Who is my neighbor?
One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,
“Which is the first of all the commandments?”
Jesus replied (Mark 12 : 28-31):“The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!”
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.
The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself. “
Its called the Golden Rule.
We’ve all heard it said many times.
Love your neighbor as you love yourself.
All the major religions in the world have some form of belief in that.
In Judaism (Leviticus 19 : 18) “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Your “neighbor” being your fellow Jew.
The Muslim Haddith #13 gives it as: “No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.”
And here “brother” means any fellow Muslim.
The Hindu Mahabharata (5: 1517) says, “This is the sum of duty: do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you.” Here neighbor means every other person.
The Buddhist Book Udanavarga (5.18) says, “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.” Again, here “others” are simply all other persons.
In the Analects of Confucius (15: 23) we read, “Do not unto others what you would not have them do unto you.” As in Buddhism “others” is everyone.
For the Israelites, receivers of the Old Covenant as well as for Muslims, your neighbor or your brother is he or she who shares your religion.
You must love him or desire for him what you love or desire for yourself if you are a true believer.
It is interesting that in the great Eastern religions (Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism) the golden rule is a negative precept: you must not do to anyone what you would not want them to do to you.
It is no mystery why the Eastern Religions make the Golden Rule a negative precept.
This is because the precept correlates with the natural law in our hearts.The law in my heart says, “I should not kill because I don’t want anyone to kill me.”
“I should not steal because I don’t want anyone to steal from me.”
“I should not lie because I want no one to lie to me.”
And so on… St. Paul notes that our consciences will either affirm or condemn us for how we obey this law in our hearts,
He writes in the 2nd Chapter to his Letter to the Romans (2 : 14-15),“When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them.” (Romans 2 :14-15) So Jesus says, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” or “do unto others what you would want them to do unto you.”
But who exactly is our neighbor?
Jesus would tell us that what we do unto others we do unto him!
Allow me to prove this to you.
In the Book of Acts (9 : 1-5), we read how Saul was persecuting Christians but it was really Jesus himself he was persecuting (in them),“Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”
Saul was a faithful Pharisee who was persecuting Christians whose beliefs were a threat to orthodox Judaism.
Unrepentant heretics of the Jewish faith would be punished with torture or execution.
So how could Saul have been persecuting Jesus who had already died, resurrected and was in heaven?
Allow me to cite another example…
In the Last Judgement (Matt 25 : 31-46) Christ the King will gather all the nations before him.
We have heard this before…
He separates all the nations as a shepherd separates sheep from goats putting the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
And he will say to those on his right, “When I was hungry you gave me food, thirsty and you gave me something to drink, naked and you clothed me… and so on.”
Of course, they will say when did we do these things to you?
And he will respond, “when you did this to the least of my brethren, you did it to me.”
Then he will say just the opposite to those on his left.
“When I was hungry you gave me no food, thirsty and nothing to drink, naked and you did not clothe me…”
And they will respond “when did we not do these things to you?” And he will say, “Truly, when you did not do it to the least of these, you did not do it to me.”
It is interesting that neither group was aware that they were either loving or neglecting Jesus himself in the poor and needy.
Those on the left, the condemned, did not care so they gave no consideration to their neighbor. .
Those on the right did care and acted out of love and compassion never realizing that they were caring for Jesus.
When the 2nd Person of the Holy Trinity became incarnate he took upon himself our human nature that you or me, believers, might find him and have touched him in everyone.
We saw in the Last Judgement that what we do unto the poor and needy we do unto Jesus…
whether we realize it or not.
And it was not out of religious conviction that those on the right chose to love their neighbors as themselves.
So it was not religious conviction alone that saved them… rather that they had true love.
Love, is the fulfillment of the Law and it is the ultimate purpose of our Catholic Faith, as Jesus told the Scribe.
This brings me to my final point.
Those like Mother Theresa in our world love the poor because they love Jesus in them.
They have a very special grace that we all should want.
Hear how Mother Theresa tells us who our neighbor is, We all want to love God because we have been created for greater things—to love and to be loved. How do we love God? Where is God? Jesus has answered: “Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do it to me”; and when we are dead, when we go home to God, God is going to judge us on what we have been to the poor. And He says, “I was hungry, and you gave me to eat, I was naked, and you clothed me, I was sick, and you took care of me, I was homeless, and you took me in, I was lonely, and you smiled at me… Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you have done it to me.” And this is what Jesus again and again told us: to love one another as He has loved us.
I will conclude with a simple spiritual exercise that may help us grow in love for our neighbor.
We see everywhere around us violence, hatred and mistreatment of one another.
It seems to be increasing and it may be that of our days now that Jesus prophesized:
“because of the increase of wickedness, the love of many will grow cold.”
We all are in danger of having our love grow cold.
And we have to admit how our hearts are tempted to resentment, gloom, worry, and even fear over the evil prevailing in our families, our societies and our world.
This prayer has helped me to spiritually counter this evil knocking on the door of my heart.
And it very pleasing to our Father in heaven for He loves us all as his children.
When I feel troubled or burdened by negativity, hatred or wickedness,
I turn to God and offer him my love for all mankind, all my “neighbors” in this world.
This is just what St. Paul exhorted the Thessalonians (1 Thess 3:12) “May the Lord be generous in increasing your love and make you love one another and the whole human race as much as we love you.”
This act of love for is irrespective of whether a neighbor be good or bad.
Love is itself a reparation for hatred, for the lack of love in our world.
In the final judgment we can recall what Jesus will say to some, “when I was in prison you visited me.”
He did not say when he was in prison ‘unjustly.’ Therefore, we can conclude that Jesus identifies himself with everyone regardless of the moral state of their souls.
And so must we strive to love him in every person and all mankind… whether good or bad.