Brennan Manning once said that true humility is not a poor opinion of yourself, rather, no opinion of yourself. So it is with authentic love. Love simply loves unaware that it is actually loving – it just does. Love is unselfconscious. Consider a lamp. An illumined lamp gives light not because it is trying to give light but because that is what a lamp does. A rose releases its intoxicating fragrance because it can’t help but do so. The fragrance of the rose is not produced by the presence of a nose nor is the light of the lamp more bright in the presence of eyes! They just are.
Love just is – regardless of whether someone benefits from them at all. Love doesn't love for accolades and recognition, to validate itself, its identity or its value, love simply is. Love in this way is to embody what Jesus meant when He said “don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing”.
To be oblivious, we learn to look to the source of love, to God and not to our loving per sae. We become what we look at, what we adore, and the natural fruit of gazing upon Jesus is the transformational life of divine love flowing naturally in and through us to the world around us
When did we see you hungry and feed you?
When did we see you naked and clothe you?
When were you in prison and when did we visit you?
Whatever you have done for the least, you have done for me. – Jesus.
(Inspired and adapted from: The Way of Love. Anthony DeMello, S.J. )