Be Loving One Another
Always have a good opinion of others.
Speak well of them.
Excuse and conceal as well as you can
any wrong that you see in them.
Be obliging to everyone
and never be discourteous toward anyone.
Maxim of Love 8:4
Jean-Pierre Medaille,SJ
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This is not an easy maxim by all means. I see it as not only pertaining to the dear neighbours but also to our immediate families. As a matter of fact I find it easier to excuse the neighbours or the stranger who just cut me off than to excuse my children and husband when they do something wrong.
I often have to remind myself that “our children are lent to us not given to us.” We are given these little souls with their own make-up and personalities and we have to try to teach them and most of all to love them. It does not mean that I do not challenge them or that I accept everything they do.
But most often enough I found that they have taught me a lesson. The first lesson they taught me was to love them unconditionally. They are so different from each other and yet I can honestly say that I love each one of them as they are. I can see the beauty in them and who they really are, regardless of their faults and it pains me when they don’t see their own beauty. How much more it must pain the Lord when we don’t love ourselves and don’t think we are worth loving. If I can love my children unconditionally and see their own beauty, imagine how much more the Lord loves me.
Everyone is at a different stage in his or her life and it is okay. My journey is not anyone else’s and I have to accept that they are where they are meant to be. The Lord will do the rest. All I am asked to do is to love everyone. I am always amazed that everything goes back to the second commandment “Love your neighbour as yourself.”
At the end of the maxim I would add, “Be obliging to everyone, never be discourteous toward anyone and never judge them.”
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