When Christ was asked which of the commandments is greatest, he indicated, “Love God and love your neighbor” ((Matthew 22:36-40).

Further, he said in 1 John 4:20: “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.” (Yet, we also must contend with Matthew 10:37…”Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” The lesson here seems to be that we have to put God first….then everything else falls into place.)

Every person alive is a beloved child of God. Each of us is made in God’s image. Thus, loving God inherently requires loving each of God’s children who is made in God’s image – a spiritual fact as well as a faith lesson meant to instruct us on living well with the people around us.

At daily mass this last Thursday (August 24, the feast day for St. Bartholomew the apostle), the priest reflected in his homily about loving one another and about us all being children of God. It all sounded great. I found myself wishing that I could take credit for having written the homily/reflection! Then (fast forward a couple of days), I was walking around a local lake this morning with a friend and a friend of hers. While conversing, I grumbled about various people – and/or groups of people – in less than charitable terms. Yikes. Part of “the human condition” is that most of us have “room for improvement” in how we live our lives.

When we disagree with someone – or dislike how they behave – how often do we look at them as a beloved child of God? How often, rather, do we look at them – and engage with them – with the sentiment expressed in the photo of my cat shown below? Given that there’s at least a flicker of God’s image in the people we dislike the most, how can we dare treat them negatively and say that we “love God?” Yikes (again!) – I can see ample opportunities for my own improvement in this regard (“double yikes” to the times when I’ve said, “At least God loves that easy-to-dislike person, somebody’s got to…”)…. This question of how we treat people applies both individually and collectively – societies also too often deteriorate into disruptive and divisive us-versus-them mentalities that don’t achieve anything positive.

This fact that every one of us is a beloved child of God can and should permeate how we interact with each person we encounter. There’s a bumper sticker that reads, “Love your neighbor means everybody.” Part of a determined discipline to continually live better is to be ever better toward others than we are naturally inclined to be.

Kim Burkhardt blogs at A Parish Catechist and The Books of the Ages. If you are a new visitor, it would be great to have you follow this blog (thank you!). If you know someone who would like this blog post, please share it with them so they can subscribe (thank you!).