Loving your Neighbor As Yourself1. When Jesus was asked ‘what is thegreatest commandment in the Law ofMoses?” Jesus replied,‘Love the Lord your God with allyour heart and with all yoursoul, and with all your mind.This is the first and greatestcommandment.And the second is like this: “Loveyour neighbor as yourself.”All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’(Matthew 22:36-40)2. To Jesus, love is the greatest commandment: to love God, and to love the peoplewho are around us.Many of us might think that this is too simple, but actually, loving God and peoplearound us can be extremely difficult. Please read the words of Jesus once again,slowly and word by word. ……‘Love the Lord your GodWith all your heart andwith all your soul, andwith all your mind.This is the first and greatest commandment.And the second is like this:Love your neighbor as yourself.So, what Jesus says about loving God and the people around us?An unconditional love:a love that is un-selfish, unconditional; anda love for others as for ourselves. What Jesus says is therefore very difficult and challenging to each of us.Because we are, mostly and most of the time, self-centered, or ego-centric.That is, we always think only about ourselves and what is good for us.We are human beings, and humans are selfish who love no one but oneselves andthose who are dear and important to us.To most of the believers (eg. religion adherents), loving God with all our soul, allour minds means to love God with NO conditions. But we all know that thereare many (we included !!) who claim to be a religion adherents only because theytry to get something from the deity, the supernatural all-powerful One. They/We‘love’ God because they/we believe God can give whatever they/we want.Therefore, that the God-human relationship is a business relationship, a trade:‘If I give you something, you should give me something back, too!’But, this is NOT what Jesus says about loving God.So, to love God and our neighbor is the greatest challenge that we are facing inour everyday lives.3. What does it mean to love your neighbor?Thousands of years ago, Jesus was asked that samequestion. So He told a story about a weary travelerwho was robbed, beaten and left alone alongside ofthe road.An ordinary man saw him and kept walking. (Hewas probably busy.) A very religious person ignored him, too.(There was probably no one around to notice his good deeds.)But the person who actually stopped and did something wassomeone a bit unexpected. That person was the GoodSamaritan.We all know the story — a kind person stops to help anotherperson. But it means a bit more. In the story, the traveler andthe Samaritan could not be more different. They came fromdifferent cities. They had very different views. Some mighteven say that these two people would have hated one another. Yet despite their differences, the Samaritan chose to love his neighbor. Eventhough the neighbor wasn’t really his neighbor at all. Our neighbor isn’t just theperson next door. Our neighbor is the person God has placed right in frontus. And no matter how different, how inconvenient or how unexpected, we’reasked to love.4. So, what is love? In the Bible, Paul theApostle wrote the following in his letter tothe Corinthians:Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy,it does not boast, it is not proud. It is notrude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easilyangered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Lovedoes not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts,always hopes, always perseveres. (1 Cor 13:4-7)5. May we try, everyday, to be a nicer and more loving human being to the peoplewho are surround us. And by loving our neighbors, we express our love to Godand show that we are worthy of God’s unconditional love. May the spirit of PK bewith us