Love Yourself

Love Yourself

Scripture

Luke 10:25-37

Reflection

Dear sisters and brothers,

Love is a complex word.

Love is a complicated emotion.

Love is a beautiful expression.

It depends on where we are at that moment when we experience love.

We can speak a volume about love.

We can write hundreds of pages about love.

However, we may not have any experience of love in our lives.

To experience love, we need to love someone.

Love is not at first sight.

Love comes after a soulful conversation.

Love comes after a spirit-filled experience.

Love comes after seeing the wonders of creation.

However, love is always understood between two people.

There are so many ancient sages and books that talk about love and loving others.

Jesus deals with love differently.

He looks at love in his Father's way.

He does not stop love between two people.

He involves a soulful experience of being one with oneself.

Everything must emerge from some source.

God loved the world and He created it.

God loved His people so much that He sent His one and only Son into the world.

We are part of God.

We are created in his image and likeness.

We read:

"Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, "Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, "Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it" (Deuteronomy 30: 10-14).

Therefore, God’s commandment is in our mouth and in our heart.

We need to obey God.

It correlates with Jesus's commandment to ‘love yourself’.

Yes, love of God is the first commandment.

Loving your neighbour is the second commandment.

At the same time, loving oneself is the root of both.

Because we are the image and likeness of God, and we keep his commandments in our mouth and in our heart, not somewhere else, within ourselves.

Love emerges from within.

For the same reason, we need to accept ourselves, whatever we are in shape, colour, and so on.

There is no inferiority complex.

There is no ego.

There is no arrogance.

There is no revenge.

There is no guilty feeling.

Everything is full of love.

Everything is full of love of God.

Again we read:

"For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross" (Colossians 1: 19-20).

Jesus, the good Samaritan, the source of love, loves everyone.

Am I ready to love like my Master, Jesus, that He lives in me and loves me by our words and deeds?

May the heart of Jesus live in the hearts of all. Amen.