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The Christian Ideal Loving God and Loving Neighbour

Loving Neighbour

Introduction

Loving our neighbour, together with loving God, are fundamental Christian values. In the case ofloving neighbour Jesus is presenting us with a real challenge as it is not always easy to followthis commandment. Nevertheless it has to form part of our Christian life. Our hope is that Jesusdoes not count our failures but our sees our struggle.

When we hear of people whose needs are desperate, we sometimes wonder what governmentsor charities could do to help. Its common that we first ask what are others doing to help,Governments, charities, the rich if the need be money. Its sometimes the case that we do not seea role for us to play but only roles for others.?

The apostle St. John makes very clear our obligations in his first letter when he says:

"We love, because God first loved us. If someone says he loves God, but hates his brother, he isa liar for he cannot love God, whom he has not seen, if he does not love his brother, whom hehas seen. The command that Christ has given us is this :whoever loves God must love hisbrother also".

This is at the very heart of Christian values and beliefs. It is synonymous with the truth that weare all God's children and equal in the eyes of Almighty God.

At this point we have to consider two things. Who is our neighbour and what do we mean bylove. Our neighbour is basically anyone who needs our help. The people who live around us,those who we share the Mass with, our colleagues, friends, acquaintances, strangers in a wordbasically everyone. The form of love mentioned here is not necessarily a love based on emotions

and feelings. Its possible that in many situations we do not necessarily like that person who inthe particular circumstances we are faced with has become our neighbour. The main aspect ofour love is that we do not wish anyone any harm and we want to help save souls including ourown. Of course there are other forms of love but we have to start somewhere with anunderstandable form of love and one that we may find we can aspire to.

Father Bede Jarrett in his book Meditations for Lay Folk writes:

All lay folk must be included, for upon each lies the obligation of doing what each can for her orhis neighbours soul. None are exempt.

To love one's neighbour as a commandment of God.

The concept of loving one's neighbour is not some nice altruistic concept made up by wellmeaning men and women. It is a call from Jesus Christ himself.

Again our obligations are made very clear to us when Jesus tells us in the gospel of St. Mark:

The most important commandment is this ,Listen Israel !The Lord our God is the only Lord. Lovethe Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all yourstrength. The second most important commandment is this :Love your neighbour as yourself.There is no other commandment more important than these two.

Jesus also makes this commandment very clear in the gospel of St. Matthew when he says:

" You have heard that it was said, 'Love your friends, hate your enemies.' But now I tell you: love

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your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may become the sons of yourfather in heaven. For he makes his sun to shine on bad and good people alike , and gives rain tothose who do good and to those to who do evil. Why should God reward you if you love only thepeople who love you? Even the tax collectors do that! And if you speak only to your friends, haveyou done anything out of the ordinary ? Even pagans do that you must be perfect just as yourFather in heaven is perfect.

Again we go back to the question who then is our neighbour in the gospel of St. Luke whenJesus answers a teacher of the law in the parable of the Good Samaritan.

There was once a man who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when robbers attackedhim ,stripped him ,and beat him up leaving him half dead. It so happened that a priest was goingdown that road, but when he saw the man, he walked on by, on the other side. In the same way aLevite also came along, went over and looked at the man ,and then walked on by on the otherside of the road. But a Samaritan who was travelling that way came upon the man, and when hesaw him, his heart was filled with pity. He went over to him, poured oil and wine on his woundsand bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own animal and took him to an Inn, where hetook care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the Innkeeper."

Take care of him, he told the Innkeeper and when I come back this way I will pay you what everelse you spend on him. And Jesus concluded, in your opinion which of these three acted like aneighbour towards the man attacked by robbers?

The teacher of the law answered, "The one who was kind to him. "Jesus replied, "You go, then,and do the same." We have all experienced Good Samaritans in our lives.

On one occasion a long time ago the car broke down on a desert track in the Namibian Desert. Itwas at sun set with darkness falling on us and the nearest town 100 km away. Nothing but sandall around us. After about an hour and nothing to do, no tools, no experience to deal with thesituation we can hear the noise of an vehicle coming towards us, at first just a faint sound butvery soon we can see the headlights of the oncoming pickup truck over loaded with passengers.

The driver stops comes over to see what is wrong then goes back to collect some tools andimmediately gets to work on repairing the car with hardly a word spoken and no money changinghands. He fixes the car wishes us well and like ships in the night we vanish from each other. Thesad thing is we forgot to pray for our Samaritan and those around him. God bless him whereverhe is, almost certainly he is not still in this life as he was in middle age some 35 years ago.

It's not easy. We need God's wisdom.

For many of us it is not easy or natural to love everyone. Some would even say impossible at firstsight. And it is impossible if we rely on our own abilities or inclinations. We can only love all of ourneighbours by the grace of God. And how do we obtain God's grace? We obtain it through askingfor it in daily prayer, regular attendance at Mass, and regularly receiving the holy sacraments aswell as learning from the Lives of the Saints who are good examples of loving God and otherpeople.

