hating God

St Ephrem says some strong things today in A Year with the Church Fathers. He says that if we are angry with our neighbor, then we are being angry at God. And, he says, if we honor our neighbor, we are honoring God.

This is pretty strong language, because who hasn't been angry with their neighbor from time to time? I'm pretty sure Ephrem isn't saying that the flash of anger we feel when our neighbor does something wrong, like leaving their trash in our yard or letting their dog do its business in our driveway is anger with God. When you read the whole excerpt, Ephrem makes it pretty clear he means dwelling on the anger and letting it fester into hate, gossip, and/or revenge.

He points out that our neighbors are God's children, made in His image, and as such, we should try our best to love, honor, and pray for them. This means we should forgive them (even if they don't ask for it) and treat them with kindness and respect.

The cool thing is we find that when we treat others this way, we become at peace with ourselves. And we become the sort of people that we want to be. And, as a rule, people tend to befriend those who act like this. It's hard to like angry people, even if they're angry with someone else. But someone who loves and respects everyone is easy to like.

God, please teach us to love, honor, and respect our neighbors, and in so doing, love You.