Love Your Brother

This is the commandment we have from Him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. 1 John 4:21

Now of course "brother" here means humankind....

That's a tough one huh? What if my brother made me mad? What if my brother committed a mortal sin against me? Do I still have to love him? Yes! Did Jesus not love us when we denied Him? Did He not beg His Father's forgiveness for those who tortured Him because they did not know what they were doing? Live like Jesus lived.

I'm not saying this is easy! It most certainly is not, and I have had more than my share of experience. There have been quite a few instances where family members have done other family members wrong and they have been cast out. Then they come back and I'm not sure what to do with that. Well first of all, Mother Angelica tells us to live in the Present Moment. In doing that, we should be able to cast aside ill feelings toward that person and at least treat them with some decency and respect, right? Again, not an easy thing to do. But it wasn't easy for Jesus to carry that cross for us either.

There are going to be times where we want to "hate" someone. Or maybe we have even said we wish him/her was dead. Those are hateful things to say or think, but we can overcome them. Time helps, that's for sure. But it's God's love for us and our love for Him that will get us through those hard times. I don't think that God is suggesting that we love everyone the same either. He wants us to love each other enough to be there when we need each other, regardless of the past. To look out for one another because he is my brother.

Lord, I seek your love by showing others that I love them. Please help me to live for today, to live for You.