Simone Weil, quoted in W.H. Auden, A Certain World: A Commonplace Book. New York: Viking, 1970, 283.
To love our neighbor as ourselves does not mean that we should love all people equally, for I do not have an equal love for all the modes of existence of myself. Nor does it mean that we should never make them suffer, for I do not refuse to make myself suffer. But we should have with each person the relationship of one conception of the universe to another conception of the universe, and not to a part of it.
2 comments:
The greatest commandment, greater than all others, is to love our neighbor as ourselves. The words sound so simple, but are full of mystery when we try to put them into practice. We think we know what love is, but then life turns out to be so complicated. Simone Weil probes into the mystery: we cannot and perhaps should not love everyone equally. Sometimes we must cause suffering, even to ourselves and those we love. Sometimes to love is to cause suffering. But in order to love we must see the other. We must accept that person’s wholeness and not wish for only part of him.
Loving God, help me to open my eyes and see the people around me, to look where I have not been looking, to expose myself to what I have been afraid or unable to see.
Godess, make me whole and wholly open to other beings of Your making.
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