‘Who is my neighbor?’ (Lk 10:29)<br/><br/>

This question came from a scholar of the law. The purpose of his question was to test the response of Jesus and not to learn the essence of Christ’s love for mankind. However, Jesus made use of the parable of the good Samaritan to bring out the important part of the question: ‘Whose neighbor am I?’<br/><br/>

In the parable of the good Samaritan, every passerby of the wounded traveler could be his neighbor. But the scholar of the law who tested Jesus could not deny the fact that the Samaritan who bandaged the wounded traveler was his true ‘neighbor’.<br/><br/>

Therefore, a true ‘neighbor’ is a person who responses with love.<br/><br/>

Other people may not be our ‘neighbors’, but we can be their ‘neighbors’. Christ invites us to love one another as He loves us. Christ’s love is unconditional. He is the first to love.