Loving the Stranger

What does it mean to love the stranger?

For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. - Deuteronomy 10:17-19

In today's reading from Deuteronomy, we are reminded of two things about God, that He loves the stranger and executes justice.

For all of us, it is probably a lot easier to come to a common understanding of love than justice.  It sounds like the two are interwoven, since the example of love comes with the statement about justice.   As an act of that love, God provides food and clothing.

And we are told to love the stranger as well.

So, why not provide food and clothing to those we don't know?  That's easy, right?  It is what we do every day at Caritas.  But there is a catch.

Since we see a lot of the same people day after day, the act of love in feeding and clothing them changes the relationship.  We are no longer strangers to each other.  We begin to care about each other and may even come to like each other.

God knows this about us.  He created us to love.

So, if we begin by offering strangers an act of love, we may actually come to love them.

That's where the justice comes in.  It is not ours to dispense, but ours to achieve through love.

So, today, go out and perform an act of love.  It will change you.  And justice will prevail.

More to come...