Earlier this Lent, I attended daily mass presided by my diocese’s bishop. On this particular day, the gospel reading was Matthew 5:43-48. This is the passage where Jesus teaches to love thy enemies (But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you).

Our Young Adult Catholic group surrounds Catholic Diocese of Spokane Bishop Thomas Daly (center, with hands in pockets). He preached a “like vs. love” homily on Saturday, March 15, 2025, at St. Thomas More in north Spokane.

Bishop Thomas Daly followed with an interesting homily. He advised those of us in attendance that we didn’t need to like everyone, but we did need to love everyone. Bishop Daly mentioned there were certain people long ago who made his job as president of a Catholic high school quite difficult. These individuals put Bishop Daly through the ringer and made him question their motivations for working in a Catholic school. As you can imagine, these people wouldn’t have been the easiest folks to like.

However, just because you don’t prefer to spend every moment of your free time around certain people doesn’t mean you ought not to love them.

And this is where Bishop Daly dropped the differentiator and defined what “love” means in the context that Jesus preached it. In its simplest terms, “to love” your brothers and sisters in Christ is to hope the best for them. It means, just like Jesus said, that you pray for them. You don’t wish ill will, you don’t secretly hope for their failure. Despite how difficult it might be to get along with someone, you still need to be a positive advocate for their general welfare and pray that they might have a close relationship with Christ.

As we mark the three-week mark of Lent today, it is important to love all, especially those who make it hard to do so. Don’t Blink.