Is it acceptable for Christians to gloat? 2026-01-09
A reflection on the reaction of the world’s largest Christian nation to events in Venezuela.
“And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity.”
- Matthew 7:23 (Douay–Rheims)
I affirm the duty to defend the innocent, the legitimacy of victory when defense is necessary, and the real goods of courage, discipline, and competence.
What must be resisted is not winning, but the interior slide into jingoism: when relief becomes pride, pride becomes gloating, and gloating becomes delight in another’s humiliation or destruction.
At that point victory stops serving peace and starts feeding the ego. Every enemy remains a human being for whom Christ died, and the Christian heart must never take pleasure in a soul’s ruin, even when force was unavoidable.
The proper posture after victory is sober gratitude and restraint, not intoxication; lament for lives lost alongside thankfulness for protection given.
This is not weakness or pacifism, but moral vigilance, what the Saints taught is guarding the heart so that necessary action does not corrupt charity.