Love of neighbour

We are travellers, pilgrims on this earth. We come from God and we are going back to him. Today Jesus in the Gospel tells us what are the two most important commandments for us to follow, to reach the kingdom of heaven: to love God above everything and others as we love ourselves. They are the summary of our Christian faith. Today we can check if we are following them. They are not easy to fulfill. We normally love ourselves first, then others, for what they can do for us, and then God, just in case he exists. We should try to turn things around. Once we have our priorities right, we know we are on the right path, going back to our Father’s house.

Can we love our neighbor as we love ourselves? Is this possible? Of course it is possible. God doesn’t ask us to do anything that is impossible. It is a selfless love, the love everybody would like to experience. It is the love of a mother who loves her children more than herself. Because they were very close to her, part of her life. She carried them for nine months. There are other similar kinds of selfless love. A soldier who gives his life for his country, or a martyr who dies for Christ. We have the example of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, who changed places with another man in a concentration camp to die instead of him. A little girl told her uncle, a priest just ordained, her hidden secret: I love you more than I love myself. People sometimes risk their lives to save their property, their pets, the things they love.

Both commandments are related. The more you love God, the more you love others. God pushes us towards our neighbour. We can even say that we love others with the love God gives us. Our love of God helps us to see others as parts of ourselves, as our brothers and sisters. It works both ways. The more you love your neighbour, the more you love God, and the other way round. They are two sides of the same coin. We have the example of the saints, who give us lessons in how to love others.

Nosce te ipsum, know thyself; it was a maxim inscribed on the temple of Apollo at Delphi. There should have been another one: Ame te ipsum, love thyself. We see in our society nowadays many people who hate themselves. They don’t like what people see in them and would like to be different. Social media often fosters jealousy, when people show only an ideal image of themselves. If you hate yourself, you normally hate others. How can you love your neighbour as yourself, if you don’t like yourself? But what do we have to do to learn how to love ourselves? Look at God who is Love and loves us more than anybody else. God has created us the way we are and loves us from the beginning: he wants us to exist. Our self love comes from the love he has for us. A baby becomes conscious of himself when he is aware of the love his mother has for him and becomes his own person.

We need to discover the love God has for us. Once we are aware of God’s love, we can easily give ourselves to others. Bishop Barron often repeats the idea that love is to seek the best of the other. We forget that we have been created to love more than being loved. We are happy when we love others in the way they want to be loved. But how do we experience God’s love, if he is not doing what we ask of him, and makes us suffer? This week we read during Mass a famous saying from the letter of Saint Paul to the Romans: everything works for the best for those who love God. We use a Latin expression: Omnia in bonum. When we love God above everything, we know that what happens to us is the best for us, that he is in control.

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