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Homily for Fri of the 3rd Wk of Lent, 28 Mar 2025, Mk 12:28-34
Love your neighbor AS YOURSELF. We often misread this to mean “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” Can it be interpreted that way? Yes. After all, how can you love others if you don’t love yourself? It does make sense, but I don’t think it’s what Jesus is trying to say in what he calls the second greatest commandment. Yes, self-love, self-care is also important. I can’t recall anymore in which Tagalog movie I heard that line: “Paano kita mamahalin kung wasak ang pagkatao ko? Kung sarili ko mismo hindi ko alam mahalin?” Like I said, it’s a good thought but not exactly what Jesus is saying.
Love your neighbor AS YOURSELF translates better in Tagalog as—“ituring ang iba na parang hindi iba sa iyo.” To treat others as yourself is to regard them as your own, as no longer other. That when you learn to love your neighbor, you allow them to become part of you, such that what hurts them hurts you also, and what gives them joy gives joy to you also. Love connects us to one another in such a way that we get to see in the other not another, but our own selves, one’s own brothers, sister, mother, father, friend.
When you begin to see every other as a fellow sufferer, says one philosopher, something beautiful happens to your humanity. Your humanity has grown larger than your ego. It grows into that larger and more authentic self that becomes more strongly connected to others, to the world, and ultimately, to God.
