Hatred's making a come-back. Across the board. So easy to fall in behind this new bigotry and take part. I ran across this today in my early reading--from Thomas Merton's New Seeds of Contemplation:

"Those who cannot love feel unworthy, and at the same time feel that somehow no one is worthy. Perhaps they cannot feel love because they think they are unworthy of love, and because of that they also think no one is worthy. The beginning of the fight against hatred, the basic Christian response to hatred, is not the commandment to love, but what must necessarily come before in order to make the commandment bearable and comprehensible. It is a prior commandment, to believe. The root of Christian love is not the will to love, but the faith that one is loved. The faith that one is loved by God. That faith that one is loved by God although unworthy--or, rather, irrespective of one's worth!"