Love Your Neighbor (09/22/2024)

“Love your neighbor.” We say it. We see it on signs and hear it in conversations and sermons. But it is more than a campaign slogan or the words on a cross-stitch sampler; “Love your neighbor” is a mandate from our all-loving LORD. It is one of the ways in which we love our LORD, allowing the LORD’s transformative love for us to spill over into our lives and color our moments.

“Love your neighbor” lived out loud is one of the ways we proclaim to others the Good News of the LORD’s love that will not be quieted or blocked. It is to be lived, though, not just mumbled, not just pointed to as a motto. It is to be lived. And not just with those whom we agree with or those whom we like. Truth is, in this world, diverse as it is, it is the path to unity that the LORD had deemed we take. In this world, our neighbor is everyone because we recognize the LORD as creator of all, Father of all, Redeemer of all, Sanctifier and Advocate of all.

As we begin this new week in our LORD, let us commit, as followers of our beloved Jesus Christ, to live as He taught us through word and example. Let us put on the apron of humility and serve our brothers and sisters around us, those most in need physically, mentally, spiritually. Let us be willing to encounter one another without judgment and address the real needs we find in our community. Let us promise to treat the other as we ourselves would want to be treated.

Let us be willing to give of our time, our talent and our resources to serve one another as sisters and brothers of the one Christ, as daughters and sons of the one Father Almighty, as earthly temples of the one Spirit.

We all have something to give, something to do, as we work as a world to bring things around to unity and love. But it begins with openness to the LORD and openness to the gifts of the other.

In every community, there are those in need physically. We can donate groceries or money to the local food bank, or we can volunteer our time to help others who need to use the food bank. We can donate items to the local St. Vincent de Paul or thrift store that not only sells needed things at reduced rates but use their proceeds to assist those in need locally.

In every community, there are those in need of emotional support. We can recognize the long and lonely path of the grieving and include them in our prayers and activities long past the funeral of their loved one. We can be a friend to those who are alone, checking on them, speaking to them, including them in activities like going to the farmer’s market or the parish festival.

And above all, we can pray for one another, we can bring the needs of others to the LORD and seek help for them as well as help for us so that we might be better “neighbors.”

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.