I rather like the notion of knowing them as the same love, undifferentiated.
The perennial philosophy recognizes again and again in different religions and in different ways and with different languages that there is a Divine Reality substantial to the world of things. There is something eternal, there’s something transcendental to the world of things, lives, souls, and minds. The goal of human existence is quite simply to experience union with that Reality, ideally on every level. Jesus, of course, says the same (Mark 12:30), and in fact, equates love of others, love of self, and love of God throughout his teaching.
Fr. Richard Rohr, Adapted from a non-published talk at a conference in Assisi, Italy, May 2012
Eventually, I think, they must be the same love. Though whether one finds love for one's neighbour through the love of God, or vice versa, might vary from person to person, or even within a single person.
ReplyDeleteMy confessor suggests you reach the second commandment from the first, at least as regards the "poor and huddled masses". But 1 John 4:20 must also come into this somewhere..
I have a friend who says that she has no problem loving the "poor and huddled masses", it's her next door neighbor that is the problem!
DeleteI think that what I am trying to say is that I like knowing that loving myself is loving God, loving others is loving myself, loving God is loving others.
ReplyDeleteSometimes, if I'm having a difficult time loving myself, I can tap into the God-love, or if I'm not feeling especially loving toward someone else, I can love myself, and know that it is all springing from the same Source and leading to the same End.