Daily Reflection Feast of Saint Matthias, Apostle

Love according to the Merriam Webster dictionary is both a noun and a verb. As a noun one of the definitions is the object of attachment, devotion, or admiration and as a verb one of the definitions is to thrive in. These definitions seem perfectly suited to describe our love for Jesus. If we keep Jesus close to us and stay devoted to him, how can we not thrive and love him. It is part two of what Jesus asks of us that can be the challenge. Some days that whole “love thy neighbor” is a great challenge. 

Sometimes we look at our neighbors, the poor, the lonely, the homeless as a collective, a large group and it is then that we can get overwhelmed and only look on as bystanders and not someone who is loving a neighbor. Mother Teresa said “I never look at the masses as my responsibility. I look at the individual. I can love only one person at a time. I can feed only one person at a time. Just one, one, one.” In this gospel Jesus is challenging us to look at the one, the individual. Just like the disciples we to are chosen and appointed. As Christians we are to go into the world and love. I know a woman who runs a weekly soup kitchen. If you want to volunteer with her, you must be prepared to do more than hand someone their plate of food. You must be prepared to sit and talk to the person. You must be prepared to let the God in you bless the God in them. That is what it means to be chosen and appointed. and remember love unlike the song that says “love take two, me and you” it really takes three; myself, my neighbor and God.

The calling of every baptized person is to love one another, hence our neighbor. This can only be done if we attach ourselves to Jesus, if we are devoted to our prayer life and if we ask Jesus to nourish and strengthen us in the eucharist. So get out there and be a noun and a verb. Go love thy neighbor.