What is the greatest commandment (kelal gadol) of the Torah? To this question Jesus responds by quoting the Shema (cf. Dt 6:4-7) and the text of Leviticus 19:8. There is only one commandment, love, which has two directions: God and neighbour. All the rest is a footnote. However, we would like to focus on the precept of Lev 19:8, which reiterates an aspect that we often forget: to love others it is necessary to love yourself first.  Jesus does not say to love one’s neighbour more than but as yourself.  Loving doesn’t mean cancelling yourself.  Saint Augustine said: “If you don’t know how to love yourself, you cannot truly love your neighbour.” Loving yourself, then, is the point.   But what does this mean?  Loving yourself on a physical level involves caring for yourself: your health and other external factors; on a psychological level: attention to your inner balance, feelings and emotions; commitment, on a rational level, to your own training and intellectual growth; at the level of faith: the desire to grow in the knowledge of God, of the world, of the Spirit.  For the avoidance of doubt, love towards yourself is certainly not narcissism. Indeed, it implies a slow and not always easy process of acceptance of yourself, your own internal and human truth, your availability to grow and, therefore, the path towards maturity in Christ.

And You,
Always expected by us,
You too
wait
for us to come to you
for a meeting
in love
that has no
end.

Commentary by d. Sandro Carotta, osb
Abbazia di Praglia

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves,Prinknash Abbey