Love Thy Neighbor as Thy Self
From Sermons for Every Sunday in The Year by Rev. B. J. Raycroft, A. M.
Published by Fr. Pustet & Co.
Copyright 1900 by Rev. B. J. Raycroft
And the second is like to this: thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self. (St. Matthew xxii - 39)
My Dear Friends: These words were spoken by no less a person than the Son of God. They are transmitted to us by the inspired writer, St. Matthew, and taught by our holy Church. Having such authority, they are deserving of your serious attention.
Repeatedly, you have listened to sermons upon those two great commandments, from which dependeth the law and the prophets: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and with thy whole soul and with all thy strength, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" But have you drawn useful lessons from them? Have you modeled your lives according to these precepts so vast in importance and so beneficial to all?
It is not my purpose, however, upon this occasion, to dwell directly upon these commandments, but to direct your attention to an inference which is suggested by them. "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" Now, allow me to ask do you love yourselves? You will of course protect yourself from many dangers and provide for many of your wants. But still I continue to inquire: do you really love yourselves? You will hug yourselves with the delusive assurance that you love yourselves. Each one of you will answer: "I, not love myself? Why, it is preposterous to ask such a question! To be sure I love myself! Do not my actions demonstrate this, if indeed a demonstration is needed? "I not to love myself?" Why, such a question is silly. "I wish you did love yourselves: for if you did, you would certainly love your neighbor and your God. The fact that you are at times deficient in your love toward God and your neighbor is proof enough that you are not perfect in your love toward yourselves; and this I shall endeavor to prove.
Is not the thief good to himself? Does he not love himself? It appears that he does; for he is anxious to appropriate things belonging to others to himself. He wants to provide himself with plenty. Though he loves not his neighbor, it seems he certainly loves himself. But this is a sophistry. He does not love himself. The way of the transgressor is hard. He does not study the consequences; or, if he does, the study prevents him not from stealing. He is finally imprisoned and disgraced. He did not love himself, for had he; prison bars would never have closed upon him. Had he loved himself, he would have been industrious in the walks of honesty, and this industry would have molded him to honor and fidelity. He did not love himself, nor his neighbor, nor his God, and punishment is his renumeration.
Here is a person who pursues fortune with a vengeance. He is bound to get riches. His ambition is gold. He exhausts his mental and physical powers in accumulating wealth. He cares not whether his neighbors are doomed to penury on earth and to everlasting perdition in hell, if he only succeeds. He builds his fortune upon the ruins of others. He wishes their failure that thereby his purse may develop. He flatters himself that he loves himself; that he will become influential; that people will look up to him as though he were a lord. He will be great. But this greatness he will never enjoy. He cannot enjoy it. He is destroying all the sources whence true enjoyment springs. He is banishing from his heart those emotions which fertilize the soul and make worldly possessions enjoyable. In their stead he is cultivating miserliness as well as covetousness.
Did he love himself, he would be rational. He would say to himself: "I shall labor honestly, but not with extreme selfishness. For if I amass a large fortune, it may be the ruin, rather than the betterment, of my family. I shall be moderate, and my moderation will be an example worthy of their imitation. Neither they, nor I, shall have the curse of the widow or the orphan or the wronged." But he acts not thus, because he loves not himself; and his "reward" will be sorrowful disappointment. His harvest will bring him little joy, for he transgresses the great commandments of the law and the prophets.
Another worries because he does not become rich faster, and he worries, too, because his neighbor acquires wealth faster than he does. This is foolishness. He stews himself away, fretting while he should be better employed. He gains nothing. His worries multiply. He is injuring his health, and it is quite evident he does not love himself. Did he love himself; he would have a generous soul. He might toil to prosper, but he would bid Godspeed to everyone else. He would have less worry and more contentment.
