Divine Double Take

When pressed as to what was the greatest commandment, Jesus replied, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind' (Deuteronomy 6:5). This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' (Leviticus 19:18)." This reply, found in Matthew 22:37-39, is significant to us for more than just the obvious reasons.

That last part of the second commandment has captured my attention...the "as ourselves." We know the first part well and have even memorized the second part, but it hasn't really registered to us. I know this is true because if it had we would treat ourselves and others differently.

In my own meditations on the "as ourselves" I stumbled across a fantastic book about this very thing. The book is called A Glimpse of Jesus: The Stranger to Self Hatred by Brennan Manning. It was a life-changing read for me, reminding me of the immeasurable love God has for me that I need only receive. And it is only in this reception that I am truly able to love Him and others fully. I encourage you to get your hands on a copy of this remarkable book...yesterday.

Below is an excerpt from another one of Manning's books, Lion and Lamb. Most of his books carry the common theme (major or minor) of accepting God's infinite love and grace. This one is the same and bears repeating as we consider the "as ourselves" part of God's commandment to us.

"One of the most shocking contradictions in Christian living is the intense dislike many disciples of Jesus have for themselves. They are more displeased, impatient, irritated, unforgiving, and spiteful with their own shortcomings than they would ever dream of being with someone else's. They would never judge any other of God's children with the savage self-condemnation with which they crush themselves.

Through experiencing the relentless tenderness of Jesus, we learn first of all to be with ourselves. To the extent that we allow the compassion of the Lord to invade our hearts, we are freed from the...self-hatred that we are now even ashamed of. It is simply not possible to know the Christ of the Gospels unless we alter our attitude toward ourselves and take sides with him against our own self-evaluation. Would you like to know this moment how Jesus feels about you? Bernard Bush says this is the way you will know: if you love yourself intensely and freely, then your feelings about yourself correspond perfectly to the sentiments of Jesus.

And the divine double take, of course, is that loving ourselves frees us to love others."

- Brennan Manning, Lions and Lambs