October 14
Daily Gleanings of the Saintly LifeThirteenth Monday after Trinity
And love thy neighbour as thyself. S. Matthew 19:19.
IF you wish to know who your neighbour is whom you are bound to love, it is he who needs your assistance. The word neighbour is more expressive in the Greek and Latin languages, it is he who approaches nearest to you. We are to love all men; but in doing so are to love most those who need it most. Now how can this be? It is only by loving God. It is by loving men because God loves them, and as beloved of Him, and because we ourselves love Him. And therefore it is the second commandment; it cannot stand alone, but another goes before it, the first and great commandment, which is the love of God. If we love our neighbour because we love God, then we shall love him in some measure as we love ourselves. We may dislike various persons. Consider how they are loved of God, surely as much as we ourselves are. Think how God loves them, and you will learn to be merciful, even as your Father in heaven is merciful.
Shall we the mother love who bore to earth, And cherished our unheeding infancy; And love not Thee, by Whose sore agony We have been born unto a better birth? Shall we the father love whom our rude will Hath grieved so often, yet doth love us still? Shall we the sister love who evermore, Still present e'er in absence, watcheth o'er Our weariness; loved friend, or brother dear; And all of good and lovely dwelling here? And love not Thee, from Whom all to our need, In parent, sister, friend, or brotherhood, All that is good or lovely doth proceed, Faint emanations from the only Good?
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