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Holy Cross Abbey

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Memorial of Saint Boniface

June 5, 2025 by Fr Joseph

Hate, malice, anger, and envy, all have the potential to bind people together in pursuit of a common cause. However, this unity is a false and fragile one that can easily fracture into violent factions which then turn on each other. Thus, the seething hate and malice that Paul aroused bound the Pharisees and Sadducees together in their common cause against the great apostle. But when he skillfully exposed their theological differences, they quickly forgot about Paul and turned their hate and anger against each other. All of this stands in sharp contrast to that unity for which Christ prays. This is a unity centered on a love able to embrace differing personalities, divergent points of view, and other potentially divisive factors—thereby assisting growth towards true unity in the Truth. The pseudo-unity fostered by a common hate takes little effort and usually happens quite spontaneously. Love’s unity, by contrast, takes effort, patience, perseverance, and inner conversion. But although hard-won, its fruit is a growing inner freedom and a peace that brings joy, communion, and life. Hate and malice, on the other hand, generate a false unity that imprisons its subjects and inevitably isolates them—an isolation that brings sadness, misery, and death. Let us, therefore, be on guard against this false unity for it is always a symptom of sin and a harbinger of death.

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