Is self love for me?

Self-love is undoubtedly one of the most difficult matters to explicate as well as one of the most important to consider in reflecting upon encounters with other persons.

Does not self-love seem to exist as something confused, as inexpressible? Is it because it is so radical? When we reflect upon our activities, can we say that self-love is at their source, and that it precedes them in point of genesis? Yet is not self-love something which makes us most “ourselves”? At the same time, is it possible to admit this in view of the fact that such an admission seems to contradict what live is? Is self-love real love? Is it the rival of love? Do we deny love by putting ourselves before others? To love oneself involves looking at oneself, to the point that one regards only oneself. Otherwise stated, is not self-love the inverse-or the adversary-of such impulses as generosity, altruism, and friendship? Can one have a true generosity with regard to oneself?-or would it be a false generosity, since whatever one gives to oneself, one keeps and is the only one to enjoy it? It would seem necessary to talk not about love with regard to oneself, but of egoism. Selfishness, and therefore to be mistrustful of it, to fight against this feeling which makes us retire into ourselves and seems to be an evil love.

br. Marie-Dominique Philippe o.p.