love others, all others, period

“The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people.”

                                                               G.K. Chesterton

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We only have one job

OK

Make that two

Love God and

Love our neighbor

If we suck at one, we suck at both

Really

If we really love God we will love our neighbor

If we love our neighbor, we are loving God

It is that simple, and that complicated

Who is our neighbor?

According to Jesus

Through the magical and mystical parable of the Good Samaritan

Our neighbor is whomever we find I our path

More specifically

Whomever we see as we walk along our way

Who is need

Which means of course, is that our neighbors may well

Be the last people we would pick to be our neighbors

The poor

Those with addictions

Those who are troubled and difficult

Those who are different

Our neighbors are the vulnerable

The ones who are very often, difficult to love

But God says,

“you have one job

Love me

And by the way, loving me means loving “them”

The two tasks are inseparable

And if you pretend you love me

But don’t love them

That’s a no go

Sorry

You can’t ignore people in cages and love me

You can’t bully people, and love me

You can’t tell people of color to “go back to from whence they came”

And love me

You can’t be greedy

Can’t lie

Can’t cheat people

Can’t provoke violence against the defenseless

Can’t send a dark force against the vulnerable

And love me

Yes there are two great commandments

But they are really one

You can’t do one without the other

For I am in each person you meet

You love me

You love them,

And don’t you forget it”