Who is my Neighbor?
“Love your neighbor as yourself,” the Gospel says (Matthew 22:38). But who is my neighbor? We often respond to that question by saying, “My neighbors are all the people I am living with on this earth, especially the sick, the hungry, the dying, and all who are in need.” But this is not what Jesus says. When Jesus tells the story of the good Samaritan (see Luke 10:29-37) to answer the question “Who is my neighbor?” he ends by asking, “Which… do you think proved himself a neighbor to the man who fell into the bandits’ hands?” The neighbor, Jesus makes clear, is not the poor man lying on the side of the road, stripped, beaten, and half dead, but the Samaritan who crossed the road, “bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them … lifted him onto his own donkey and took him to an inn and looked after him.” My neighbor is the one who crosses the road for me!
Henri Nouwen
Henri J. M. Nouwen (1932-1996) was one of the leading spiritual writers of the 20th century. He was the author of The Wounded Healer, Making All Things New, Reaching Out, and many other bestsellers. He was the senior pastor of L’Arche Daybreak in Toronto, Canada — a community where men and women with mental disabilities and their assistants create a home for one another.