Loving and Serving Others

As we begin the first week of Lent, the Church puts in front of us this reading from Leviticus and Matthew.  Leviticus contains many of the 613 Commandments in the Old Testament.  Most of them in this particular reading are in the negative, “Don’t do this; don’t do that,” until the very end when we hear, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  That’s the Commandment that Jesus lifts up when he was asked, “What is the most important commandment?”  He would say, “Love God and love your neighbor.”

That’s the underlying theme in the Gospel, that when we see the hungry, the naked, the thirsty, so on and so forth.  Jesus says, “Whatever you did for the least ones, you did it for me.”  Maybe that would be part of our prayer today – how can we be more sensitive to the needs of others?  How can we see the Christ present in the other?  How do we love neighbor as ourselves?

Monsignor Daniel Hoye