We conclude that the world is evil because there is so little love in it and we blame and castigate those whom we hold responsible for this lack of love. Thus a theology or ethics of punishment and retribution take the place of the vision of love, and love becomes and idealized abstraction. The daily reality of our lives is not under the rule of love, but under the rule of law, of force and of punishment. We talk about love, but we live by hate: we hate in the name of love... On the contrary, love is the only reality. Everything that is, is by virtue of love, and if love is not clearly evident in all things, the reason is that we ourselves have made no effort to see love in all things. Thomas Merton in his introduction to To live is to Love: Meditations on Love and Spirtuality Ernesto Cardenal