“Love of God and of neighbor are two branches that are connected to the same trunk.”
Blessed Maria Christina Brando
Saint of the Day Quote: Blessed Maria Christina Brando
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
The problem is that many assume “neighbor” to mean everyone on the planet, and therefore that there is a mandate for universal philanthropy. But the word “neighbor” never meant that to Jesus, or to his apostles, or to anyone else in the Bible, Old Testament or New. It had a more limited definition : those who are near to you or who aid you in some way. You don’t have to love everyone (although you are certainly free to try if you want to).
“Seeing the man half dead, whom no one before Him had been able to cure… He came near him, that is, He came close to us by sharing our suffering, and a neighbor to us by showing us mercy.
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And so since no one is more our neighbor than He Who has healed our wounds, let us love Him as our Lord, let us love Him as our neighbor; for nothing is closer than the Head to Its members. And let us also love him who is an imitator of Christ. Let us love him who in the unity of this Body has compassion on the need of another. For it is not kinship that makes a neighbor, but mercy. Because mercy accords with nature; for there is nothing so in accord with nature, than to help one who partakes of our nature. Amen.”
— St. Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor – On the Good Samaritan
http://www.lectionarycentral.com/trinity13/Ambrose.html