Sermon Central
-
Romance With Yourself!
Contributed by Dr. John Singarayar Svd on Oct 20, 2020 (message contributor)
Summary: We have threefold Love.
Romance with Yourself!
Reflection
Dear sisters and brothers,
Today, we have the text from the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 22:34-40):
“When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,
they gathered together, and one of them,
a scholar of the law tested him by asking,
"Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"
He said to him,
"You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbour as yourself.
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."”
We have threefold Love in this text.
1. Loving God,
2. Loving Neighbour, &
3. Loving Oneself.
1. Loving God
“You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.”
Loving God is the foundation for our being human.
God breathed in us.
We are created with His Spirit.
We are filled with His likeness.
We are human.
He loves us.
We come into being.
Why do I say being?
Being is something that we are created with.
Being is understanding the wholistic creation in human-being.
God, out of His love, creates us like His image and likeness.
We are in the image of God.
We are in the likeness of God.
Becoming is divine.
Being is human
Divinity is not a look.
Divinity is an inner attitude.
It is being heartful of love.
It is being soulful of love.
It is being mindful of love.
Our language of heart is love.
Our spirit of soul is love.
Our knowledge of mind is love.
We are created in love.
We are surrounded with love.
The seed of love is sown in each one’s life first by our Creator when he creates us.
It depends on us whether we allow the seed of love to grow or wither or die or produce.
God gives us freedom.
That is the reason, it is said that if you love a person leave them free.
If he/she comes back to you, he/she is yours.
This dependence evolves us to become someone what we are created for.
That is being the creature at the same time becoming His loving Children.
Becoming is our part.
Life is a gift from God.
What we become is the gift that we give to God.
Do we want to be human with divine likeness?
Or
Do we want to be human with evil?
We desire…
We choose…
We decide…
What we want to be.
In this process, ‘being’ transforms slowly to be ‘becoming’ fully human and fully alive.
Not only I am being human but I become fully human and fully alive.
The incarnation of Jesus Christ, was to transform us to be fully human and fully alive in and through the Salvation on the Cross.
If it is so…
The becoming proceeds to add two more folds in this process.
They are:
a. Loving Neighbour, &
b. Loving Oneself.
2. Loving Neighbour
Loving Neighbour is the second fold in the threefold love.
Who is our neighbour?
Our Saviour Christ Jesus clearly explained in his teaching who is our neighbour.
He gives us the Good Samaritan Parable to explain it.
The good Samaritan parable categorically states that those who are in need, automatically becomes our neighbours.
Are we concerned about our neighbours?
Are we worried about our neighbours?
We live in the world of use and throw.
We live in the world of right or left.
We fail.
We fail when we turn away our eyes from helping the person, who meets with an accident in front of us.
We fail when we conveniently shut our mouth from speaking about racism that happens in our neighborhoods.
We fail when we close our ears from hearing when the poor, the migrants cry for shelters.
We fail when we restrict our hands to reach out to the children and women for their dignity and respect.
We fail when we stop our legs to run to save a dying person in the hospital.
We fail when we are insensitive to the needy our neighbours.
Therefore, we need to understand that loving neighbour does not mean material help alone but being a sensitive person like Jesus.
For the same reason, Jesus calls us to love our neighbours as ourselves (oneself).
3. Loving Oneself
We have the third fold in the form of loving Oneself.
Most of the time we restrict ourselves with two folds:
Loving God and loving neighbour.
We justify saying that loving oneself is selfish.
But, the foundation of love is oneself.
Why?
Because the becoming in love with neighbour, comes from being in romance with oneself for lifelong.
