In His response to the Pharisees question about the Great Commandment, who were attempting to trap him, Jesus challenged the object of their love….. If, after wholehearted love for God, was their love then for themselves alone, or for others, as well, beyond themselves and their own? A Pharisee asked him in return, rather revealingly, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus responded with the story of the Good Samaritan, then asked them “who was a neighbor to the man… the priest, the Levite, or the Samaritan?”They answered, “the one who helped the beaten man.” It didn’t reflect very well on the religious cadre that passed by the man in the story, that these religious leaders, too, had to be drawn a picture of what loving a neighbor looked like and how one’s neighbor is defined.
The point seems to be that if you love only yourself, as the priest and Levite, protecting your own self-interest, resources, safety, etc., then you are failing to love others rightly.
Healthy love for self (that isn’t warped and narcissistic) flows from love received from God and love for God in return, and actively, directly, freely, outwardly flows through us toward others, too. if we are not able and willing to be conduits of love from God through ourselves to others, then God’s love is not in us.
If our loving bond with God is attached and freely flowing, it is like a river that flows and makes all things along its way grow.
I remember the affection we had for our neighbors over a large section of town as we considered virtually all of our rural community “neighborhood” growing up. We were welcome in one another’s homes and familiar with one another’s lives. I know few and little of the stories of my neighbors today. We come and go, rarely even seeing one another. But the people I see throughout the week with whom I share in a community of faith, they are more than neighbors, they are family!
JJ Heller reminds us that we are all neighbors…..