I want to share a story with you about love for God & love of neighbor, & ALSO about the difference between LIKING someone & LOVING someone, which is Jesus’ command to love. There once were 2 neighbors, & I’ll tell you right off: from what I’ve heard, I don’t think I would have LIKED living next door to EITHER of these neighbors! The first was reportedly a very annoying woman who complained to everyone about everything & everyone. The 2nd neighbor reportedly was a prideful man who thought that everything HE did was perfect, & he INSULTED everyone ELSE’S work & every1 ELSE’S ideas as inferior to HIS work & ideas. 

These 2 neighbors didn’t get along with each other, or other neighbors. But one day the man looked out his window, & he saw the neighbor woman’s husband being taken out of the house in an ambulance, & an idea clicked for him. Because the woman’s husband would have been the one to rake their autumn leaves, & the husband was now sick, this neighbor decided HE would rake up his neighbor’s leaves. So, where did this desire to do something GOOD for someone he didn’t LIKE at all? 

We KNOW where such an idea came from: from Jesus, who taught us to LOVE ALL our neighbors in action, & NOT to just LOVE the ones we LIKE. Do we really know that, because in my mind, that’s NOT easy, & it gets more complicated when we hear later on from Jesus that EVERYBODY’S our neighbor! EVERYBODY? Yes, EVERYBODY! & If you need a Bible reference for this, it’s the Good Samaritan story in St. Luke’s Gospel, Chapter 10. 

So, when we LOVE someone, OF COURSE we DON’T want to do hurtful things to them: like cheat them, treat them unfairly, gossip about them, steal from them, or send them home to God prematurely. Those actions are the OPPOSITE of LOVE, which MEANS to ACT & SPEAK for the BENEFIT  of the other person. When I LOVE others, I treat them fairly, say GOOD things about them, protect their belongings as well as our own, & preserve their lives. I do THE best for them, even if I don’t like them. REAL love, TRUE LOVE, goes way beyond living a quid pro quo life, which says I only reach out and do good for others who have been good to me: that’s “payback love:” that what Jesus says the pagans do!  

If we always remembered that we’re called to LOVE our neighbor because ALL our neighbors have GOD living in them, we might well make some different decisions, & speak with even greater respect to others, INCLUDING those we DON’T like. That’s an example of putting Jesus first, AND putting God first. May Jesus help us to do that in our everyday lives, starting with the saving power of the Holy Eucharist to come.