Again, you might have seen a man, an honest man, a man who injures no person and wishes well to all. Excessive labor is his occupation. The day is too short for him. The burning sun is not too hot, nor the frost of winter too severe. Work--work is his only pleasure. You may admire such a man, but he does not love himself. His unremitting toil will break down his health. Instead of ease in his old age, he will suffer from disease. The doctors will get his hard earned cash. Often he will regret that he did not love himself more. He was unwise, and though he meant to be honest, he was dishonest to himself. Moderation should have been his maxim. God gave him health, but he abused it. The gift was not appreciated until it was squandered. Then its true worth was apparent, but it was too late.
You will now acknowledge, I think, that many there are who do not love themselves. Nay, more; I shall convince you that many not only do not love themselves, but hate themselves. Yea, hate themselves, and not only themselves, but their progeny also. You need not be told of the appalling number of sins committed in our age against chastity and temperance. These monstrous transgressions occur even in our own neighborhood. Virtue is laughed at as though it were folly to be chaste and temperate. Do you tell me that those prevaricators love themselves? You could not be so untruthful.
I see a man staggering along the sidewalk; he reels and then falls into the gutter. There he lies, muttering nonsense to himself, and besmeared with filth. Do you tell me that man loves himself? Well, I hope your love for yourselves will not be of that sort. I hear of a man maddened with excessive drink, going in amidst his little family, taking down his gun to shoot his wife. Does he love himself? Does he love his family? Some day, in his madness, he may perpetrate the crime which he has threatened. He does not love himself. He is ruining- himself, destroying his nervous system. He will transmit this degraded, exhausted nature to his children--an awful legacy; the only inheritance of a depraved father. Tell me not that he loves himself. Such a man hates himself, hates his offspring; for if he loved himself and loved his child, his behavior would be vastly different.
Look at the murders and suicides which have been committed almost in your midst. What was the cause? Excessive drink, and probably impurity. These are the crimes which are prevalent in our day; and when some people desire what they call a good time, they go off to some distant town or city, and there indulge in revolting sins, where neighbors will not hear of their profligacy. Are these the persons who are to be the parents of the coming generation? If so, their children will curse them. When they have grown old, or probably in their graves, these children will be punished for crimes, the propensity to which they have inherited from these very parents. They will suffer from mental and physical defects, the pernicious legacy of their sinful parents.
Do you think I am airing some nonsensical theory which has no foundation in fact? Read statistics. Do you think society was always so? The same source of information will prove to you that crime is increasing faster in proportion than the population. That lawlessness has existed more or less at all times, no one will deny; but our age is notoriously pre-eminent for lust and drunkenness, for murder and suicide and dishonesty. Do these violators of God's law love themselves? Behold their wretched existence and their more wretched death! Do they love their children? Behold the foundlings, a large proportion of which die before they have reached the age of twelve years; and the majority of those who survive, either enter dens of iniquity or pursue a disreputable life of some other sort! Alas! What a terrible account must such parents give to the Eternal Judge for the sinful proclivities which they bestow upon their offspring! By excesses the parents have impoverished their whole nervous system; the brain is diseased, the body ruined, and this deformity is often the only dowry which a child receives from his sinful parents. If this wicked mode of living continues, what will the human race be in a few generations? If this generation has multiplied its crimes, what will the next and the next be? An awful thought! A deplorable subject for calm consideration!
What is the origin of all this sinful disorder? It is needless to reply that the origin is found in man's want of love for himself. Did he love himself, he would know that the greatest benefits arise from the love of God; and knowing this incontrovertible truth, his highest ambition would be to love God, and consequently his neighbor. He would know that, if there be any happiness in this world, it is the virtuous person who enjoys that happiness. If he were so selfish as not to love God for Himself, he would love Him because from such love springs so many blessings, so much good for himself and to his children.
But you, my Christian friends, should love God in preference to yourselves, in preference to everything else. Your love for Him should constantly burn. It should be more faithful than the sanctuary lamp which burns in honor of its Creator, for this lamp is sometimes extinguished; but your love ought to be ceaseless. Then, indeed, you would love yourselves, and find little difficulty in loving your neighbor. Your fidelity to God would protect you from many of the wicked disasters of this life, and secure for you an eternal reward, not of punishment, but of glory.
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