According to Fr. Domie Guzman, SSP in one of his homilies published in Sambuhaysome years ago, he thought that all of us want to be good persons. But what do we mean by good? For parents, to be good is following their orders and beliefs; for managers and supervisors, a good employee is the one who is efficient, effective and hardworking; for our government officials, to be good is giving services to citizens and for church leaders, to be good is to be pro-God, pro-life, pro-family and many more. All of us have each own criteria and bases on what is good.
In our gospel today, Jesus also gives an example of who is a good person and how to be good. That is, those who know and love their neighbor. But who is our neighbor? Ask the man. Jesus gives us the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
But before I go further, let us give some definitions and notions of what neighbor is all about.
Mr. Webster said: ‘neighbor’ means, someone who is near to us, either physically or socially or perhaps in one’s affections (malapit sa puso or kapuso, kapamilya, kabarkada mo). When we are commanded to love our neighbor in this kind of neighbor, then, it is very easy to love them.
Essenes of Qumran: Neighbor is the one who shares the same religious persuasion as themselves.
Zealots: Only those who shared the same nationality and ethnicity with them.
Average Jew: Their fellow Jews only who are well and in good standing within the Jewish community and would not regard the Samaritan as a neighbor. They are outsiders and circle of neighborly love does not include them. For example, some of them said that it was illegal to help a Gentile woman who is giving birth for that would only have been to bring another Gentile into the world. Therefore, excluded from their definition are the ill and those considered ‘public sinners’ among whom, are tax collectors, prostitutes and adulteress.
But for Jesus, neighbor means anyone of any nation who is in need regardless of his/her status in life. Another one is: it is he/she who does not hesitate to extend a helping hand when it is sorely needed is a neighbor to the person in need.
In our society today, there are countless victims along the road. They suffer from ignorance, disease, violence, blindness, depression, old age, poverty, floods and fire and etc. Many of these fellowmen of ours need only a little help coming from us like giving a peso bill, a hug, some good advice, a genuine smile or just a minute or two to hear their stories of struggles in life. This is our social apostolate and if we are baptized Christians, then, we have the duty to be teachers, priests and at the same time as servants to all in order to have a balanced Christian life.
At the end let us ask ourselves this question, who is my neighbor? Because Christians today have the difficulty in identifying or knowing who their neighbors are especially in big subdivisions and villages. People in these places barely know their next-door neighbors. Sometimes they do not care to get acquainted them. How can I be a neighbor especially to my enemies and the persons who hurt me?
To conclude this let me sing with you the song entitled Song of St. Francis for us to reflect:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace
When there is hatred let me sow love
When there is injury let me bring pardon
When there is doubt faith
When there is despair hope
When there is darkness let me bring light
When there is sadness let me bring joy.