"Loving yourself" Who does not love does not love your neighbor? (Part 2 and final)
Marcos Roberto Martinez

 
How to sacrifice myself in favor of my neighbor if I’m only worried about loving myself (preserve) first and, then, love my neighbor?

Chapter. XXI – Characteristics of a true prophet – paragraph 4

Another consideration: the true missionaries of God ignore themselves. (Erastus, Paris, 1862.)

Chapter. X – The speck of sawdust and the plank in the eye 

With effect, how can a man, as presumptuous as he may be to believe in the importance of his personality and the supremacy of his qualities, possess at the same time enough selflessness in order to point out the good of others as opposed to the evil? 

The man who loves himself highlights his personality and his qualities, making hard the appreciation of the qualities of his neighbor. 

Conclusion 

In short, dear friends, to my understanding, I believe that to love thyself may be interpreted as the opposite of humility, and therefore, of charity, once these feeling neutralize one another. 

I agree that we must be grateful for our existence, for our personality, and even for the physical body that serves us so well, however, between having gratitude and loving oneself there’s a big difference; gratitude is an act of submission and giving thanks to the Lord, whereas the love for oneself supposes an act of gratitude to yourself, getting away from the main focus which is God. 

I would like to warp up this simple text by proposing a reflection to our dear readers. 

In which moment in the journey of our Divine Beloved Master Jesus – our greatest model and guide according to the Spirit of Truth – from whom we must always try to follow the examples, was he caught leaning towards loving or thinking of himself before others? 

What we understand is quite the opposite, for in the greatest expression of an example within his grand mission, from the Calvary to crucifixion, we see the Great Master giving up all the love for self, in order to be humiliated by the most wicked of creatures in our sphere, who mocked him. People he could easily exterminate with a sheer glance… But he didn’t, against everyone’s opinion, in order to crown his coming to earth with the best examples that a father could leave his beloved children in order to guide them to a spiritual evolution, to a complete abnegation in favor of his dearly tutored.  

Yes, he went through many tribulations and humiliations from that moment that was totally misunderstood by us all, for he had nothing to expiate, he just left a living example that will never leave the memory of those who study his teachings; he gave his life in sacrifice for us! 

Let’s remind us of when he said, in his last instructions to his disciples, in “John 13. 34”:  

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” 

And in “John, 15. 12-14”: 

“ My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command” 

Why would the Master give this new command, if he had already told to love your neighbor as yourself? Probably because to sacrifice yourself for your friends is higher than loving your neighbor as yourself, meaning: love your neighbor more than yourself, for this love that he speaks of demands total abnegation and resignation of oneself. Therefore, he said that the t love was to give your life for your friends like he did. 

I don’t mean to say we are capable of accomplishing this feat only by practicing love in its most sublime expression, but yes, we are able to understand this truth, in order to, with our humble effort, aim at following the examples of the Master, and move towards our spiritual evolution.  

If the Christ, who had nothing to rescue, went through all that with resignation and courage only to teach us, why can’t  we go through tribulations so small, which were generated by us alone, without complaining, if we are debtors ourselves? 

He demonstrated by that we are here to rescue our past debts and/or evolve through trials and tribulations of corporeal life, and, therefore life on earth is of trials and expiations. 

That is why we shall not fear anything that can humiliate us, bring us down or tarnish our personality; it is all part of our expiation and evolution, in the temporary state we find ourselves in, for the real life is the future one.    

So, let’s take our Cross and follow our Master, whom we must love unconditionally, in the expression of all the weak and needy creatures, because, as he said himself:  “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”. (John: 14.6.)

A few thoughts – Different authors

– What’s the most effective way to fight the predominance of corporeal nature?

R: - Practice abnegation of self. (The Book of Spirits – Question 912.)

“Esteem people as they are, without requiring them to do as you wish. At all times, rest assured that the good done to others, according to the Law of God, will always be better than the one you will do to yourself.” Andre Luiz.

“Mind yourself, correcting your bad habits, eliminating your vices, cutting down on bad conversation and guiding your feelings. Mind yourself, even more, helping the ones who seek you.” – Lancelin (Cirurgia Moral.)

“One of the first obstacles to be removed is the absence or dormancy of self-criticism.  People, in general, deem themselves free from judgement or concede themselves the benefit of doubt, which makes harder or even prevents the recognition of one’s mistakes or deviations of all sorts. Not that all human beings consider themselves perfect. They claim not to be perfect, but think they are less wrong than their neighbors, therefore, more perfect than the others. There’s the key to the failure of intimate reform.” – Caibar Schutel (Fundaments of Intimate Reform.)

“We, who are strong in faith, must help the weak to carry their burden and should not please ourselves. On the contrary, each one of us must please our brother, for his own good and in order for him to grow in the faith. For not even Christ pleased himself, but as it is written: “The offenses of those who insulted you will fell over me”. (Paul of Tarsus, Epistole to the Romans 15:1-3.) 

“... Selfishness is founded on the importance of personality; well, Spiritualism well understood, I repeat, makes us see things from high above, allowing the feeling of personality to disappear, in a way, before such immensity. By destroying this importance, or at least bringing it down to more reasonable levels, he undoubtedly fights selfishness. The shock that man experiences, because of other people’s selfishness, is what often times makes him selfish, because he feels the need to put himself in a defensive state. Seeing that others think of themselves and not in him, he is led to care more about himself than about others. Let’s make the basis of our social institutions, of our legal relations from people to people and man to man the principle of charity and fraternity so that each one will think less about himself, seeing that others think about him. We will all experience the moralizing influence of example and contact. In presence of this flood of selfishness it is necessary a true virtue for someone to renounce his or her personality in favor of others. Mainly for those who possess this virtue, the kingdom of heaven is open. To those, moreover, is reserved the happiness of the chosen, for in truth I say that, on judgment day, the ones who thought only of themselves will be cast aside and suffer abandonment.” (Fenelon, The Book of Spirits – Question 917)