Mark 12:28-34a
One of the religion scholars came up. Hearing the lively exchanges of question and answer and seeing how sharp Jesus was in his answers, he put in his question: “Which is most important of all the commandments?”
Jesus said, “The first in importance is, ‘Listen, Israel: The Lord your God is one; so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.’ And here is the second: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ There is no other commandment that ranks with these.”
The religion scholar said, “A wonderful answer, Teacher! So lucid and accurate—that God is one and there is no other. And loving him with all passion and intelligence and energy, and loving others as well as you love yourself. Why, that’s better than all offerings and sacrifices put together!”
When Jesus realized how insightful he was, he said, “You’re almost there, right on the border of God’s kingdom.”
I suspect if I were to ask you, “How much do you love yourself?” I would mostly get some mumbled “I don’t much think about it,” and maybe a couple would answer something like “I don’t really like myself much.” We are taught from childhood that it is somehow wrong to think too highly of ourselves, much less to love ourselves.
All this does not say much about the teaching in today’s gospel reading in which Jesus is quoting a much, much older teaching. The injunction to love our neighbors as ourselves goes as far back as the book of Leviticus and is part of the quite explicit instructions God gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai a good 900-1300 years or so before Jesus’ time.
All this does not say much about the teaching in today’s gospel reading in which Jesus is quoting a much, much older teaching. The injunction to love our neighbors as ourselves goes as far back as the book of Leviticus and is part of the quite explicit instructions God gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai a good 900-1300 years or so before Jesus’ time.
Leviticus 19:18: You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
How on earth are we supposed to manage loving our neighbor if we can’t get over the culturally-ingrained hurdle of being humble and saying weird things like, “Oh, shucks - it was nothing,” when others try to say good things about us?
Just what does it mean to love ourselves? I think we should be able to agree it does not mean standing in front of a mirror half the day lost in admiration of our beautiful selves, not does it mean that we love ourselves and our own wants to the point of thinking that no one else matters.
On the very first page of Genesis we are told: God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. And then, after a few more verses about humankind it continues with the word that God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. God loves us, therefore we are good enough for God’s love. Not through our own earning but through God's free gift. That's what God does -- God loves.
In both the Old and the New Testaments we are commanded to love others in the same manner in which we love ourselves. So the question is, do we truly love ourselves – in a healthy, honest way? Do we truly believe that God really does love us?
Some of us were lucky in our families. We’ve been loved and cherished in our lives. But others have had different lessons thrust on us: You’re ugly; you’re stupid; you’ll never amount to anything; no one will ever love you. Some people find it almost impossible to love themselves ... and, it appears that if we cannot love ourselves, we cannot love our neighbors.
So again, the question: Just what does it mean to love ourselves?
NOTE:
An extensive discussion followed the message, the upshot of which was that most of us felt uncomfortable claiming to love ourselves but could be comfortable with "being satisfied" with ourselves or "being comfortable in our own skin." There was still a feeling somehow that we had to "be better" to "earn" God's love. A later reflection on the reading was that God looks at us, with all our flaws, and loves us anyway -- and that this is the love we are to offer our neighbors -- seeing their flaws (if we must) and loving them anyway.
What are your thoughts on the question of loving others as we love ourselves?
Just what does it mean to love ourselves? I think we should be able to agree it does not mean standing in front of a mirror half the day lost in admiration of our beautiful selves, not does it mean that we love ourselves and our own wants to the point of thinking that no one else matters.
On the very first page of Genesis we are told: God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. And then, after a few more verses about humankind it continues with the word that God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. God loves us, therefore we are good enough for God’s love. Not through our own earning but through God's free gift. That's what God does -- God loves.
In both the Old and the New Testaments we are commanded to love others in the same manner in which we love ourselves. So the question is, do we truly love ourselves – in a healthy, honest way? Do we truly believe that God really does love us?
Some of us were lucky in our families. We’ve been loved and cherished in our lives. But others have had different lessons thrust on us: You’re ugly; you’re stupid; you’ll never amount to anything; no one will ever love you. Some people find it almost impossible to love themselves ... and, it appears that if we cannot love ourselves, we cannot love our neighbors.
So again, the question: Just what does it mean to love ourselves?
NOTE:
An extensive discussion followed the message, the upshot of which was that most of us felt uncomfortable claiming to love ourselves but could be comfortable with "being satisfied" with ourselves or "being comfortable in our own skin." There was still a feeling somehow that we had to "be better" to "earn" God's love. A later reflection on the reading was that God looks at us, with all our flaws, and loves us anyway -- and that this is the love we are to offer our neighbors -- seeing their flaws (if we must) and loving them anyway.
What are your thoughts on the question of loving others as we love ourselves?
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