The opposite of love

Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and 1986 Nobel laureate famously said, “There is no love without hate, and there is no hate without love; but the opposite oflove is not hate, it is indifference.” This quotation came to mind this week as I was meditating on our readings for Sunday, because of something these scriptures exposed in me…nothing so “unrighteous” as hatred, but rather a pernicious kind of indifference.

The charge the Prophet Amos leveled against Israel was that while they cared extravagantly for their own bodies, they had become indifferent to the needs ofothers. The Rich Man in the parable Jesus told didn’t hate poor Lazarus who sat at his gate every day—he was just indifferent toward him (and paid a high price for it).

The pernicious problem of indifference this Sunday at 10. We will also, as always, sing, pray, read the Scriptures, and celebrate the Eucharist together.