On Wanting to Kill Sinners

Reading, the other day, some of The Meditations of Guigo I, Prior of the Charterhouse, I came upon two meditations that are applicable equally to Harvey Weinstein and James Martin.

53. How fair an art it is, to overcome evil with good! For opposites are conquered by each other. [Cf. Rom. 12:21]

54. Someone who strikes down a wicked man in his iniquity, because he hates iniquity and wants to see it destroyed, deceives himself: when a wicked man dies in his iniquity, his iniquity lasts for ever. So someone who hates iniquity must strive to correct the wicked man, and then iniquity itself will perish. [Cf. Ps. 118:163]

It may sometimes seem that there is a thin line separating the zealous saint from the pompous Pharisee. Certainly, the world cannot tell the difference. But that thin line, on close inspection, marks an enormous divide due to the presence of supernatural humility and charity in the soul of the saint. The Pharisee, possessed of hatred and pride, turns evil into only more evil. The saint, with God’s grace, overcomes evil with good.

In eternity, the difference will be more clearly observed.