The Good Of Hate

Odivi congregationem malignorum, et cum impiis non sedebo. Minus fuerat sancto viro malum vitasse concilium, nisi et congregationem odisset omnimodis subdolorum. Odium enim signifcat divisionem, sicut est in amore collegium. Et cum superius se dixerit in vanitatis concilio non sedisse, modo se profitetur cum impiis non sedere. Utrumque quidem erat omnino deserendum. Sed alii sunt vani, alii impii. Vani sunt qui caducis inquisitionibus occupantur, et in superflua tempus narratione consumunt. Impii autem, haeretici, qui quaestionibus perfidis Scripturas divinas depravare contendunt, sicut Petrus apostolus ait: Depravantes eas ad suum interitum et perditionem. Hos ergo utrosque jure monet esse fugiendos, quia illi superfluitates diligunt, ista tale perversitatis infigunt. Cassiodorus, Expositio In Psalterium, Psalmus XXV Source: Migne PG 70.184c-d

I have hated the gathering of the wicked and with the impious I have not sat. 1 Hardly may the good man have avoided wicked counsel unless he has hated such a gathering with all its evil ways. For hatred signifies division, as in love there is fraternity. And when before he says of himself that he has not sat in the council of vanity, 2 so it profits him not to sit with the impious. Certainly he fled both. But the vain are one thing, the impious another. The vain are those who are occupied in vain enquiries, and in wasting time with pointless talking. The impious however, are heretics, who with treacherous questions endeavour to corrupt the Holy Scriptures, as Peter the Apostle says: 'Corrupting them to their own ruin and destruction.' 3 Both of these, therefore, he rightly warns us to flee, those who love needless things, and those who cleave to perversities. Cassiodorus, Commentary On The Psalms, Psalm 25 1 Ps 25.5 2 Ps 25.4 3 2 Pet 3.16