The virtue of charity requires that I love God first by obeying His commandments.  But it also requires that I love my neighbor as myself.  Two questions naturally arise: Who is my neighbor?  And how, exactly, should I love him?

If you asked the first question, you’re not alone.  A lawyer asked Jesus the same thing, and he told him the parable of the Good Samaritan.  A man is beaten by robbers and left by the side of the road.  Two different Israelite religious leaders pass by, but the Samaritan—who is despised by the Israelites—helps the man.  It was the Samaritan—“[t]he one who showed him mercy”—that “proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among robbers.”

In fact, Jesus commanded in the Sermon on the mount, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you….” 

Are you getting the message?  Every person on earth—friend or enemy—is my neighbor. 

So, then, what does it mean to love your neighbor “as yourself”?  C.S. Lewis suggests an answer:

When I look into my own mind, I find that I do not love myself by thinking myself a dear old chap …. * * * I might detest something which I have done. Nevertheless, I do not cease to love myself. * * * Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person’s ultimate good as far as it can be obtained.” 

The Samaritan loved the man—his enemy who was also his neighbor—as he loved himself—by doing for the man the good that the Samaritan would have wished for himself.

And here’s the thing: Loving our neighbor, while second to loving God, is actually one of the best ways to express our obedient love for God, who in the end will say:

“I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ³⁶ I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.” For, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”

Have a wonderful day.