Saint Francis de Sales preaches beautifully about how and why we are called to love our neighbors (and - by extension - our true selves). He summons us to meditate on the tremendous intimacy of God's presence and God's love here and now, for each of us and all of us. Do we remember the gift of this Love that sustains our being and calls us every day, within all our responsibilities and all our various concerns and preoccupations?When I ponder the words of the text below (in bold type), when I "pray these words" and others of this great 17th century Doctor of the Church, I am restored and renewed in my perspective on myself, those around me, the wider community, the responsibilities of our nation for the "common good" within and beyond our own boundaries, and the truth about all of us, about the whole world. The ultimate, definitive truth about the world - even this world today with all its divisions, covetousness, and violence - is that "God so loved the world that He gave His Only-begotten Son..." (John 3:16). We glimpse the fullness of reality in the measure in which we are given and shaped by the wisdom of "the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:39).
This means that in order to love others (with a love that grasps the existential foundation for the ineradicable dignity of every human person), we must 'see' each of them as they really are - each one personally and particularly loved by the Heart of Jesus, God the Son, the Word made flesh who dwells among us. We come to know the tenderness of God's redeeming, sustaining, and fulfilling presence when we encounter Jesus and experience, through faith, the immense personal love of His Heart for our own selves. As Francis de Sales emphasizes:
"Then we shall be all steeped, as it were, in sweetness and gentleness toward all our neighbors, for we shall look upon these souls as resting in our Savior’s Heart.
"Alas! They who regard their neighbor in any other way run the risk of not loving him with purity, constancy, and impartiality. But beholding him in that divine resting place, who would not love him, bear with him, and be patient with his imperfections?…
"Your neighbor is there, in the Heart of the Savior, there as so beloved and so lovable that the divine Lover dies of love for him!"
