Today's Scripture readings, 2 Tim 2: 8-15 and Mk 12: 28-34, are all about love, about being willing to sacrifice for others, to love God and others with all of our mind, all of our heart, all of our soul and all of our strength. That is how Jesus loved Himself, His Father and us. To love in that way, we need to begin with ourselves. If we do not love ourselves, we will not have love to give to others. If, for instance,we basically and fundamentally do not like who we are, if we are harsh and rejecting of ourselves, then what we will give to others, in turn, will be dislike, harshness, and rejection. So love begins with self, a self that is loved unconditionally by God and by our parents. Love begins in the family. A child is totally dependent on his/her parents to learn to love him/herself.
No where in the Gospels do we meet Jesus as a person with poor self-esteem or a poor self-image. His mother, His foster father and His Abba God loved Him totally and taught Him to love Himself. We meet a person who is confident of who He is and likes who He is. Out of that acceptance and appreciation of self, Jesus remains humble and composed when others challenge His authority, question Him, and/or even oppose Him to the point of screaming for His execution. Jesus remains calm in all of life's travails, standing His ground meekly, humbly and truthfully. What about us? What are we doing to grow into this stature of a human being totally one with him/herself, at peace, and strong in the love that will transform this world into a world of peace, a world of cooperation and a world where all persons are respected and cherished for who they are as a Temple of the Holy Spirit, a co-creator with God sent here for a purpose that no one else has been given to do in building up the Kingdom.
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