Love your Neighbour, as Yourself
In the Gospel last Sunday, Jesus taught simply yet clearly that all the commandments are rooted in these two, the love of God and the love of neighbour.
On the surface these sound simple yet in truth they are much more profound than sometimes we take time to consider. The hard bit in the instruction can be that we need to love our neighbour as ourselves.
It is not difficult to look around our world and see conflicts, both near and far. These are the symptomatic of our inability to love our neighbour. What we don’t often think about though is that the aggressive behaviour and attitude we see on the outside often conceals a deep inability to feel loved as ourselves. How can we give love if we don’t feel it/experience it? Pope Francis wrote in 2015:
“Many people today sense a profound imbalance which drives them to frenetic activity and makes them feel busy, in a constant hurry which in turn leads them to ride rough-shod over everything around them?” Pope Francis, Laudato Si, #225
In scrolling the net, reading newspapers or watching/listening to the news, it is easy to find examples of this, from all people in all walks of life. As Christians however, we hear the book of Exodus tell us:
‘“You must not molest the stranger or oppress him, for you lived as strangers in the land of Egypt. You must not be harsh with the widow, or with the orphan; if you are harsh with them, they will surely cry out to me, and be sure I shall hear their cry; my anger will flare and I shall kill you with the sword, your own wives will be widows, your own children orphans.
‘“If you lend money to any of my people, to any poor man among you, you must not play the usurer with him: you must not demand interest from him.
‘“If you take another’s cloak as a pledge, you must give it back to him before sunset. It is all the covering he has; it is the cloak he wraps his body in; what else would he sleep in? If he cries to me, I will listen, for I am full of pity.”’ (Exodus 22:20-26)
Let us pray this week that even if those around us do not show love to their neighbour, we can try. It is always the first step that is the hardest. We can then pray for those who make policies and laws that seem unlovable or who portray a love of self that denies the wellbeing of the other. Finally, we can try and recognise the ways in which we too are loved, by God and by our own neighbours, whoever they are. The Ignatian prayer, the Examen may help you to do this.
