The Poison of Hatred
Last week, at a meeting, we started talking about the political situation in the country and about the hatred you can sense in some people. I said that as Christians we cannot feel hatred; we must bring God’s Love to ALL Venezuelans, excluding no one, because that is one of the best ways to achieve Peace in our country. A young woman who was there looked at me with a pained expression and, touching her heart, asked: “But how can you get out this hatred we have in here?” Truly, it struck me deeply to see someone so young so troubled, with so little peace, and with a real desire to get that feeling out of her heart.
As the Peruvian psychologist Frank Clavijo says: “Hatred or resentment is a feeling of hostility that has not been overcome; a feeling of anger at what one believes was unjust treatment; a rage felt every time that person, or the particular situation one went through, is mentioned. It is an emotional pain. It is a destructive feeling that prevents one from being able to let go, forget or forgive… Finally, one can say that resentment is an emotional distress in which far too much energy is spent trying to achieve something against someone, and in which one ends up losing, because it is like taking poison oneself so that the other person or people will feel the effects.”
The matter of hatred and resentment is truly terrible. That is why it is so important to learn to get over offenses and to learn to forgive, because hatred and revenge really can “poison” our lives and turn anyone into an unhappy, bitter person.
All I could tell that young woman at the time was that the best way to stop feeling hatred is to pray for the person you hold a grudge against. Her look of astonishment grew: “Pray for that person? But how?” she said. So I explained that at first you may not feel like praying for them, but once you start, you calm down, and little by little you get out the hatred you have inside. A moment may even come when you find yourself loving the person you thought you could never forgive.
That is the truth, believe it or not. As Christians, we must pray for our “enemies”; we must love all people, however much harm they do. That does all of us a great deal of good, because human beings are made for love and not for hatred. And if you don’t believe me, try an experiment for a few days: start wishing your “enemies” well, and you will see how your heart begins to fill with a peace you won’t be able to describe in words.
When we manage to forgive and not hold a grudge, we are the ones who benefit most. If we live in a spirit of forgiveness and prayer, our lives will immediately become more joyful, more serene, more positive, however many problems we have. In short, we will be able to live at Peace with ourselves and make life more pleasant for others. And we will be able to sleep peacefully, because we managed to rise above that terrible poison of hatred, resentment and the desire for revenge.
If we put our will into it, with God’s help, we will get that poison out of our hearts and win the victory of Love over hatred, of Forgiveness over revenge, of Humility over pride, of Unity over division. Those capitalized words are badly needed in Venezuela, so let us live by them and say: No to hatred and Yes to Forgiveness and Love!