The first reason is fairly obvious. Another reason why we must love our enemies is that hate scars the soul and distorts the personality. Mindful that hate is an evil and dan- gerous force, we too often think of what it does to the person hated. This is understandable, for hate brings irreparable damage to its victims. But there is another side which we must never overlook.
Hate is just as injurious to the person who hates.
Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of value and his objectivity. It causes him to describe t beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and confuse the true with the false and the false with the true. This happens when hate lingers in our mind. Psychiatrists report that many of the strange things that happen in the subconscious, many our inner conflicts, are rooted in hate.