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“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
How do we show our love for God? By loving others, Jesus tells us. In the order of the Great Commandments, our love for our neighbors will flow from our love for God. And which neighbors does Jesus call us to love? The important and influential? Sure, but let’s check our motives because they can repay us. Friends and family? Of course, but even the ungodly can do that. Here, Jesus reminds us that our love for God is best shown when we love the least of these.
So who are the least of these? They are the hungry and the sick. They are the imprisoned and the impoverished. They are the widowed and the abandoned. They are the ones who cannot repay in any material form the kindness we offer them.
But more than that, they are the ones that Jesus calls his brothers and sisters because, like us, they are also loved immeasurably and unconditionally by God and created in His image. And they are never far from us. So Jesus calls us to meet their needs with food, shelter, clothing, friendship, and compassion.
When we love Jesus, we live out our love in service to others.
