“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Matthew 22:39
Reflection
A Pharisee asks Jesus which commandment is the greatest. He replies that loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind is the first and greatest commandment. The second is to love your neighbor as yourself.
It will be difficult to love your neighbor if you don’t love yourself. Our society promotes such self-love, but in a twisted way that ends up making a person dislike themselves even more. Seeking pleasure in all the wrong places and putting selfish priorities first does not increase healthy self-love, but instead creates hatred, loathing, and disappointment.
We need to be kind to ourselves, yet at the same time recognizing our faults and sins and seeking to repent and correct them. When we take the time to see ourselves as God does, as beloved sons and daughters, we can grow in healthy and holy ways. Christ commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to do this, we must first love ourselves well. God loves you infinitely and wants you to see the good you possess – will you let him show you?
Saint of the Day
St. Pius X: 1835 – 1914
| “It is necessary to inculcate properly in the minds of all the moral maxims taught by Jesus Christ, so that everybody may learn to conquer himself, to curb the passions of the mind, to stifle pride…[and] to thirst after the future life in the hope of eternal reward.” Pope St. Pius X |
