Jesus said, “Love your neighbor.”

Here in Michigan, that’s not a metaphor.

It’s Canada.

This week, Canada imposed tariffs on $20 billion in American goods, responding to new American tariffs and threats.

And who will pay?

Canadian workers.

Michigan workers.

Farmers, manufacturers, small businesses—and all of us when prices rise.

Strong nations should not need to humiliate their friends.

Yet we’ve threatened Canadian industries, joked about making Canada our 51st state, and even renamed Lake Ontario—as if changing a map proves anything.

In Sunday's gospel Jesus tells Peter about a man who receives extraordinary mercy, then turns around, grabs his neighbor by the throat, and demands payment.

It's about judgement and forgiveness.

America and Canada have shared generations of trade, friendship, sacrifice, and peace. We will disagree. Friends do.

But Jesus warns us what happens when every disagreement becomes a debt to collect, every neighbor becomes an adversary, and power becomes permission to humiliate.

America and Canada will certainly disagree.

But disagreements between friends belong at a negotiating table—not in threats, insults, and trade wars that ordinary families are left to finance.

Strong nations do not need to belittle their friends.

They keep talking.

They honor their commitments.

And they remember how much they have received.

Because mercy is not weakness.

It is how neighbors remain neighbor