Having Neighbours and Being Neighbours

The pious Jews never questioned the command “love your neighbour as yourself” (Lev 19:18). The neighbour is the one who is nearby. However, the Rabbis extended the meaning to include any fellow Jew, irrespective of the distance.

Jesus redefined the meaning of this word when a lawyer asked him, “Who is my neighbour?” (Luke 10:29). Jesus told him the story that we now call the Story of the Good Samaritan. On his way from Jerusalem to Jericho, robbers attacked a man and left him to die on the road. No one except a Samaritan helped him and saved his life. The priest and the Levite who passed by without lending him any help were his neighbours, fellow Israelites. On the contrary, the Jews considered the Samaritans as outcasts and foreigners. After concluding his story, Jesus posed this question: “Now, which of these three do you think seemed to be a neighbour to him who fell among the robbers?” This question implies a distinction between the two realities—to have a neighbour and to be a neighbour.

Having a neighbour is often determined by physical proximity; however, being a neighbour means being there for people when needed, regardless of differences. Living in a Jewish neighbourhood, the lawyer could only extend his love to another Jewish person who lived next door or just across the street. For the priest and the Levite, the man on the road was not their neighbour, though he was a fellow Jew, because they did not live in the same neighbourhood!

By extending our love to all those in need, we become neighbours to them. They may be living miles away from me in the poorest countries of the world or the poorest sections of our own country, but we must be neighbours to them by extending our love and care for them. For Jesus, a person’s need brings that person to the neighbourhood of my love. It is a challenge to extend our love beyond our neighbourhoods of religion, caste, and nationalities to all those who suffer.

Look beyond your immediate circle and be willing to extend kindness and care to anyone in need—whether they are across the street or across the globe. Ask yourself, “Who in my life or community needs a neighbour right now?”