Last month, my colleagues and I at NETWORK advocates for Catholic social Justice embarked on a cross-country road trip called Nuns on the Bus and Friends. We were joined by Women Religious and we also invited our “friends”--our partners from other faith-based and secular organizations who are also dedicated to pursuing good trouble through social justice and the pursuit of the common good. From Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to San Francisco, California, we called on people to VOTE OUR FUTURE– that a future where everyone thrives, no exceptions.

As we traveled from city to city, we witnessed welcoming communities where neighbors cared for each other. Our hearts were broken open as we heard stories from individuals and organizations we visited who are so rooted in their communities and also so beautifully extend the inclusive love of God to all people.  It is through these organizations and these people that we were able to witness communities where everyone thrives no exceptions.  We witnessed communities where everyone is neighbor and where everyone has a home–where people are welcomed with compassion instead of judgment.

And that brings me to today's readings. In Deuteronomy, we hear the command to love the Lord your God with your whole being.

But, first, we must “Hear.” “Hear O Israel,” the prophet wrote at the start of the passage.

Today, I want to suggest that we need to put ourselves into this statement. “Here, all you people.”

What or who do we need to hear? What do we need to pay attention to? Before we can love our God with our whole being, we must practice active and holy listening. We must open ourselves to the movements of the Spirit–to the little fires of God around us. This is the only way we can authentically be in relationship with those around us…how we are to Hear the invitation from God–to truly love our God with our whole heart, our whole mind, and our whole body.

This is a challenge. This requires us to give totally of ourselves to give ourselves over to, what sister Sandra Schneiders, IHM, refers to as the God quest. Or, as Cesar Chavez said, “it is my deepest belief that only by giving our lives do we find life.” It is to that radical availability to follow where we are called to follow the movement of the spirit who calls us in places we may have never dreamed of going.

To Love your God with your whole being is daunting in and of itself. However, Today’s Gospel issues, one more challenge to us after quoting the passage from Deuteronomy, challenges us to love your neighbor as yourself. This, he reminds us, is worth more than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.

This command should stop us in our tracks. Love our neighbor as ourselves? What does that look like? Who is our neighbor?

On Nuns on the Bus & Friends, we witnessed people and organizations who modeled loving your neighbor. At the Southern Border in Nogales, AZ, we walked with Sr. Eileen McKenzie, FSPA and Sr. Engracia Robles Robles, MC from Kino Border Initiative. As they led us along the Wall, we saw the barbed wire installed to deter migrants. This wire, normally installed around prisons in the United States, symbolized to me the culture of fear that is used to divide us…to make us forget that people seeking asylum are also our neighbors.

It takes great courage to love our neighbors as ourselves. In a country and world, divided by fear and hatred of anyone deemed “other”, we are called to see every person as neighbor...regardless of their country of origin, gender or sexuality, economic status, education or employment level, how they live or how they worship. We must be open to encounter…to moving beyond fear and hatred…and into community. As a Sister of the Humility of Mary, my community's constitution puts it this way "drawn into a deepening relationship of love, we dedicate our lives to God into service with and for others. Our vow life is a persuasive sign to a world diminished by materialism, injustice, and fear, that God is faithful, that hope is a way of life, and that love brings about justice and peace.”

May we be beacons of love that brings about justice and peace. May we, as I say in my vow formula, “strive to share the love of Jesus through the message of the Gospel and the witness of my (our) life.” May this be the way we live out our radical call from God. May we have the courage to love God with our whole heart and our whole being and to love our neighbors as ourselves.