You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Being a good Christian

It does not imply being an obsessed person with many commandments to comply with, to which one can feel overwhelmed, but to be a person in love, who does everything with the joy of love.

Each of us knows well what it means to love ourselves and what we would like others to do for us. Adding those words, "as yourself", Jesus He has placed before us a mirror before which we cannot lie; he has given us an infallible measure to discover whether or not we love our neighbor.

How to love your neighbor

Therefore, whatever you would have men do to you, do also to them (Mt 7:12). It does not say, if you please: What the other does to you, do also to him. This would still be the law of retaliation: An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth (Dt 19:21). It says, rather: what you would like the other person to do to you, do to him/her.and that is quite different.

How many things would change in the companyIf we were to put into practice these words of Jesus! Doing so is not so difficult. It is enough to ask oneself in every situation: if I were in his place and he were in mine, how would I want him to behave with me?

The words and, above all, the example of Jesus in the Gospel invite us to think, talk to him in our prayer and draw consequences. Perhaps in thinking about the love of neighbor The first thing we think of is to dedicate some of our spare time to an action of solidarity: accompanying an elderly person for a walk, comforting a sick personGiving a handout, distributing food to those who don't have it, participating in a solidarity party... All of this is fine, but it's only a small beginning. It can even be an excuse to feel good with a good conscience.

Jesus' words do not speak of the external works of charity but of inner dispositions, essential in our relationships with others. The first thing is to truly love people, to be interested in them, to build bridges of friendship, to share the best we have to offer: our joyful and operative faithwhich is manifested in works.

In short, do everything out of love: if you keep silent, keep silent out of love; if you speak, speak out of love; if you correct, correct out of love. Think first of others with true love and then concretize those good feelings in the way that can be most useful to each person.

God's glance

It is about looking differently at the situations and people we encounter in order to live. How? With the gaze with which we would like God to look at usof excuse, of benevolence, of understanding, of forgiveness...!

• When St. John the Apostle was very old, he was taken to Christian meetings and when he was asked to tell something about Jesus, he invariably repeated: "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God" (1 Jn 4:7). As he always said the same thing, they insisted: "But you have been with Jesus and you know many things about him; why do you always repeat the same thing to us?". And he answered, "Because it is the precept of the Lord and if we put it into practice, we have put his whole Gospel into practice."
• In this world in which we live and which we would like to see in peace, a world in which the to recognize the dignity of all persons and to make it easier for all of us to create a more equitable societyThese ideals will not become a reality if we do not begin with ourselves: to cleanse our hearts of selfishness and fill them with the love of God, and to make it noticeable in our FAMILY LIFE and in dealing with our colleagues and friends that we really love them and care about them.
• To our Mother, the Virgin of Love beautiful, we ask you to help us to love as your Son has taught us.