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The readings today emphasize that LOVE is the greatest law  fulfilling all commandments. We are urged to love God ” with all our heart  soul , mind and strength”. Jesus also teaches that we must love our neighbours as ourselves. We are told to love God and show that love through our actions towards others. Every opportunity to love someone is an opportunity to love God.   

As a former English teacher, I’ve looked at the word “love” – is “love” a noun or a verb? As a noun we can think of the love God gives us. We can think of the love that we share with each other. Then , is love just a thing ( definition of a noun) ? No , if we have love , then we are going to love not just in saying we love but to show our love in our actions. In this sense , love is a verb…love is something we do.

We don’t have to go around saying ” I love you” to everyone we come in contact with. Mind you, the words ” Love you” can be a healing gesture in anyone’s life. I was fortunate growing up in a home that was a loving environment. We didn’t express a gushy ” love you” every day but I knew from a very young age that there was love around me. My dad would give my mother a kiss every time before he left for work, or going hunting, fishing, curling. Then my sister and I had to clean up our messes of toys and my mom would put on her red lipstick as we waited for ” daddy to come home”. These simple gestures, along with the respectful tone of voices to each other always nurtured love in my heart so very early.

Love is what drives us to care, to help, to serve. Sometimes love is easy ( the love of a parent and child, the love of a husband and wife). Sometimes though, love is more difficult because, if we follow the commandments, it might be difficult to love a stranger; it’s harder still to love someone who offends or harms us. We need to work at love. We should pray for the gift to love those we don’t know and those we dislike.

We should remember the wording ” love our neighbour as ourselves”. How do we do this? This is a summons to empathy. Because , of course, we can’t know how anyone else feels but we do know how we feel. We could presume that everyone we meet may have a burden like ours: whether it’s fragile health , a troubled child , a relationship gone awry, the loss of a loved one or the incredible shortness of cash. We have to  remember to be kind , for everyone may be fighting a hard battle today. Empathy is only possible if we take each person’s battles as  seriously as our own including the struggles of people who live across town, across borders, across race and culture, across the political divide. We would not want someone to speak untruthfully with or about us so we should practise that  with our neighbour. Practice doesn’t always make perfect ; practice makes better. We can recognize and fight for each other’s dignity. We can be kind and thankful to the people who serve us in our everyday world. Physically we can donate items/food to the food bank, even volunteer at one to relieve the work that is done by these people. We can provide company or rides for people who need to get around; offer to do shopping for an elderly neighbour. Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.

 I found a few quotes I think address the theme in the readings today and I hope you see the significance in each as I do.

Peanuts:  Treat others with respect.

Cassandra Elliott: Be the HELP someone needs, not the HURT they don’t deserve.

Kindness – definition:  the quality or state of being friendly, generous, gentle and considerate. 

Sometimes miracles are just good people with kind hearts.

Ronald Reagan:  We can’t help EVERYONE but EVERYONE can help.

Being told you’re appreciated is one of the Simplest yet most Incredible things you can ever hear.

Mariska  Hagarty:  Just smiling at someone walking down the street can make the person’s day. It’s all about paying it forward.

~Cathy  Keirstead