“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and injustice of those men that detain the truth of God in injustice: because that which is known of God is manifest in them. For God hath manifested it unto them.”
St. Paul, after gently addressing the Romans, shows the dreadful side of a life without God, which is still done in love: “Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise” (Apocalypse 3:19). However, if Jesus loves all, then chastising words will naturally be sent to all, which is for one’s own good: “He that loveth correction, loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof is foolish” (Proverbs 12:1). He sets the table with the delightful foods of love, salvation, and righteousness, then reminds those seated that not to eat is to die. Now this deprivation of God by the will is a surrender to the forces of darkness, like a child refusing the help and protection of their Father and running into danger alone. He will always be following, always encouraging the child to return to love, but a life of fleeing from Him finds itself in the jaws of wolves. This is much more the case with those that “detain the truth of God in injustice,” that is, to those who not only refuse the love of God, but by their teaching or example, keep others from Him: “Woe to you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge: you yourselves have not entered in, and those that were entering in, you have hindered” (Luke 11:52); “But he that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18:6). This is so in the sense that one that comes between two lovers is naturally despised by the two that desire each other. Love seeks eagerly the beloved: “Behold he standeth behind our wall, looking through the windows, looking through the lattices” (Song 2:9), and when one keeps the lovers apart out of ignorance, hatred, or seeking their own pleasure, it is of great displeasure for those who seek each other: “Love is strong as death, jealousy as hard as hell, the lamps thereof are fire and flames” (Song 8:6). It is a particular tragedy to see minds that are clearly gifted led astray into doctrines opposed to God that they then propagate, for the able mind is designed to lead those with less understanding by the hand into the mysteries of God, that they may understand the wonder of His love, but when these minds are used to mock, discredit, argue, and discourage God and His children, one incurs the punishment of a mother bear from whom her whelps were taken. It is also important to note that God is against ungodliness and injustice in themselves, and does not hate those that bear these qualities. He desires to burn away that which is contrary to love of God in ungodliness and love of neighbor in injustice with His very love, that love may be freely received and given by all: “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). God is manifest to all, either by way of philosophy leading to causality, through the beauty of things and the necessity of a source of beauty, or by the presence of love, and the realization that there is a standard of perfect love, and this measure is the Divine Goodness. It is also interesting to consider that the knowledge and love of God is indubitable, but people deny God because their image of Him is skewed, and by erroneous judgements about His nature they conclude that He either does not exist or is not worth being loved. Thus, God desires “the knowledge of God more than holocausts” (Osee 6:6), for a deep understanding of God’s merciful love is of far greater value than many penances. This understanding doesn’t necessarily require a great theological knowledge, for the very order of creation and all the good things within it are a book in which His love is written: “For by the greatness of the beauty, and of the creature, the creator of them may be seen, so as to be known thereby” (Wisdom 13:5). The beauty of all things leads to a Source of Beauty, and as the person is drawn to beauty and falls in love with it, so can anyone be drawn to this Source and fall madly in love: “No man can come to me, except the Father, who hath sent me, draw him” (John 6:44). Plato followed this course in his Symposium, and how much more plainly does God lay it out in His words: “Another book was opened, which is the book of life” (Apocalypse 20:12), “The words that I have spoken to you, are spirit and life,” (John 6:44), therefore this book of His words are open to you, that they may give you life and enkindle your spirit with love, just as creation tells its own story about the magnificence of their Creator: “Sing to the Lord, all the earth” (Psalm 95:1).