Mark 12:30-31
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart… you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.”
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I am very sure of this, that in one way or another, each one of us has loved someone or something. Even a selfish person is showing love, that is, love of himself. This is the very reason why we should put the virtue of LOVE in the right perspective.
The love that Jesus taught us primarily is “Agape” - the love of God; and secondarily the love of our neighbor as ourselves, for God's sake. To forego of the latter is to abandon the first. However, goes with this love is sacrifice. What is the use of saying to a poor man to “go up and eat something” and yet you give nothing of what he needs. Or, give him a small amount so he can eat for the day, and keep for yourself more money so you can eat in gluttony, smoke and drink like crazy.
A person who genuinely loves God also loves his fellows because he realizes that they are his brothers and sisters, children of the same Father, redeemed by the same blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Self-love of the right kind, based on God's love for man, necessarily involves forgetting oneself in order to love God and our neighbor for God. Christian life is not about being perfect. It is about perfecting our love for God and others through our Savior.
I know that we can’t always meet everyone’s needs, just as we cannot always meet our own needs. But we should demonstrate the same commitment to meeting the needs of others as we do for ourselves.
Let us pray +
Oh Lord, let us love one another, for Your love is a selfless, giving love. Whoever loves has been born of You and knows You. The love we should offer shall no longer be self-seeking, but, instead it shall seek the good of those that we love – ready, selfless, unconditional and even willing, for sacrifice.
Amen +
“I am the Lord your God: hear My voice.”
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