The Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost (2 Cor. 11:31–12:9; Lk. 6:31–36)

The fundamental, primal commandment is: love. A small word, yet it expresses an all-encompassing task. It is easy to say—love—but not easy to attain the proper measure of love. Nor is it altogether clear how to attain it; that is why the Savior surrounds this commandment with other explanatory rules: ”love… as yourself” (Mt. 19:19), and ”as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them” (Lk. 6:31). Here a measure of love is indicated that one might call immeasurable—for is there a measure to one’s love for oneself, and is there any good that one would not wish another to do for him? And yet this precept is not impossible to fulfill. Everything depends on entering into complete sympathy with others, so that their feelings are fully transferred to oneself, so that one feels as they feel. When this happens, there is no need to spell out what must be done for others in each situation—the heart itself will indicate. You need only take care to maintain this sympathy; otherwise self-love will immediately step in, draw you back to yourself, and shut you up within yourself. Then you will not lift a finger for another, will not even look his way, though he were dying. When the Lord said, ”love your neighbor… as yourself,” He wanted the neighbor to stand in us—that is, in our hearts—in the place of ourselves. But if our own “I” continues to stand there as before, expect no good.