Love Thy Neighbour

Gospel Reflection for November 3, 2024 - Mark 12:28-34

And there came one of the scribes that had heard them reasoning together, and seeing that he had answered them well, asked him which was the first commandment of all.

And Jesus answered him: The first commandment of all is, Hear, O Israel: the Lord thy God is one God.

And thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment.

And the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these.

And the scribe said to him: Well, Master, thou hast said in truth, that there is one God, and there is no other besides him.

And that he should be loved with the whole heart, and with the whole understanding, and with the whole soul, and with the whole strength; and to love one's neighbour as one's self, is a greater thing than all holocausts and sacrifices.

And Jesus seeing that he had answered wisely, said to him: Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question. (Mark 12:28-34 DRA)

The Epistle reading for this Sunday, continuing with the Letter to the Hebrews, is fascinating and worth its own reflection, especially pertaining to how its teaching relates to the dual ministerial and universal priesthood of the Church. For this, I will refer to an article by Catholic apologist Tim Staples which I highly recommend.

For my reflection, however, I would like to focus on the Gospel. A parallel passage, found in Luke 10, gives a story similar to this one – focused on a “lawyer,” which in ancient Judaism was synonymous with a scribe – but given in reverse, with Our Lord answering the lawyer’s question of how to attain eternal life by asking him what the Law said. The lawyer answered with the fundamental commandments given by Christ in this reading from St. Mark. In St. Luke’s version, he also clarifies that the lawyer asked this to “test” Christ, and replies back to Him by asking, “And who is my neighbour?” (Lk 10:29) In answer to this spirit of minimalism, one which only looks to the barest requirements of obedience instead of to what is best and most fitting, Christ delivers the famous parable of the Good Samaritan.

The story of the Good Samaritan and the way it clarifies the true meaning of “neighbour” in this second great commandment is revelatory. Pope Benedict XVI, in the first volume of his Jesus of Nazareth trilogy, explains that, among its many layers of meaning, deciding who counts as one’s “neighbour” – a genuinely difficult question for Jews at the time, who were oppressed and persecuted by Romans and Samaritans alike – is truly more a matter of one’s own personal choices and actions than on any ethnic or social relation, as demonstrated in the parable of the Good Samaritan.

With the interior disposition of charity, cultivated and trained to react with true compassion (“suffering-with”) and self-sacrificing promptness whenever an opportunity arises to aid another, one becomes the “neighbour” of all. Through this kind of disinterested and selfless love (agape or caritas), strengthened by the spirited sympathy of eros, all boundaries of ethnicity, wealth and social status, even of religion, sex or personal holiness, become penetrable, translucent to the light of love which heals the wounds of sin and conquers the slavery of Satan wherever it acts. In this sense, a true neighbour lives by principle rather than for any kind of personal gain or the opinion of others – for the sake of charity alone, willing the good of the other for their own sake and for love of God, the true neighbour always does what is best for others, no matter the cost to himself.

To be this kind of neighbour is to be conformed to Christ, the divine Neighbour to all, who died on the Cross so that all men – Jew and Gentile, male and female, rich and poor – may have eternal life. From this, the medieval Scholastics, following the Church Fathers, further extended the parable of the Good Samaritan, identifying the man whom the Latin of the text describes as “despoiled” and left “vulnerable” from his attack as Adam, despoiled of original justice and made vulnerable to sin and death, while the Samaritan is Christ, the new Adam, who bridges the divide between God and man by His divine initiative and restores our fallen state.

As we celebrated only recently, the saints throughout history each manifested this Christian neighbourliness in their own unique ways, reflecting the infinite diversity by which the love of God shines through the lives of each person. Today, on this Feast of St. Martin de Porres, we are reminded of one of the Church’s greatest saints, a man of “illegitimate” birth and mixed race, at a time when Peru was sharply divided between Spanish settlers, African slaves and Indian natives. St. Martin developed a profound love of Christ – despite being abandoned as a young child by his Spanish father, this gave him no prejudice against the Catholic faith of his paternal ancestors. Raised by his single African-Indian mother and eventually sent to a primary school before being apprenticed to a barber-surgeon, he soon desired to become a religious but was prevented from doing so by Peruvian law at the time which forbade descendants of slaves or natives from becoming full members of religious orders.

Despite these obstacles, St. Martin never became bitter. He took on the role of a simple servant and almoner in a Dominican convent, enduring slurs and mockery from some of the novices and friars, but due to his great charity and miraculous cures, the holy prior chose to overlook Peruvian law and allowed St. Martin to become a lay brother of the Third Order of St. Dominic. He then spent the rest of his life in prayer, humble obedience and self-sacrificing charity, making himself the neighbour to all in his deep love of Christ. Through him the Holy Ghost worked many miracles, especially in his work at the convent’s infirmary, where he would move through locked doors to aid novices during an epidemic, or heal diseases with only a glass of water. As with all the saints, his charity ultimately sprang from a zealous devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, inspiring him to treat all as Christ, even poor and ulcerous beggars, Indians found wounded in the street or wealthy Spanish noblemen, all without demanding reparations or special treatment from anyone.

As his life demonstrates, St. Martin de Porres is an inspiring example of true Christian neighbourliness, of a life of charity which springs from a love of Christ above all else and a willingness to suffer all manner of affliction and persecution, even from God’s own covenant people, in imitation of Christ. May his example and that of all the saints inspire us to love all and to suffer all for Christ.

St. Martin de Porres, ora pro nobis!