tells us how we should love our neighbor: as we love ourselves. So it’s pretty clear that in
order to receive eternal life we must first love ourselves. Perhaps the first order of
business is to discern how exactly we love ourselves. It’s a difficult task, because what
could be more natural than self-love? The answer lies in that question. Self-love comes
naturally; it’s instinctive. We don’t think about wanting the best for ourselves, we simply
do. We strive to create better circumstances for ourselves, and even when we fail, we still
possess the love to will ourselves better. We do not have to make ourselves worthy of
loving ourselves.
It should be the same way regarding how we love our neighbor. Loving our
neighbor should come naturally; we should instinctively want the best for others. This
often takes work. It’s difficult to want others to have the best, especially if it means that
we are being denied the best. Too often, if we are to wish someone well, we feel a need to
justify such love. A person needs to become worthy of our love. And if someone does
something to harm us, that love can be diminished. But if we are to love our neighbors as
ourselves, nothing should stand in our way. When we make a mistake, we still feel a
desire to make things better for ourselves. We don’t stop loving ourselves – at least not
completely. So it should be with our neighbors. The imperfection of the human condition
should not be reason to withhold love. We are not perfect, but each of us can still do
something for God. Each of us is like a nail that gets bent while hammering: you can
hammer the rest of the nail against the board and it will still perform its function of
holding the wood together, flawed as it may seem. When we realize that this capacity lies
within each person we see as drive through Montclair, or sit in movie theater, we are one
step closer to loving our neighbor.
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