In loving those closest to us, we have to withdraw our positive projections, the way we idealise people unrealistically. In learning to love our enemies, we have to learn to withdraw our negative projections, the ways in which we “dump” on to others all our own anger, all our own hurt or woundedness, our own faults. We all know, or probably have examples in our lives, where we realise (we usually see it more clearly in others than we do in ourselves) we see the way in which we often criticise others for the very faults that we ourselves have, but don’t recognise or accept in ourselves.
(Aspects of Love 2 by Laurence Freeman OSB )
