Romance with Yourself!
Matthew 22:34-40,
Exodus 22:20-26,
1 Thessalonians 1:5-10.
Reflection
Dear sisters and brothers,
Today, we have the text from the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 22:34-40):
“When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,
they gathered together, and one of them,
a scholar of the law tested him by asking,
"Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"
He said to him,
"You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbour as yourself.
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."”
We have threefold Love in this text.
1. Loving God,
2. Loving Neighbour, &
3. Loving Oneself.
1. Loving God
“You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.”
Loving God is the foundation for our being human.
God breathed in us.
We are created with His Spirit.
We are filled with His likeness.
We are human.
He loves us.
We come into being.
Why do I say being?
Being is something that we are created with.
Being is understanding the wholistic creation in human-being.
God, out of His love, creates us like His image and likeness.
We are in the image of God.
We are in the likeness of God.
Becoming is divine.
Being is human
Divinity is not a look.
Divinity is an inner attitude.
It is being heartful of love.
It is being soulful of love.
It is being mindful of love.
Our language of heart is love.
Our spirit of soul is love.
Our knowledge of mind is love.
We are created in love.
We are surrounded with love.
The seed of love is sown in each one’s life first by our Creator when he creates us.
It depends on us whether we allow the seed of love to grow or wither or die or produce.
God gives us freedom.
That is the reason, it is said that if you love a person leave them free.
If he/she comes back to you, he/she is yours.
This dependence evolves us to become someone what we are created for.
That is being the creature at the same time becoming His loving Children.
Becoming is our part.
Life is a gift from God.
What we become is the gift that we give to God.
Do we want to be human with divine likeness?
Or
Do we want to be human with evil?
We desire…
We choose…
We decide…
What we want to be.
In this process, ‘being’ transforms slowly to be ‘becoming’ fully human and fully alive.
Not only I am being human but I become fully human and fully alive.
The incarnation of Jesus Christ, was to transform us to be fully human and fully alive in and through the Salvation on the Cross.
If it is so…
The becoming proceeds to add two more folds in this process.
They are:
a. Loving Neighbour, &
b. Loving Oneself.
2. Loving Neighbour
Loving Neighbour is the second fold in the threefold love.
Who is our neighbour?
Our Saviour Christ Jesus clearly explained in his teaching who is our neighbour.
He gives us the Good Samaritan Parable to explain it.
The good Samaritan parable categorically states that those who are in need, automatically becomes our neighbours.
Are we concerned about our neighbours?
Are we worried about our neighbours?
We live in the world of use and throw.
We live in the world of right or left.
We fail.
We fail when we turn away our eyes from helping the person, who meets with an accident in front of us.
We fail when we conveniently shut our mouth from speaking about racism that happens in our neighborhoods.
We fail when we close our ears from hearing when the poor, the migrants cry for shelters.
We fail when we restrict our hands to reach out to the children and women for their dignity and respect.
We fail when we stop our legs to run to save a dying person in the hospital.
We fail when we are insensitive to the needy our neighbours.
Therefore, we need to understand that loving neighbour does not mean material help alone but being a sensitive person like Jesus.
For the same reason, Jesus calls us to love our neighbours as ourselves (oneself).
3. Loving Oneself
We have the third fold in the form of loving Oneself.
Most of the time we restrict ourselves with two folds:
Loving God and loving neighbour.
We justify saying that loving oneself is selfish.
But, the foundation of love is oneself.
Why?
Because the becoming in love with neighbour, comes from being in romance with oneself for lifelong.
How?
During my pastoral ministry, I meet many people who have intense inferiority complex within them.
What kind of inferiority complex?
Because…
There are people who think that they are short in stature.
There are people who imagine that being tall is disadvantage.
There are people who are depressed particularly during this lockdown.
There are people who are stressed because they have lost their jobs.
There are people who allow the other to have control over them by their negative attitude.
There are people who fill their minds with negativity.
There are people who are fair in skin but not accepted by the other.
There are people who are dark and they compare themselves with the other always.
