Lent: Day Twenty-One

A biblical scholar heard them debating and approached them. When he saw how well Jesus responded to the clergy, he asked Jesus, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”

Jesus answered, “The most important is this: Listen, Israel! The Lord our God is our only Lord! Love the Lord your God with every fiber of your being. The second most important is this: Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself. No other commandment is as important than these.”

The biblical scholar said, “Well said, teacher! You were right when you said that he is our only Lord and that there are no other gods but him. You were also right when you said that to love him with every fiber of your being, and to love your other people as much as you love yourself are much more important than all the commandments having to do with burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

When Jesus saw how wisely the biblical scholar responded to him, he said, “You are not far away from the Kingdom of God.” After that, no one was brave enough to ask him anything else.
(As Mark Tells It, The New Peace Treaty: A New Translation of the New Testament)
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Jesus does not let the command to love God stand alone, but he includes with it a command to love others. Loving God is linked with loving others. Loving others may be listed as a "second" commandment, but it is the manner in which we keep the "first" and most important commandment.

Jesus also does not let the command to love others stand alone, but he includes with it a command to love ourselves. I cannot love God if I do not love others, and I cannot love others if I do not love myself. I am most hurtful, most cut off from God and others, when I find it difficult, or impossible, to love myself. I must remember that people who don't love others, don't love themselves. They are sad and sick and need my sympathy and support, not my disdain. Those who hurt others do not like themselves very much, and they cover it up but attacking and hurting the others they should be loving.

Loving ourselves seems natural. So how is it that people can not love themselves and hurt others? It's because self-centered concern and pride is not love. Do I confuse being selfish and self-absorbed with loving myself?

I cannot love myself until I let myself be loved. The problem is that I have a hard time being loveable until I first let myself be loved by God--until I accept that I am acceptable to God, which allows me to love myself, which allows me to love others, which allows me to love God. I love God because God loved me first--I love others because God loved me first. I love myself because God loved me first.

I do not love myself of my own merits--if fact, I often loath the thoughts that I have and deeds that I do--so if it were just me trying to love me, I'd loathe myself, and then loathe others, and loathe God. But I accept that even with the thoughts I loathe, the deeds I loathe, the words I speak that I loathe, God loves me, accepts me, wants what's best for me, cares for me, and will never abandon me or let me go--because nothing (NO THING--even sin and self-loathing) can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

Like God, I want what is best for me. And I have learned by keeping close to God, spending a lot of time together, talking a lot with each other, sharing activities, moments, and all things that lovers share, that what is best for me is helping others find what is best for them. I can only have what I want if I help others have it.

Love is proven by the works, not the words--where there is love, there is great work, says St. Gregory the Great, and when the works cease, the love ceases to exist. Because God loves me, I can love myself, and because I can love myself I can work the deeds of love for others, which is the only way to love God. And because I love myself, I can love even those people who do not love themselves, or others, or God. I love those people who need to hurt me because they need to cover up the hurt they feel all the time. And I love them by giving them what is best for them, which is the knowledge that they are acceptable, and I for one accept them, and will love them, even when it is difficult to like them.