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Loving Your Neighbor

March 8, 2024

Hosea 14:1-9  |  Mark 12:28-34  | Psalm 81:8-14

“The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” – Mark 12:28-34

Love it is one of the biggest things that is talked about during the season of lent. How Jesus loved us so much that he was willing to die on the cross to save us. During this season I also think about how to love the people around me more. When reading the reading for the day I came up with one question.

Where in the world around us do you see people loving their neighbor as yourself?

One place I saw this was in the Dominican Republic when I was on the mission trip just a few weeks ago. In the barrio, the love that the people have for each other showed in their interactions with their neighbors. You could feal the love they had for us during each interaction. They knew that we were there doing something to help someone in their community and that meant a lot to them. Also, on the first day we went to a house that Fr. Tim and Rob Walsh knew from the past trip. Hosaphina did not know the rest of us, but she invited us in with open arms. She and her husband Pablo shared conversation and pictures with us. She treated us as she had known us all forever. The love that everyone has for each other was so heartwarming and inspiring. A lot of them would drop what they were doing in one phone call to help each other. I think that exemplifies what it means in the Gospel reading from Mark “The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Catherine Pilkington