What Kind of Neighbor Am I?

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fifteenth  Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

St. Mary of Assumption Church, Whittier, California 

Sunday, July 10, 2016

A boastful lawyer walks up to Jesus, not really with the intention to gain the knowledge, understanding and wisdom needed to inherit eternal life but to test him: “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life.” Jesus quickly directs the question back to him: “(Tell me) what is written in the law? How do you read it?” The lawyer answers by quoting the “Great Commandments: ”You shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus acknowledges his knowledge of the Law, but immediately points out that the knowledge of the law of God is not enough, it must be followed by obedience to it: “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” Not done with Jesus, the lawyer seeks to justify himself, that is, he feigns ignorance of what he already knows and asks “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus is not in the mood to give a dictionary definition of the word “neighbor.” So, he tells him a simple story that demonstrates who a neighbor is:

A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead. A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn, and cared for him… 

At the end of the story, Jesus asks the learned man: “Which of these three, in your opinion was neighbor to the robber’s victim?” “The one who treated him with mercy,” he replied. Then Jesus gives the injunction: “Go and do likewise.” You know, mercy or compassion is practical. It’s not just a mere feeling of sorry. Telling a needy person “You are in my thoughts and prayers” is not enough. Feeling sorry is not enough. The priest and the levite obviously felt sorry for the wounded man. It’s possible they said prayers for him as they walk away, but then, they did nothing. For mercy or compassion to be real, it has to be demonstrated in action.

Beloved in Christ, the lawyer wants to define neighbor in reference to others. But Jesus defines it in reference to him. As far as Jesus is concerned, neighbor is not the object of the sentence, but its subject. Henceforth, the question changes from: “Who is my neighbor?” to “What kind of neighbor am I?” What kind of neighbor are we to the man on the roadside, the woman on the margins of the society, the unchurched members of our families, the drug addicts, the runaway members of our family, the unforgiven son or daughter, the needy ones in our community? What kind of neighbor are we to those who have injured and hurt us? What kind of neighbor are we to those around us and those we meet? What kind of neighbor are we to those who depend on Catholic Charities, St. Vincent de Paul, Catholic Daughters, St. Mary’s Place, Salvation Army, Soup Kitchens etc for their daily needs? When there is a call to help these organizations better serve the poorest of the poor, do we give our widow’s mite? When we stop at a traffic light and see someone standing beside us with a sign, “I am hungry and homeless” and we have some money to spare, what do we do? Do we look away and convince ourselves that the person may be a fraud? If we suspect that every beggar on the street is a fraud, we may never know when the real needy person will show up before us. And Jesus does show up from time to time, but not like a man or woman fancifully dressed, but in rags. 

What kind of neighbor are we, especially to the neighbor within us, that is, the voice of God and voice of the conscience? It is not only the man on the roadside or the woman on the margins of the society that needs our neighborly attention. We are not neighbors only to those who live around us. We are not neighbors only to those who need assistance from us. We are also neighbors to the voice of God. We are also neighbors to the voice of the conscience. The conscience is the sanctuary of the human person where God speaks to us. If we can possibly avoid the neighbor outside, the one we see with our physical eyes, we may not be able to run away from the neighbor within us- the voice of the conscience. It is the neighbor within us that urges us to compassionately and selflessly pay attention to the neighbor outside. A complete disobedience or shut out of the neighbor inside will ultimately impact our response to the plea of the neighbor outside. Those who pay attention to the neighbor within, often times carry out its injunctions. It’s the neighbor within us (the voice of the conscience) that ultimately urges us to treat each other with respect and to love one another as Jesus loved us. It is the neighbor within that urges us to love God above all things and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. It is the neighbor within that calls our attention to the final appeal of Jesus to the lawyer in today’s Gospel (Luke 10:25-37), “Go and do likewise.” It is the neighbor within that teaches us how to be good neighbors. It teaches us the virtue that makes us neighbor; namely, “mercy.” Mercy is the attribute of God that makes us like him. We can only love our neighbors as ourselves if we have merciful hearts. When an outside needy neighbor says to us: “Please help me,” the neighbor within urges us: “Please help him/her.” But the fundamental appeal of the neighbor within us is: “Do good, and avoid evil.” If we listen to the voice of the neighbor within us, we would most likely listen to the voice of the neighbor outside us that seeks our attention. Moving forward, the question ceases to be “Who is my neighbor?” rather “What kind of neighbor am I?” Treating others with mercy is what determines the kind of neighbor we are.