WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR?

Our moral living is grounded on the Christian view of the human person, a view affirming that
the dignity of all persons rests on God’s great love for us and therefore goes beyond our looks, abilities,
social status, or popularity. We are infinitely precious because we are loved by God!

We deepen our reflection further by reading the Parable of the Good Samaritan in the Gospel of
Luke (10: 29-37). This parable depicts our universal call to be of loving service to others. Let us read it
this time to understand how our Christian vision of the human person serves as the ground for our love
of neighbor.

The Good Samaritan (Lk 10:29-37)

[The scholar of the law] said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man fell
victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and
went off leaving him half-dead. A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw
him, he passed by on the opposite side. Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw
him, he passed by on the opposite side. But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was
moved by compassion at the sight. He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his
wounds and bandaged them.

Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn and cared for him. The next day he
took two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, ‘Take care of him. If
you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.’ Which of these,
in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?” He answered, “The one who treated him
with mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

Christ’s encounter with the scholar of the law began with the question, “What must I do to
inherit everlasting life?” Jesus answered, “What must I do to inherit everlasting life?” Jesus answered,
“What is written in the law?”

The scholar replied by quoting the two great love commandments: to love God totally and to
love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus approved the answer, but the man asked Jesus, “who is my
neighbor?”

To this question, Jesus replied by shifting the focus on how one acts as a neighbor. In Jesus’
parable, both the priest and the Levite passed by the wounded man they saw along the road without
helping him.

For today’s reader, it would seem that both the priest and the Levite were simply indifferent to
the poor man’s plight. Their lack of compassion, however, was more because of a legalistic
understanding of the strict Jewish prohibitions against touching anyone considered unclean: leapers,
afflicted people, women who had just given birth, the dead, even Samaritans (Lv 11-15; 4:9).

If a Jew touched anyone unclean, he would have to go through a tedious process of ritual
purification. These strict prohibitions and the meticulous purification rites hindered both the priest and
the Levite from recognizing and attending to the need of the wounded Jew.

Jesus here emphasizes that the essence of the Jewish law is the love of God and love of
neighbor. The priest and the Levite missed the crucial truth. But Christ was using the scholar’s own
interpretation of the Mosaic Law to show how responding to the real needs of the others is to truly obey
the God’s law to love both others and God.

The surprising hero of Jesus’ parable is an enemy of the ordinary Jew – a Samaritan!
 Samaritans were “not even a people” to the Jews (Sir 50:25). The intermarriage of Samaritans
with pagan foreigners and their consequent assimilation made them the target of hatred of the Jews.

Because of this, Samaritans distanced themselves from the Jews. But Jesus surprised us by
telling us how it was the Samaritan – a man perceived by Jews to be less religious - who recognized the
needs of the wounded man.

Clearly, Jesus was showing how authentic love of neighbor transcends boundaries of race,
religion, or prejudice, and how it recognizes the innate dignity of others. The Samaritan was probably
moved with compassion for the wounded Jew because he saw him as a fellow human person needs
help, not as an enemy. By freely choosing to help the wounded Jew, the Samaritan became a true
person-for-others.

Jesus asked the scholar, “Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’
victim?” Notice how Jesus does not define which is a “neighbor,” but rather tells a story about how to
act neighborly. When the scholar replies, “The one who treated him with mercy,” Jesus responds with a
command: “Go and do likewise.”

Although, in this passage, Jesus was teaching about what it means to act as a human person –
that is, to be of loving service to others – His command to “Go and do likewise” is not only a command
to be like the Good Samaritan. It is also an invitation for all of us to follow Him whose life and ministry
demonstrated the same deep love and respect for the dignity of all persons.

Jesus’ association with the outcasts of Jewish society (lepers, the poor, women, children, tax
collectors, etc.) His selfless act of dying on the Cross, and His gift of the empowering Spirit are all a
celebration of the Triune God’s love for us. Through the Risen Christ and the Holy Spirit, the Father
shares the fullness of divine life with us.

In the end, because we know that God’s love for us is the source of our own immeasurable
worth as human persons, we are called to view every human person – those we know and even those
we don’t know – through the eyes and heart of Christ Himself. In this encyclical Deus Caritas Est (God is
Love), Pope Benedict XVI beautifully expresses the meaning of this Christian call:
Love of neighbor is … shown to be possible in the way proclaimed by the Bible, by Jesus. It consists in the
very fact that, in God and with God, I love even the person whom I do not like or even know. This can only
take place on the basis of an intimate encounter with God … Then I learn to look perspective of Jesus
Christ. His friend is my friend.

- Deus Caritas Est 18