Who is my neighbor?

All of us have often the same question "who is my neighbor? Did God mean that we should love our neighbor as ourselves?

I should not be citing gospel message as a secular columnist. But I just can't get over the meaning of yesterday's gospel on the "Good Samaritan."

But I think we have been missing an important point when we examine the parable. First, the message that God wanted us to appreciate was that we cannot love God--or profess our love for him--directly. It does not add a bit to His godhead. Or diminish Him if we don't. He remains God.

I think that God simply wanted to point out that we can best prove our love for Him by loving our fellow human beings. In short, he doesn't want us to just profess our love for Him, but manifest it in the concrete way by reaching out in love to other fellow human beings.

The Pharisees, on the other hand, paid more attention to the external of religion, belaboring the issue of adhering strictly to the ritual of washing, etc.

Now, the priest has considered it sacrilegious for him to touch a wounded bloody man on a holiday. He had to comply with his obligation to be on time for prayers and to be "clean."

The same with the scribe. He also had to record what had happened to the wounded victim. He could not be distracted by such a gesture of duty.

So a Samaritan comes along. He was not supposed to extend a helping hand to a Jew who never has given him the recognition of a human being he was entitled to. But he had no qualms about helping the victim of brigands. Instead, he helped him overnight. And even left money to the inn-keeper for the victim.

Now that presents us our own reality. How many of our "enemies" would prod us to extend a helping hand to them? And who are our enemies? Usually, we start off with that closest to us our spouses, our children and relatives. They are the ones who often hurt the most.

Too often, we find ourselves unforgiving. We can't extend to them the compassion that God lavishes on us even if unasked.

And how many times we find ourselves repelled by the sight of an unwashed beggar asking for good. And how many times have we turned our backs on those seeking our help simply because that would drag us into trouble?

These are just some thoughts that bothered me while listening to the gospel yesterday. These are thoughts that I wish to share with you in the hope that you might make it clear to me.

***

The virtually unnoticed struggle as to who would drive the electric jeepney for the president saw Rep. Monico Puentevella ejected from the drivers seat by the Presidential Security Group. The reason was that, it was a city project and the city Mayor Evelio Leonardia was chosen as the driver.

But there was a more humorous sequel to that. When the president was about to leave, Newks reportedly went up to one of the two parked planes at the Bacolod airport. He plucked himself a seat.

Unfortunately, nobody had informed the solon that the president boarded another plane. This time it was Mayor Leonardia who left with the presidential party and poor Newks was left behind.

I don't even think that the President was aware of all these goings - on. Most likely she just went on with her schedule. But, as I had earlier noted, these nuances did not escape the notice of observers who only watched out for such minor occurrence that, more or less, tell of forthcoming things and events.*

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