“Hate” in Beyond Words: Daily Readings in the ABC’s of Faith

p. 145

“Hate is as all-absorbing as love, as irrational, and, in its own way, as satisfying.  As lovers thrive on the presence of the beloved, haters revel in encounters with the ones they hate.  They confirm them in all their darkest suspicions.  They add fuel to all their most burning animosities.”

“The major difference between hating and loving is perhaps that, whereas to love someone is to be fulfilled and enriched by the experience, to hate someone is to be drained and diminished by it.  Lovers, by losing themselves in their loving, find themselves, become themselves.  Haters simply lose themselves.  Theirs is the ultimate consuming passion.”