True Love is Intolerant

People often look at Christians and think “why the intolerance? Don’t you Catholics claim to be all about ‘love’ and ‘charity’? You’re all a bunch of hypocrites.”

To those people, I have this to say: yes, I am intolerant. Yes, I am also a hypocrite. What I am not, though, is uncharitable.

Fact is, if somebody you held dear to you said: “I tolerate you,” you’d probably be taken aback and insulted, wondering what warranted them to feign affection while actually telling you they feel the same about you as that ghastly mole they haven’t yet removed or the annoying barking Chihuahua next door. If this is the case, why do we allow ourselves to be convinced tolerance is a virtue?

True love is intolerant. It is intolerant of all enemies towards love. In the same way that a loving father is intolerant of any evil that affects his child, love does not give up in the face of enemies but fights with all its strength.

The Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen tells us the following:

"Christian love bears evil, but it does not tolerate it. It does penance for the sins of others, but it is not broadminded about sin.

Why is this? Because…

Real love involves real hatred: whoever has lost the power of moral indignation and the urge to drive the buyers and sellers from the temples has also lost a living, fervent love of Truth.

Charity, then, is not a mild philosophy of "live and let live"; it is not a species of sloppy sentiment.  Charity is the infusion of the Spirit of God, which makes us love the beautiful and hate the morally ugly."

Fact is, Jesus was not a ‘nice’ person. He was all-loving, He was the ultimate teacher and the ultimate servant king, but He wasn’t ‘nice.’ Jesus loves you – but He’s also willing to tie a millstone around your neck. That’s why I love Him.

I love Him because He is the truth, and as the truth, He is unchanging AND He is intolerant – we need only look at His reaction to those who turned His temple into “a place for thieves” as evidence of this.

Tolerance is not for the loving, it is for the lazy and self-serving. Tolerance is not the ‘virtue’ of those willing to sacrifice. It has no interest in the well-being of others, only in avoiding sacrifice in order to remain comfortable. Our Pope-Emeritus Benedict XVI reminds us: “the ways of the Lord are not comfortable, but we were not created for comfort, but for greatness.”

Greatness. That means being willing to be nailed to a Cross for one’s friends, and especially for one’s enemies, because Love Himself was nailed to a Cross. Tolerance would simply smile and nod and grit its teeth but ultimately do nothing to reconcile man to God. On the other hand – Love died for us. Greatness means calling out falsehood and sin and facing possible persecution, tolerance simply means watching truth be abused and mocked. Even if the tolerant do not participating in evil, allowing evil for the sake of convenience and a false sense of security with the status quo is simply a way of allowing evil to triumph.

Real love bears all things, but it does not allow all things. It believes all things, but it does not remain inside itself. It hopes for all things, but does not wait in the corner. Real love endures all things and steps beyond itself through sacrifice.

Tolerance is cowardice. It is a pathetic and cheap substitute for real love. It washes its hands clean of the death of the innocent and the slaughtering of truth in order to “keep the peace.” Love is brave and unwilling to compromise. Love is synonymous with taking up the Cross and following Him, even to Calvary. Mother Teresa, acknowledged by even secular society as one of the 21st century’s most famous pacifists warns us: "Love to be real, it must cost—it must hurt—it must empty us of self."

Jesus did not simply tolerate us. He loved us and suffered for us, He gave Himself in order than we may be saved, and He loves us despite our sin and brokenness. That is love, that is greatness – and there is no talk of tolerance in that. This greatness came at a cost, and comfort was definitely not part of the deal when He who rules the Heavens and the Earth was nailed to a cross after being tortured and abused, and even after giving all He could give, made Himself captive in all the tabernacles of the world, neglected and abandoned, for love.

Still happy with being ‘tolerated?’

“Interfice errorem, diligere errantem” – “Kill the sin, love the sinner”
― St. Augustine