Willingness To Be Neighbourly!

Monday, October 6, 2025

Jon 1:1-2:1-2,11; Lk 10:25-37

Today’s Gospel highlights Jesus redefining the concept or idea of neighbourliness. 

More often than not, in our understanding, a neighbour is someone who is near or next to us or even who is like us or who belongs to our group. While this has been the popular understanding, Jesus invites us to reconsider our definition and understanding of a neighbour.

Through the famous parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus shows who our real neighbour is/could be. While Jesus does not overlook the man in need – the victim – he is more interested in who is willing to show him compassion. Jesus applies the yardstick of mercy to redefine a neighbour. 

In his narration, Jesus shifts the emphasis in the scholar’s question from ‘who qualifies for compassion?’ to ‘who is compassionate?’ In other words, Jesus shows that a neighbour is not someone in need but the one who acts with compassion towards the one in need.

The invitation to imitate the neighbourliness of the Good Samaritan requires that we cross the limits around love. For Jesus, a true neighbour is someone who behaves like the Good Samaritan – who stopped for the wounded man, gave him help, spent money on him, and willingly risked his life for the love of a total stranger. 

Thus, in Jesus’ teaching, we discover that neighbourliness is a choice in love we make on behalf of the needy and suffering. It is about who we become for someone in need. It is about revealing the disposition of mercy, kindness, and thoughtfulness.

And when Jesus commands in the end, ‘Go and do likewise,’ he invites us to imitate the love of the Good Samaritan and walk on the path he has shown us. In sum, Jesus turns the Good Samaritan into an example of Christian love. 

Let us pray that we can show what Christian love looks like in the context through our willingness to be neighbourly.

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar