Love God and Love Neighbor

Reflections from the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, found at http://usccb.org/bible/readings/102614.cfm

No Church practice or rule should ever be a burden, and in our Catholic Church, none is. The practices and rules are there to help us keep those two "biggies" (love of God and neighbor), and also to teach us how to avoid everything that is opposed to the "love command" - in other words, to avoid sin. We cannot love God and not love our neighbor, but there is more to it than that. The love of God has priority and is the source of love for neighbor. In our neighbor, we see something of God, his creature, his image and likeness, and if we love God, we must also love his image, the work of his hands.

This command of love can be very difficult when dealing with family, friends and co-workers. In dealing with those people in our lives, we can follow out the command to love God and neighbor by practicing faith, hope and charity. In faith we know that there is a God who loves us. Our hope is centered on living out our faith here on earth and to be with Him forever in heaven. It's in charity where we get really challenged. Being charitable to those in our lives that can annoy us is what we are called to do. Being charitable is where we can grow and cultivate our love of God and of neighbor.

To cultivate this love, or charity, you can pick out someone in your life, whether family member, neighbor, or co-worker, and surprise them with an act of kindness (without their ever finding out who did it). For a neighbor you can rake the leaves in front of his home, shovel the snow, or some sort of kindness that they would appreciate.

You can cultivate the "love habit" by sharing with each other several ways we could "love our neighbor" at the office, school, or neighborhood, and within our own family. When at work or school, you can treat kindly that person that gets "under your skin". Show them the love that God expects you to show others. After all, they are created in God's image.

When at home, during your time of prayer with God, pray a rosary for the spiritual well-being of a special neighbor who has been kind to you. You can also include those people that have treated you unfairly. Pray for them.

Further, love is more than just an emotion. Love moves us to care for those who are in most need. It calls us to be concerned with the needs of other people, and not simply our own personal needs. Love calls us to learn from others and to be transformed into the kind of person that God is calling us to be.

We are called to put love into action. We are to remember that the Christ, through His Church, calls us to have preferential love for the poor in our world.

Jesus, in today's gospel, is teaching us that love of God and love of neighbor are essential to life. As Christ teaches us, friendship with God is basic to our love of our neighbor. Let's cultivate our friendship with God. Taking time to do this does not mean taking time away from our spouses or our children or our neighbor. Rather, it ensures that the time we spend with them is quality time. Prayer changes the quality of our love, making our love grow greater towards God and our neighbor.

Praise be Jesus Christ now and forever.