There are people who die by committing suicide due to their financial problems.
There are people who are with incurable sicknesses.
There are people who are with constant illnesses.
Some people are affected by COVID-19.
It is not visible when we interact with them.
It is shown in their attitudes and behaviours.
It affects them personally at the same time it spoils their relationship with their neighbours.
Most of the sicknesses affect us individually and personally.
What is the connection between a sickness and loving oneself?
Why do I say that?
Surely there is a connection among God, the sickness and oneself.
Few people blame God for their sickness.
God creates us with sickness for His glory.
If we understand the purpose of God in our lives, we never blame God.
God creates us with His perfect image and likeness.
God never creates us with inferiority complex.
We invite the sicknesses by our lifestyle.
We invite the illnesses by our food habits.
We invite the depression by our greedy desires.
We invite the stress by our overwork.
We invite the problems of our lives by our toxic relationships.
God never tells us to eat junk food.
We consume and we gather toxic in our bodies.
The toxic things in our bodies, becomes a basis for our sickness.
Jesus never teaches us to eat healthy food, to do exercise and to be in solitude.
But Jesus shows us his teachings by his very lifestyle.
He spends time in solitude to examine himself and to be with his Father intimately.
We rarely spend our time in solitude.
Silence is an enemy for us.
Because silence brings out our toxic experiences that are in the depth of our minds and hearts.
Unless I address this issue, unless I empty these toxic things from my mind and heart, I cannot heal myself.
Unforgiveness causes a great damage in our lives.
It stores negative attitudes.
Jesus calls us to forgive and forget for our own good.
Jesus pours his forgiving spirit out every day when we ask for it.
Yes, dear sisters and brothers,
We can enjoy peaceful life by repentance from our sins of guilt and unforgiving and believing in the Gospel.
Secondly, by treating everyone as we want them to be treated so that we can be worthy servants in front of our God and our love for God becomes meaningful (Exodus 22:20-26):
“Thus, says the LORD:
“You shall not molest or oppress an alien,
for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.
You shall not wrong any widow or orphan.
If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me,
I will surely hear their cry.
My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword;
then your own wives will be widows, and your children orphans.
“If you lend money to one of your poor neighbours among my people,
you shall not act like an extortioner toward him
by demanding interest from him.
If you take your neighbour’s cloak as a pledge,
you shall return it to him before sunset;
for this cloak of his is the only covering he has for his body.
What else has he to sleep in?
If he cries out to me, I will hear him; for I am compassionate.””
The question is: Are we doing it in our lives?
Further, we observe that it is not only the inner self alone but also the exercise and eating healthy food too plays a vital role in healthy life.
Jesus does not teach us about the exercise or eating healthy food, but we are called to do it if we love ourselves.
Jesus may not tell us what food we must eat.
God created everything and told us not to eat from only one tree.
He knows what is good for us.
If we love Him with our whole soul, heart, and mind, we need to listen to him.
Without listening to Him, we eat all kinds of junk food and gather toxic in our bodies.
Due to which we are prone to some strange sicknesses.
Can we love ourselves considering all these aspects in our lives, so that we can have a wholistic health combined by spiritual, physical and psychological?
By these, we can become as Saint Paul would say (1 Thessalonians 1:5-10):
“Brothers and sisters:
You know what sort of people we were among you for your sake.
And you became imitators of us and of the Lord,
receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit,
so that you became a model for all the believers
in Macedonia and in Achaia.
For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth
not only in Macedonia and in Achaia,
but in every place your faith in God has gone forth,
so that we have no need to say anything.
For they themselves openly declare about us
what sort of reception we had among you,
and how you turned to God from idols
to serve the living and true God
and to await his Son from heaven,
whom he raised from the dead,
Jesus, who delivers us from the coming wrath.”
Let us love God.
Let us love ourselves.
I am sure that these two folds lead us to love our neighbours meaningfully.
Romance with yourself!
May the Heart of Jesus live in the hearts of all. Amen…
