Interesting quote from "Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life"

"If there is such a thing as human perfection, it seems to emerge precisely from how we handle the imperfection that is everywhere, especially our own. What a clever place for God to hide holiness, so that only the humble and earnest will find it! A "perfect" person ends up being one who can consciously forgive and include imperfection rather than one who thinks he or she is totally above and beyond imperfection." -  Richard Rohr, 'Falling Upwards'

I am ever more convinced that the heart of the Christian message is about making imperfect things perfect. That is what Christ has done for us.

It follows that we are to do precisely the same thing to those around us.

Our ability to give this to others is directly reflective of how conscious we are of our own receipt from God.

The more we understand how God has buried His perfection into our imperfections the more we will be able to accord the same to others.

In this way, the command to 'love others as we love ourselves'  is as much a command as it is a statement of fact.

We can only love others to the extent of our realisation of how much we are loved.

Those who have been perfected much will, in turn, perfect other people much.

Love,  properly so called,  is simply whatever flows after we have reversed someone else's imperfections and regarded them as the opposite of imperfect.