerous enemies are.
At first glance, it would appear that the hundred or so million people killed by Communists make them the world’s most hateful people. But, the Western countries have killed as many people by abortion and some forms of birth control chemicals that kill unborn babies. Environmentalists have killed millions by keeping DDT from being available to kill malaria-carrying insects. So, who’s higher on the hate-o-meter?
That’s the wonderful thing about quantification. We count and we count, and are led to see suddenly that we, ourselves, and almost everyone we know, may be guilty of great sin.
Quantification leads us to the conclusion that the only thing which can save us is the mercy of God. That’s one reason quantification is such a good thing.
Equal distribution of hate.
The reason there had to be original sin was to give each of us an opportunity to fight against it. Repeating previously quoted sentences from St. Columban: “Without a battle there is no victory. Without a victory, there is no crown.”
Original sin made sure that Lenin had just as much hate in him as you or I. He fed his hate. We fight ours. Many have Lenin-like dreams, “The world would be a better place if we just got rid of a few million ___________s.”
We differ from Lenin only from lack of opportunity and a lot less will. But, the same Savior who told us that “the man who wilfully thinks about committing adultery commits it” is also telling us that “the person who intentionally thinks about committing mass murder is doing it.”
Priests are said to say there is a sameness in sins. True enough. Our own sins, whether of action or fantasy, are pretty much the same as others like us. That’s why we should fight. We want to do as well as we can.
And, God may grade on a curve. If the world is set up so that only the top 49% of sin-fighters get to Heaven, we want to be there, in the top half. Those whose sin-resistance falls into the bottom 51% may end up like the foolish virgins who used their oil too quickly and were not allowed into the wedding of The Bridegroom.
