Question 1 : "Who is my neighbor?"
Answer (actually question 2): Which (of these three), do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?"
How does Jesus educate? He re-phrases our questions. He teaches us to ask the right question. He doesn’t answer questions directly, he rather corrects the question and hence changes the perspective. In the Gospel today (Lk 10:25-37), he subtly says that the question is not “who is my neighbor” but “how can I be a neighbor…”
The relationship does not begin “from the outside” but “from the inside,” from me. On the other hand, if you go very deeply into the discussion and concentrates on Jesus and everything he has done, you could also say it begins “from the outside” – that is, from the First One who showed you how to become neighbor. And so the chain of relationships continue...
Crossings commentary for today puts it this way: Having been loved by the ultimate Neighbor, our hearts begin to want to know better the One who makes it possible: Christ. And then, knowing Christ, we find ourselves taking to the road, looking for neighbors to love. We are no longer inclined to pass by on the other side (antiparelthen) as the priest and Levite did, but rather to cross over to them (proselthon) with Samaritan-like commitment to serve. We grasp Jesus' creative reframing of the lawyer's question, meant to show us that it's not so much about finding a neighbor worthy of love, as being a neighbor who loves.
Answer (actually question 2): Which (of these three), do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?"
How does Jesus educate? He re-phrases our questions. He teaches us to ask the right question. He doesn’t answer questions directly, he rather corrects the question and hence changes the perspective. In the Gospel today (Lk 10:25-37), he subtly says that the question is not “who is my neighbor” but “how can I be a neighbor…”
The relationship does not begin “from the outside” but “from the inside,” from me. On the other hand, if you go very deeply into the discussion and concentrates on Jesus and everything he has done, you could also say it begins “from the outside” – that is, from the First One who showed you how to become neighbor. And so the chain of relationships continue...
Crossings commentary for today puts it this way: Having been loved by the ultimate Neighbor, our hearts begin to want to know better the One who makes it possible: Christ. And then, knowing Christ, we find ourselves taking to the road, looking for neighbors to love. We are no longer inclined to pass by on the other side (antiparelthen) as the priest and Levite did, but rather to cross over to them (proselthon) with Samaritan-like commitment to serve. We grasp Jesus' creative reframing of the lawyer's question, meant to show us that it's not so much about finding a neighbor worthy of love, as being a neighbor who loves.
I’ve been graced with two real witnesses of “neighborliness” yesterday and today. The first one is my fellow sister in Hongkong who just had a mastectomy due to carcinoma. Talking to her over the phone yesterday, I gathered how much the experience touched her. We talked about vulnerability, readiness to die, even citing the book Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom which she used for her book report in her Clinical Pastoral Education early this year. In a very “neighborly” way, she told me the significance of her present illness. I quote, “This is very useful for me in understanding the patients I meet every day in my ministry. Last month I was assigned in the department of terminally ill cancer patients. Now I can better understand their stories.”
The second witness is a young Filipino priest assigned here in Rome. Yesterday he brought with him a young Korean deacon doing his biblical studies here. They concelebrated in the Eucharistic celebration and he gave way to the deacon to preach the homily. Today he did the same as he went early for Sunday Mass in another religious community nearby.
I asked him, “why do you do it?” “Because he needs to exercise his homiletic skills,” he said. “And the other confreres wouldn’t want to bring our new deacons with them,” he continued. I thanked him for his care for the younger members, and especially for his patience. And very humbly he said, “It’s nothing. Many people are exercising the same patience with me too.”
