All human beings without distinctions of race, nationality, religion, riches, sex, age, or occupation are our "neighbor." Even enemies are our "neighbor", only devils and souls in hell are not.

    Christ Himself taught us the love of our neighbor in the parable of the Good Samaritan, who took care of a stranger that had been robbed and left half dead by the wayside (Luke 10:29). "There is neither Jew nor Greek…For you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28).

    We must love our neighbor because God commands it. "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Matthew 22:39). The love of our neighbor for the love of God, is strictly enjoined upon us. This is why Holy Scripture speaks of only one commandment of charity.

    God looks upon acts of mercy towards others as acts of love towards Himself. "For I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat I was thirsty, and you gave Me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took Me in. …Amen I say to you, as long as you did it for one of these, the least of My brethren, you did it for Me" (Matthew 25: 35, 40). "If anyone says I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar" (1 John 4:20).

    Our neighbor is a child of God, made after God's image. God loves him so much that He died to redeem him. God loves our neighbor as He loves us. God is preparing for him a place in Heaven. If we love God, we shall love those whom He loves. "Have we not all one father? Hath not one God created us? Why then doth every one of us despise his brother?" (Malachi 2:10).

    Our neighbor is our brother. All human beings are descended from Adam and Eve. Our neighbor is our own brother, belonging to the same human family, destined for the same place of eternal happiness, Heaven. Only devils and those in hell are excluded from our love.

    We should be more especially united to Christians, because they are, like us, members of Christ's body, the Church. Our Lord said: "By this will all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 15:35).

    We should love our neighbor as ourselves, for God's sake. To love our neighbor as ourselves means to have for him the same kind, although not the same degree of love that we have for ourselves. Jesus gave us the Golden Rule: "Even as you wish men to do to you, so also do you to them" (Luke 6:31).

Next Issue: Love of Neighbor part two

July 17-18, 2000
volume 11, no. 122
APPRECIATION OF THE PRECIOUS GIFT OF OUR FAITH series

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