My Neighbor, My Self

Every deep question in my life has turned on something about love. I thought very seriously about calling this blog “On the love of God and Neighbor,” but that seemed to suggest that I had already decided something I hoped to discover. I begin, instead, with a question: What is my witness?

In that light, I call attention to wisdom from a sage.

Brother David Steindl-Rast—a hermit of Mount Savior monastery, a master-guide in West-East conversation, and one of the genuine sages I have been blessed to hear—published a marvelous book in 1984, Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer: An Approach to Life in Fullness. In his, graceful presentation, he wrote two things about love that brought light to the darkness of my thinking. First: Setting aside the seriously limited notions of preferential desire and passionate attraction, Brother David reminded us that all our notions of love include some sense of belonging. (p164ff) He appealed, always, to our own experience. I find that belonging, especially as he presented it, is true to my experience of love, so I offer it to you.

Second: Brother David shed light on something else about love that has puzzled and troubled me for decades. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself.” This has been a bon mot, even a mantra for Christians and for many others for centuries.

I have poked and prodded this sentence/admonition/promise through years of preaching: Yes, It is a merger of two verses of biblical law…No, I do not think the joining was original to Jesus…Yes, in Luke’s gospel it is surrounded by material largely original to Luke…No, it is not original to Luke (If it predates Jesus it predates Luke’s gospel!)…Yes, it sounds like you must love yourself in order to love either God or neighbor….WAIT!

That way of proceeding leads down at least one of many alleys filled with as much shadow as light.

Brother David offered, in characteristically simple, graceful language, a word about “as yourself.” In a talk about life, he pointed to “as yourself” as a problematic translation. “As” does not translate a comparative term such as “like” or “similar to.” It translates, instead, a form of the verb to be. So, we have “love you neighbor (being) yourself.” (p169)  Or: “Love your neighbor who is yourself.”

I can imagine the gear grinding screeches in “individuals” such as myself. Fear not! Be at ease…

This is merely a beginning thought.

At the same time, it is a beginning.

A closing word especially for our times: “my neighbor who is myself” leads to wisdom about love of enemies. “We belong together. Whatever I do to you, I do it ultimately to myself.”(p168)

To those who enjoy the journey, especially if you would like a gentle, elegant way to come to the realization that we are not the noble, independent, self-reliant Invictus, I commend Brother David’s wonderful book.