Holy Saturdays w/Padre: Hatred

I have never been the most peaceful person. And that is my fault. Yet, my form of chiding and ridiculing has never been designed to inspire hatred. I was taught back in France that we adore God, we love people, we like things, and we hate the devil. Perhaps that simplicity has been lost.

We love Our Lady, and therefore we love Our Lady’s University. But any loyal sons and daughters have learned that we do not hate. We compete, we defeat, we supersede. We win. But we do not hate. We do not tolerate hatred. We do not teach it, for that would be teaching evil. And that is something we simply cannot do.

I don’t throw the term “hate” around lightly. No one should. Anyone who has been ordained to Holy Orders cannot. Because hate and evil work hand-in-hand. It might be fun to ridicule your opponent…and they may deserve it. However, let us not say that they are evil. For that word is reserved. It is reserved for the most heinous acts, and the most nefarious actors.

Hatred is a form of evil. I would ask anyone who reads this to look within, and dig out any hatred. It is a poison to the soul. Throw it away…for good…forever. Then you can start living a life of mercy and forgiveness. Any time you start embracing mercy and forgiveness, you free yourself from hatred. And it is the best feeling in the world.

We at Notre Dame do not hate. And we pray that hatred, and all its empty promises, might be defeated by Hope. Life, Sweetness, and Hope.

EFS CSC

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Father Sorin

University Founder
Son, in 199 years of religious study, I have only come up with two hard, incontrovertible facts: There is a God, and I'm pretty tight with Him.

Now I’m going to tell you a whole lot of things I’ve kept to myself for years. None of you ever knew me. I was along before your time, but you all know what a tradition I am at Notre Dame. And one of the most important things I ever said was, “Friends, sometime when my University is up against it and the breaks are beating the students, tell them to go out there with all they’ve got and win at everything for Padre. I don’t know exactly where I’ll be then, friends,” I said, “but I’ll be looking right over your shoulder.”