We all love. Our hearts are open to the love of our families and friends. I found in today’s reading a call to be open to God’s love of humanity. In Samaria it was the preaching of Philip, Peter and John that opened the crowd’s hearts to the Word of God and healed them. They went to Samaria because they loved its citizens so much that they wanted to share the teachings of Jesus Christ with them. Philip did not preach to the wealthy of the city, but those who were inhabited by unclean spirits, the paralyzed and the crippled. He walked among and loved the least, just as Jesus Christ had before him. His ministry was preferential in its love.

It is within our hearts that we recognize Christ as Lord and through our hearts that we love one another.  Jesus tells us that if we love him we will keep his commandments. If we love Christ we will love one another, our neighbors as ourselves. By doing this we will be loved by Jesus and in turn loved by his Father. We must exercise Christ’s preferential love in our daily lives. In doing so, we will love and be loved in return.

Editor's Note: Nate graduated from Creighton University in May, so this will be his last Student Daily Reflection. We ask that you keep him in your prayers as he spends his next year doing post-graduate volunteer work before entering into graduate school.