The commandment does not tell us not to love ourselves, but only to strive to love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves.

Saturday, 1/11/13

John the Baptist said that his joy was made complete at hearing that Christ’s fame was increasing, while his was decreasing.

It took a mighty saint to be able to say that. Self-love has such a strangle hold on each of us that it is hard for any of us to pass through any situation without considering whether or not we came out of it looking good.

I spend a lot of time in restaurants, unavoidably listening to conversations from other tables. And the one word that dominates most conversations is “I.” It’s “Well. I think,” “If you ask me,” “What I’m trying to get at,” “I came out of that looking good,” “Well, I have my own views on that.” “I could go on and on, I could.”

Loving yourself is no sin. The commandment does not tell us to love your neighbor more then yourself, but only as much as yourself.

Each of us is intimately aware of all the good in our self – all our sweet memories, and the good feelings we get from so many sources make us want to hug our self tight. Neither you nor I can put self love aside.

To become true Christians we must moment-to-moment push self love aside to make room for loving others.