HATRED OF GOD

The bitterest sin against love is hatred. But can creatures actually detest their Maker? Certainly there are cases (total reversal of fortune, the “merciless” death of a loved one), wherein God is reviled and even cursed. However, what in fact such haters reject with abhorrence is a loathsome caricature, the very opposite of God; and they are answerable for their contributions to this reverse image.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (2094) describes a kind of ladder to hatred, an irreflective but progressive falsification of divine truth. (1) Indifference stems from overlooking God’s charity and ignoring his unlimited power and mercy. (2) Ingratitude is born of the mental sloth and unenlightened selfishness that look upon God’s gifts as entitlements. (3) Lukewarmness arises from contradictory allegiances and a fearful spirit of calculation in the face of both divine rewards and demands. (4) “Acedia or spiritual sloth goes so far as to refuse the joy that comes from God and to be repelled by divine goodness” (2094). (5) Hatred of God results from proud rebellion against God’s sovereignty and providence; it denies God’s goodness and presumes to curse him for impinging on one’s life, for outlawing sin and meting out punishments.

When enmity prompts the sinner to regret the divine perfections and to loathe God in himself, then the offense represents the pinnacle of all the miserable hierarchy of sin. Such an attitude is fairly and adequately described as diabolical. In practice, however, awareness of and consent to the hatred is often diminished by a welter of emotions. In all other sins where charity is forfeited, one’s aversion from God is indirect and consequent, inasmuch as some creature is inordinately preferred to the barely known supreme goodness. But here, if indeed there can ever be full forethought and consent, the rejection is direct, total.

See: Despair; Presumption; Religion, Virtue of; Tempting God.



Russell Shaw. Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Catholic Doctrine. Copyright © 1997, Our Sunday Visitor.

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Last Updated: Sunday, April 01, 2001 01:25:11 PM