{"id":430,"date":"2023-03-25T18:31:43","date_gmt":"2023-03-25T18:31:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/?p=430"},"modified":"2026-02-25T01:28:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T01:28:33","slug":"how-to-love-our-neighbor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/2023\/03\/25\/how-to-love-our-neighbor\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Love Our Neighbor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Homily, 2-27-23; Monday of the 1st Week in Lent<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week Jenni and I stopped by our daughter\u2019s home for a visit. As I was giving with my three-year old granddaughter a horseback ride, she informed me that I needed to say neigh<\/em>, because that\u2019s what horses do. Eventually, our discussion got around to other animal sounds. She said sheep say baa<\/em>, and I said goats say maa<\/em>. She wasn\u2019t too sure about that and gave me a funny look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s gospel passage reminded me of our playtime discussion. At the judgement, will we be sheep or goats? The judgement we will encounter is an evaluation of how we treat our neighbor. Jesus lays out the considerations which are essentially the basis for the seven Corporal Works of Mercy. The Corporal Works of Mercy embody the almsgiving we are called to perform in a special way during Lent. I hope everyone has baa<\/em> on their lips. I don\u2019t want to hear any maas<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We hear these words at the end of our reading from Leviticus: \u201cYou shall love your neighbor as yourself.\u201d<\/em><\/strong> It is the second great commandment. We are called to love our neighbor, but how? As we love ourselves. And this sometimes is where we can go wrong\u2014we don\u2019t love ourselves, or don\u2019t love ourselves properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does it mean to love ourselves? It doesn\u2019t mean that we try to satisfy all our wants and desires. It means that we try to do the things that will lead us to true happiness, and that is to do God\u2019s will in our lives. Fulfilling our true purpose in life is what will lead to true happiness because it will lead us to eternal life. We are called to know, love, and serve God in this world so that we can be happy with Him forever in the next. If we truly love ourselves, we will be willing to make sacrifices and forego short-term pleasures to receive a delayed reward in the afterlife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our understanding of the proper way to love ourselves will influence how we love our neighbor. If our idea of self-love is fulfilling our desires and passions, then we will exhibit love of neighbor by helping them meet all their wants and desires. If our idea of self-love consists of discipline so as to reach the rewards of eternal life, then we will express our love of neighbor by trying to guide them on the straight path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Society tries to tell us that loving our neighbor requires tolerating our neighbor\u2019s behavior, even if it is morally wrong and will lead them on the path to destruction. But is this how we love ourselves? Of course it shouldn\u2019t be. We should not tolerate our own immoral behavior. We truly love our neighbor by trying to show them the errors of their ways and the impact on their salvation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But truly loving our neighbors will not necessarily lead to winning their friendship. Our love will not necessarily be returned. We are to love without expecting love in return. Love is not selfish. It is modeled after the love of Jesus who still loves us even when we do not love Him in return. This is how we love our neighbor as ourselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Homily, 2-27-23; Monday of the 1st Week in Lent: Last week Jenni and I stopped by our daughter\u2019s home for a visit. As I was giving with my three-year old granddaughter a horseback ride, she informed me that I needed to say neigh, because that\u2019s what horses do. Eventually, our discussion got around to other… Continue reading How to Love Our Neighbor<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekday-homilies","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":431,"href":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions\/431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}