Love your Neighbor

by Mercedes Hollcraft  |  02/19/2023  |  From the Clergy

This February, our school’s 7th and 8th grade students attended a 3 day retreat away from the school. It is an annual tradition for our students and an opportunity to grow in faith together and as individuals. It is always a gift to see them experiencing their faith, sharing their faith and praying together. This year’s retreat focused on what it means to be a community. Our students participated in activities where they had to rely on each other to succeed. In essence, they were learning the lesson that Jesus teaches us this Sunday, In the first reading, he said to Moses “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”; then again in the gospel, he goes further and tells us, “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”.

It is not difficult to show love to those who are our family and friends, to those who we agree with and who support what we do; as our 7th and 8th grade students learned, if they worked only with those who they considered their friends, they would not get the task done. They had to rely on all those in their group, even their peers who they do not spend time with and even who they struggle to get along with. The most successful groups at retreat were those who put aside their differences and focused on the purpose of the task. I watched them work together, laugh together, make mistakes and corrections together and succeed together. It was a witness and reminder to me and for us all to love and pray for friend and enemy alike so “that you may be children of your heavenly Father…For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?”