Who Is A Neighbour?

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke:

Luke 10:25-37

"Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?’ He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.’ And he said to him, ‘You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.’

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?’ Jesus replied, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while travelling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii,* gave them to the innkeeper, and said, “Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.” Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’ He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’

Source: http://bible.oremus.org
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Attended mass @ CTK today. Gained some insight from Father Y's homily. He started by relating how in another 5 days, 38 years ago, something great happened with Neil Armstrong landing on the moon. "It was a great step for men and a great leap for mankind." Yes, mankind had ventured beyond our home, planet Earth. Still, even though mankind has conquered outer space, we may not necessarily have conquered inner space - and that is the fundamentals of life which seems to be neglected nowadays.

Loving our neighbour as ourselves may seem easy in words, but difficult in action. Afterall, the idiosyncrasies of each person varies and some get on the nerves of us more than others such as wet mops dripping water onto our clothes etc. But the term neighbour may have a more far reaching definition that it seems. It includes our family members as well. And we may actually treat our family members worse than the needy people outside. I think this is very true for example in the way we talk to our family members. Having lived together for many years and getting used to one another in a way, we may actually talk to them rudely without much thought. It happens to me too.

As Father said, sometimes the shortest distance represents the longest journey actually. For those close to us and living in close vicinity to us, to be able to love them or extend gestures of love to them may take a lot of conscious effort. It all depends on us and may Lord Jesus help us with this.

No doubt, the religious teachings make us aware of some dos and don'ts. But if we do not put the word into action, we are no different from the Pharisee, who preaches but does not practise the teachings in real life at all. Just like what Father shared: "Religion without compassion, is simply a contradiction."