And, Lord, Who is My Neighbor?

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,

With all your soul, with all your strength,

And with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself. (Luke 28)

These are the lawyer’s words in answer to the question he had asked of Jesus: “How can I inherit eternal life?” Jesus responds that he is correct but the lawyer, “who wished to justify himself, said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’” We know what follows. Jesus answers in terms of a parable: The Good Samaritan.

It seems that many Americans are asking that question these days through the prism of immigrants and what we need to do for them. Listening to political leaders who suddenly and stridently are theologians and scripture scholars one might think they have the answer. I have found that none of them do. Most of the verbally glib in Congress say the neighbor means your family or your immediate fellow American. In their spirit of solipsism, the urge to put our selfish needs first, even our top Catholic in the administration, the Vice president, expounded that ‘neighbor’ in our faith has a kind of pyramidal meaning, one might say similar to Maslov’s hierarchy of being. Remember that from Philosophy 101? Maslow’s hierarchy arranged human needs beginning with basic physical ones to safety to psychological and finally to self-motivation at the top where one can realize one’s full potential because the basic needs have been met. But it would be wrong to treat faith or the spirit of loving others that way. Why? Well, back to our administrator. The Vice president claimed that love of neighbor means you love your inner circle of family first, then you love the fellow citizens, and if you have enough love and time left over, then you love ‘others.’ He may have forgotten Jesus’s words: “If you love those who love you what good is that? Even pagans do the same.” In other words, Jesus says that loving the neighbor is not a gradual thing – something you get to when you have time or when you’re finished loving all the people on the other levels of priority. It is a making of one’s soul into love for everyone at the same time. There will always be some people we love more because we are called to commit ourselves to them in deep relational ways, but we do not love them at the exclusion of others. Sorry Mr. Vice President, but theologically there is no hierarchy of being when it comes to your neighbor, except where need is paramount. You can cite medieval theologians (and he does) like St. Thomas Aquinas but your interpretations have been erroneous says Jesuit David Hollenbach theologian at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Aquinas says, “if there are people at a greater distance who are at great need, they take priority.” Hollenbach adds, “If there are refugees out there and there are people fleeing for their lives…we need to respond to their needs.”

According to William Barclay, Scottish theologian, “During Jesus’s time, the rabbis defined their neighbor as only their fellow Jews…it was illegal, for instance, to assist a pregnant gentile woman in childbirth. Barclay adds, “any man of any nation who is in need is our neighbor.” (The Gospel of Luke p. 141) Jesus makes this point clearly in the story of the Good Samaritan.

Reflection

This week, we might reflect on the deep and beautiful meaning of the Good Samaritan. A few points that can be helpful for your reflection are:

The priest who came upon the beaten man walked by, probably afraid the victim was a Samaritan or a gentile. The Levite also passed, and as Barclay says, he probably consulted his phylactery on his wrist for the law that said he must not touch the blood of a heretic. But the Samaritan, part of renegade Judaism, was “moved to pity.” Were there times you have been similarly confronted? What do you think the Church can do about the immigrant concerns in our nation?
What can you do personally to aid people who are caught in the web of political controversy deciding their very survival? Can you make this part of your daily prayer; can you include immigrants in your intentions?
Be very careful to read and listen to leaders searching for analysts who are informed on this issue and who are informed about our faith and our spirituality. Catholic magazines that are very helpful are America, Commonweal, St. Anthony Messenger. The National Catholic Reporter is a weekly newspaper that reports on the Catholic perspective of national interests. It is very helpful for understanding the Catholic perspective. I suggest googling these publications to get information on subscriptions. Some parishes offer them in the entrance areas of the church.
Think about the insightful small poem by Hafiz, the Persian poet who wrote:

God revealed

a sublime truth to the world,

when He sang,

‘I am made whole by your life. Each soul,

each soul completes me.”

(Love Poems From God by Daniel Ladinsky, p. 150)

Do I really understand that every soul completes our God? Tending to each soul is a mandate of loving one’s neighbor. One’s life that is ready to help every soul possible completes the image of God, the imago Dei in every other soul on earth and God is made more complete. Reflect, think on how you can complete the reality of God. Maybe it’s doing simple, daily things for others. But one needs to add the understanding and accurate guidance of one’s faith to do it with humility and innocent love, like the Good Samaritan. You have a responsibility, in joy, to complete the image of God!

I simply love all of you, my Readers and my Anonymous Angels, who contact me privately about something that touched you in these blogs. You make God more complete in me. I love all of you. S. MAF