“And who is my neighbor?”
Why did the scholar ask Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” “But among the Jews there was a certain vagueness about the word ‘neighbor’: it wasn’t clear whether it included only the members of one’s own clan, or one’s friends, or the entire chosen people. Opinions varied on the subject, and that was why the doctor of the Law asked Our Lord, Who is my neighbor? To whom should I show all this love and mercy?”[i]
Who is our neighbor according to Jesus? Jesus answers this question clearly in today’s parable. “This is my neighbor: he is a man, any man whoever who has need of me. Our Lord makes no specific reference to race, friendship, or blood connection. Our neighbor is anyone who is close to us and has need of help. Nothing is said of his country, or of his background or social condition: homo quidam,just a man, a human being.”[ii]
“This parable leaves no doubt about who our neighbor is – anyone (without distinction of race or relationship) who needs our help; nor about how we should love him – by taking pity on him, being compassionate towards his spiritual or corporal needs; and it is not just a matter of having the right feeling towards him: we must do something, we must generously serve him.”[iii]
“The conclusion is clear: we are not to make distinctions, either of religion or nationality, of friend or foe; anyone in need of help is our ‘neighbor’ and must be loved as we each love ourselves.”[iv]
“Jesus Christ commands us to love one another – that is, all persons without exception – for His sake.”[v] There may be times when we do not want to or feel like loving all people, but it is during these times that we love them anyway for the sake of Christ. We pray in the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, “for the sake of His sorrowful passion have mercy on us and on the whole world.” For the sake of Jesus and for the sake of His sorrowful passion, the least that we can do is love one another without exception. Saint Benedict’s rule for monks gives some practical ways to love one another. The rule says, “to love one’s neighbor as oneself, to honor all men, not to do to another what one would not have done to oneself, not to forsake charity, to hate no man, to console the sorrowing, to bury the dead, to reverence the old, to love the young, to relieve the poor, to clothe the naked, to visit the sick, to help the afflicted, to do no wrong to anyone.”
What should we do for our neighbor? Jesus helps answer this question in the parable when He speaks of the works of mercy. “Christians, who should be disciples of Christ, should share His love and compassion, never distancing themselves from others’ needs. One way to express love for one’s neighbor is to perform the ‘works of mercy,’ which get their name from the fact that they are not duties in justice. There are fourteen such works, seven spiritual and seven corporal. The spiritual are: To convert the sinner; To instruct the ignorant; To counsel the doubtful; To comfort the sorrowful; To bear wrongs patiently; To forgive injuries; To pray for the living and the dead. The corporal works are: To feed the hungry; To give drink to the thirsty; To clothe the naked; To shelter the homeless; To visit the sick; To visit the imprisoned; To bury the dead.”[vi]
“As we go through life we come across many cases of people who have been similarly injured and left destitute and half-dead in body and soul. Our concern to help them, which springs from our closeness to Jesus, broadens our heart and prevents us from falling into narrow-mindedness and selfishness. One discovers people who have been hurt by misunderstanding and loneliness, or by the absence of the most basic human necessities; people humiliated in their dignity as persons; people who have been shamefully robbed of their most elementary rights in ways which cry to heaven for vengeance. Christian men and women can never pass by on the other side, as some of the individuals in the parable did.”[vii]
How do we help our neighbor? While concern for the injuries of our fellow man is important, we should not forget to preach the Gospel. Yes, we show this in our actions, but we must not be afraid to share Jesus with our lips. “A Christian cannot be uninvolved in the human and social progress of making, but the over-riding concern to enlighten men’s minds in regard to faith and the religious life cannot ever be relegated to second place.”[viii] Cardinal Gonzalez Martin says, “At times, before preaching the Faith, we may first have to approach the man lying at the roadside and tend to his injuries. But as Christians we can never overlook the need to spread the Faith and to help people understand it better, and to propagate the Christian meaning of life.”[ix] “Every day we also meet the man who has left half dead, either because he has not been taught the elementary truths of the Faith, or because they have been stolen from him by the effects of others’ bad example, or by media-conditioning. We can never forget that the Faith is the greatest treasure man has, much more important than all material and human values.”[x]
