DEFINITELY, not the one who happens
to live close to us.
That’s a very shallow definition of neighbor, unable to capture the
richness that our Christian faith teaches us.
Neighbor, according to Christ, is anybody with whom we
have to love, giving ourselves to him the way Christ gave himself to
all of us, irrespective of how we are, whether a friend or foe, and
continues to do so. In other words, a neighbor in the Christian sense
can be a complete stranger to us. He can even be an enemy.
This is verified in the gospel about the good Samaritan. A
scholar of the law tried to test Christ by asking what he had to do to
inherit eternal life. (Lk 10,25-37) When Christ responded by asking
the scholar what was written in the law, the latter answered correctly
that one has to love God with everything and your neighbor as oneself.
But the scholar raised the notorious question, “And who is my
neighbor?”
That’s when Christ narrated the story of the man who fell
victim to robbers and was left on the road half dead. A priest passed
by, also a Levite, but they did not bother to help. It was a Samaritan
traveler, who was supposed to have no relation with the Jews, who came
to his help.
When Christ asked who among the three proved to be the
neighbor, the scholar had no choice but to say, the Samaritan, the one
who treated the victim with mercy. And so Christ told him, “Go and do
likewise.”
It’s important that we broaden our understanding of who
our neighbor is. If our basic understanding of neighbor is that of a
person who is quite close to us, then we have to understand that such
closeness is not just something physical, material, social, etc.
That closeness should be all-inclusive, which means it can
only be something spiritual and moral, something that is only
generated by love, and a love that goes all the way to showing mercy
that also goes beyond simply giving sympathy and compassion.
Obviously, this love-generated closeness can only take
place if we are truly and vitally identified with Christ who is love
personified, the quintessence of love, he who goes all the way to
offer his life for all men, saints and sinners. We know that with his
death, he bore all the sinfulness of men.
This kind of love that makes everyone a neighbor of ours
is readily available and attainable, because Christ has made it so. In
this, he is not sparing. Everything that we need to have that love has
been given to us. It’s up to us to make use of it.
Ok, to have this kind of love is not easy. We have to
contend with many and endless obstacles. It’s going to take our whole
lifetime, in fact, and even more, to achieve that kind of love. But
neither is it impossible.
If we only exercise our faith, and follow Christ closely,
through his teaching and example that are now authoritatively taught
and shown by the Church in all its dimensions, we can have that kind
of love.
We just have to be game in this effort, never saying
enough, and learning how to move on when we encounter setbacks along
the way. We will discover that in spite of the trials and difficulties
we can meet, we can enjoy some peace and joy, and a mysterious sense
of fulfillment.
And we don’t have to wait for some special and
extraordinary opportunities and occasions to attain this kind of love.
Even in our most isolated conditions, we can still generate that love
simply by praying and doing what we have to do with great love for God
and everybody else.
This love goes beyond the limits of time and space. It
transcends the restrictions imposed by our various human and natural
conditionings—biological, cultural, historical, social, political,
etc. It even melts away the wall that classifies people into friends
or foes.
Everyone becomes a neighbor with this kind of love. We may
not know the names of people, their background and so on, but with
this love, we somehow do away with anonymity. Everyone becomes known,
because everyone is loved with the love of God.
We should be game with all the possibilities that our
human condition can occasion, whether good or bad. We don’t get
entangled with that predicament. We get focused on what is truly
important. And for this we are not afraid to suffer, just as Christ
was not afraid even to die for all of us out of love.
That’s a very shallow definition of neighbor, unable to capture the
richness that our Christian faith teaches us.
Neighbor, according to Christ, is anybody with whom we
have to love, giving ourselves to him the way Christ gave himself to
all of us, irrespective of how we are, whether a friend or foe, and
continues to do so. In other words, a neighbor in the Christian sense
can be a complete stranger to us. He can even be an enemy.
This is verified in the gospel about the good Samaritan. A
scholar of the law tried to test Christ by asking what he had to do to
inherit eternal life. (Lk 10,25-37) When Christ responded by asking
the scholar what was written in the law, the latter answered correctly
that one has to love God with everything and your neighbor as oneself.
But the scholar raised the notorious question, “And who is my
neighbor?”
That’s when Christ narrated the story of the man who fell
victim to robbers and was left on the road half dead. A priest passed
by, also a Levite, but they did not bother to help. It was a Samaritan
traveler, who was supposed to have no relation with the Jews, who came
to his help.
When Christ asked who among the three proved to be the
neighbor, the scholar had no choice but to say, the Samaritan, the one
who treated the victim with mercy. And so Christ told him, “Go and do
likewise.”
It’s important that we broaden our understanding of who
our neighbor is. If our basic understanding of neighbor is that of a
person who is quite close to us, then we have to understand that such
closeness is not just something physical, material, social, etc.
That closeness should be all-inclusive, which means it can
only be something spiritual and moral, something that is only
generated by love, and a love that goes all the way to showing mercy
that also goes beyond simply giving sympathy and compassion.
Obviously, this love-generated closeness can only take
place if we are truly and vitally identified with Christ who is love
personified, the quintessence of love, he who goes all the way to
offer his life for all men, saints and sinners. We know that with his
death, he bore all the sinfulness of men.
This kind of love that makes everyone a neighbor of ours
is readily available and attainable, because Christ has made it so. In
this, he is not sparing. Everything that we need to have that love has
been given to us. It’s up to us to make use of it.
Ok, to have this kind of love is not easy. We have to
contend with many and endless obstacles. It’s going to take our whole
lifetime, in fact, and even more, to achieve that kind of love. But
neither is it impossible.
If we only exercise our faith, and follow Christ closely,
through his teaching and example that are now authoritatively taught
and shown by the Church in all its dimensions, we can have that kind
of love.
We just have to be game in this effort, never saying
enough, and learning how to move on when we encounter setbacks along
the way. We will discover that in spite of the trials and difficulties
we can meet, we can enjoy some peace and joy, and a mysterious sense
of fulfillment.
And we don’t have to wait for some special and
extraordinary opportunities and occasions to attain this kind of love.
Even in our most isolated conditions, we can still generate that love
simply by praying and doing what we have to do with great love for God
and everybody else.
This love goes beyond the limits of time and space. It
transcends the restrictions imposed by our various human and natural
conditionings—biological, cultural, historical, social, political,
etc. It even melts away the wall that classifies people into friends
or foes.
Everyone becomes a neighbor with this kind of love. We may
not know the names of people, their background and so on, but with
this love, we somehow do away with anonymity. Everyone becomes known,
because everyone is loved with the love of God.
We should be game with all the possibilities that our
human condition can occasion, whether good or bad. We don’t get
entangled with that predicament. We get focused on what is truly
important. And for this we are not afraid to suffer, just as Christ
was not afraid even to die for all of us out of love.
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