St. Therese, St. Alphonsus, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Augustine, St. John Bosco, and St. Vincentde Paul for example. In the case of St. Vincent de Paul he was the friend of the poor, monarchsand bishops alike. He was not born a Saint. This man who has become an example of love andcompassion for millions over the past 300 years, admitted that by nature he was rough andcross. It was the grace of God that made him tender, loving and always concerned for the needsof others.

He inspired the French writer, lawyer and professor Antoine-Frdric Ozanam and others tofound the St. Vincent de Paul Society. At his death in 1853 there were 2000 members. Todaythere are 700,000 members of the St. Vincent de Paul Society in a 142 countries dedicated to

helping the poor and saving souls. See how the ripple of helping neighbour multiplies.

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In the case of St. John Bosco he was once asked by a British Prime Minister how he controlledthe boys under his charge. He answered by encouraging the boys to receive the BlessedSacrament every day.

St. Catharine of Siena tells us that we have a distinct obligation to help our neighbour, so that ifthis help be withheld we are guilty of sin. She notes, for example, that in the 18 th Psalm when we

pray to be spared from the sins of others we are really supposing that the sins of others may beour own very fault, and that it is quite possible that God will judge us not only for what we havedone but also what others through us have committed. Thus upon us rests the responsibility ofcountless others of all those upon whose lives, either directly or, indirectly, our influence isbrought to bear'

God's love contrasted with the world's idea of love

As mentioned before the love we are talking about here is not carnal, or based on naturalinclinations, self will, emotions and feelings. Jesus call to love starts with the common good inmind and ends in doing all things for the sake of Jesus and the glory of God.

What does God mean by love, what is he telling us to do? In the gospel of St. Matthew's Jesustells us:

The King will say to those on his right, come you who are blessed by my Father, take yourinheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry andyou gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was astranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you lookedafter me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. Then the righteous will answer him, Lord,when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we see youa stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or inprison and go and visit you. "The King will reply, I tell you the truth, Whatever you do for one ofthe least of these brothers and sisters of mine you do to me".

Jesus also was very clear to his disciples in the gospel of St. John when he said to the disciples:

"My commandment is this; love one another, just as I love you. The greatest love a person canhave for his friends is to give his life for them. And you are my friends if you do what I commandyou".

God is also asking us to keep his commandments as a practical demonstration of our love.Another demonstration of love is to put the wishes of others before self and we often experiencethis in family life where our spouse puts the needs of the family and others first. Many find God'smeaning of love through their family and service to the community.

In all this we should not choose the people we must love. All men and women in need of our helpare our neighbours.

How do we love in everyday life.

In St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians we have one of the most beautiful passages in the Bibleexplaining this "Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud; Love is not illmannered or selfish or irritable; Love does not keep record of wrongs; Love is not happy withevil, but is happy with the truth. Loves never gives up; and its faith , hope, and patience neverfail. Love is eternal.

St. Therese in her "little way to heaven" explains to us how she came to love her neighbour. Asshe meditated on the words of Jesus "Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down

his life for his friend."

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She writes:

As I meditated on these divine words, I understood how imperfect was the love I bore my sistersin religion, and that I did not love them as Our Lord does. Now I know that true charity consists inbearing all my neighbours defects, in not being surprised at mistakes, but in being edified at thesmallest virtues. From all this I conclude that I ought to seek the companionship of those Sisters

for whom I feel a natural aversion, and try to be their good Samaritan. It frequently needs only aword or a smile to impart fresh life to a despondent soul. Yet it is not merely in the hope ofbringing consolation that I wish to be kind ;if it were, I should soon be discouraged, for often wellintentioned words are totally misunderstood. Consequently, in order that I may lose neither timenor labour, I try to act solely to please Our Lord.

In the writings of a 15th century mystic, Thomas A Kempis in his book "The Imitation of ChristThomas writes:

"Turn your eyes upon yourself and beware of judging what others do. In judging others a manoften goes astray, and easily sins; but in judging and examining himself he often toils fruitfully.Try hard to be patient in tolerating other's faults and infirmities of whatsoever kind , because allof

us have much which must be tolerated by others.

Thomas goes on to explain that it is obvious how seldom we assess our neighbour as weassess ourselves. If all men were perfect, what then should we have to tolerate from others forGod's sake".

We have to learn to avoid disliking others, looking down on all those less fortunate than us andthose that we maybe inclined to despise. All of these traits go against the wishes of Jesus Christ.

It has been said that "Neighbours as mirrors reflect us. The passage goes on to explain ourdeath will be an echo of our lives. What we see that is disagreeable and evil in our neighbours isusually the reflection of what we are ourselves. And what we see that is agreeable and good in

our neighbours is usually a reflection of what we are".

Father Bede Jarrett writes that If every Catholic were a credit to her or his religion and openlyprofessed the whole round of faith, the evil of the world would be cowed.

The Challenge

Nobody says it is easy to be a Christian but the challenge is in the struggle and what the strugglebrings. The starting point is not as one aristocrat did trying to hunt tigers in the corridors of hispalace. This may be considered as aiming high and a challenge which most certainly will neverbe achieved, wasting our time, possibly our lives. The starting point is dealing with the everydaysmall things of life and bearing small fruits which over the span of a life time can add up to asubstantial amount of fruit.