The ego wants to love God first, and of course the ego is constantly trying to put itself first. But as we learn to move beyond that egocentricity that tries to make us love God before God loves us, or even perhaps trying to love God so that he will love us – all the complex ways in which the ego tries to manipulate and control even God or through its image of God – as we learn to recentre ourselves in the true centre of reality, the reality that God loves us first, then that experience of being loved, which is the whole meaning of redemption, impels a response in us. You don’t even have to try to love others. It’s impossible to try, to force yourself to love someone, to force yourself to love yourself. It isn’t an act of the will. We are impelled by the very nature of the experience of being loved to become loving. It reveals to us our true nature and our true potential.
(Aspects of Love 3 by Laurence Freeman OSB )