Why should we love our neighbor? The simple answer is because God demands this of us. However, there are other reasons. Here are some Scripture verses that explore the need to love our neighbor: “We are not only according to nature brothers and sisters in Adam, but also according to grace in Christ, and we would have to be ashamed before animals, if we would allow ourselves to be surpassed in the love which they bear one to another (Ecclus. 13:19); all our neighbors are the image and likeness of God, bought by the blood of Jesus, and are adopted children, called to heaven, as we are; the example of Christ who loved us, when we were yet His enemies (Rom. 5:10), and gave Himself for us unto death, ought to incite us to love them. But can we be His disciples, if we do not follow Him, and if we do not bear in us the mark of His disciples, i.e., the love of our neighbor? (Jn. 13:35) Finally, the necessity of the love for our neighbor ought to compel us, as it were, to it; for without it, we cannot be saved. He that loveth not, says St. John abideth in death (1 John 3:14), and he that loveth not his brother, whom he seeth, how can he love God whom he seeth not? (1 Jn. 4:20) because he transgresses one of the greatest commandments of God, and does not fulfill the law (Romans 13:10).”[xi]
Why is it necessary to have genuine love for our neighbor? If we love our neighbor then we are showing our love for God. We do not boast in helping the injured, but do it because we love God and wish to serve Him and those that He created in His image and likeness. “It must tend to God, that is, we must love our neighbor only in and for God, because God commands it, and it is pleasing to Him. For to love our neighbor on account of a natural inclination, or self-interest, or some other still less honorable reason, is only a natural, animal love, in no way different from the love of the heathens; for the heathens also love and salute those who love and salute them in turn. (Mt. 5:46)”[xii] Blessed Pope John Paul II spoke about genuine love in his book Love and Responsibility. He said, “A person's rightful due is to be treated as an object of love, not as an object for use.”[xiii] When we love someone only because we want something in return, this is not love, but manipulation and use. We do not have to love, but rather are free to love. In fact, God has given us freedom so that we can love. Love cannot be without sacrifice. For each time we choose to love, we choose not necessarily what we want, but what is good for another. We use our freedom not for self, but for the good of another. “Limitation of one's freedom might seem to be something negative and unpleasant, but love makes it a positive, joyful, and creative thing. Freedom exists for the sake of love.”[xiv]
“Christ died out of love for us, while we were still ‘enemies.’ The Lord asks us to love as He does, even our enemies, to make ourselves the neighbor of those farthest away, and to love children and the poor as Christ Himself.”[xv]
The Penny Catechism says, “We are bound to love our enemies; not only by forgiving them from our hearts, but also by wishing them well, and praying for this.” Saint Benedict adds in his rule that we should not render evil for evil, but pray for one’s enemies in the love of Christ and make peace with one’s adversary before sundown. While suffocating on the cross, Jesus said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”[xvi] In imitation of Jesus, Saint Stephen, the first martyr, cried out while being stoned, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”[xvii]
[i] Fernandez, In Conversation with God 4, 21.1
[ii] Fernandez, In Conversation with God 4, 21.1
[iii] The Navarre Bible, Luke pg. 137
[iv] Fr. Gabriel, Divine Intimacy Vol. III, pg. 119
[v] The Penny Catechism
[vi] The Navarre Bible, Luke pg. 137-138
[vii] Fernandez, In Conversation with God 4, 21.1
[viii] Fernandez, In Conversation with God 4, 21.1
[ix] Cardinal m. Gonzalez Martin, Free, in Charity, p. 58
[x] Fernandez, In Conversation with God 4, 21.1
[xi] Fr. Goffines, The Church’s Year pg. 392- 393
[xii] Fr. Goffines, The Church’s Year pg. 393
[xiii] Blessed John Paul II; Love and Responsibility
[xiv] Ibid.
[xv] CCC 1825
[xvi] Luke 23:34
[xvii] Acts 7:60