Published by On one occasion a lawyer stop up to pose him this problem: “Teacher written in the law? How do you read it?” He replies:
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with al your mind, and your neighbor of yourself.”
The second object of charity is our neighbor, whom we are to have to love because we asee God in him. Actuallythen, this second object from only one with the first and primary object, God.
Our “neighbor, as Jesus explained in the above parable, includes no less than all men-not only those related to us, not only those who live close to us, but all men of every race, social class, color and creed. “Neigbor” includes not only our friends but also our enemies. The good Samaritan paid no heed to the fact that the wounded man by the roadside was a Jew, a traditional enemy of his people. Elsewhere, in the sermon on the MOnunt, Christ preached love of enemies as necessary for His followers, as the mark of the true children of God:
One another mount, Calvary, on the pulpit of the Cross, Christ gave us the supreme example of fraternal love when He cried out, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34)
The motive of love of neighbor is supernatural-it rests on the fact that all men have been redeemed by Christ and are actually or potentially members of His mystical body, children of God, and destined for the eternal happiness of heaven.
We practice love of neighbor by doing or wishing him no evil, by forgiving and forgetting the wrong he made done us; by helping him in his needs of body and soul.
