Daily text

"But he, desiring to justify himnself, said to Jesus, "But who is my neighbor?"

"In the broad context of human solidarity the exercise of love is realized in transaffectional justice. Real love grasps the hand that need holds out. Needs cry out from millions I will never meet. justice is love operating at a distance. When, for instance, my church tells me that millions of people are starving and that it is m duty to show my love for them through helpful actons, I become aware of the transindividual meaning of love. I cannot feel any immediate affection for two million people. Love becomes a recognition of the neighbor in his or her need, and takes the transpersonal form of distributed food." Joseph Sittler, Gravity and Grace.

Love directed toward the neighbor is the special type of love that Christ calls disciples to offer to this world. It is adoration of a special kind. Not unlike the adoration or awe one might receive from standing on a mountain or at the ocean or watching a beautiful creature embody its creative purposes. because to love the neighbor is to love what GOD has made. To love the neighbor is to love one who is, in the beginning and end, more like me thatn not. We all need the same things. Sleep, food, clothing, homes, family, friends, meaningful work, play time, inspirational beauty, health. And since we are mostly alike, we may experience a type of kinship that draws us into the life circle of the other. Christians are simply more intentional about meeting the other. We are sent. We are those who go and do mercy. Good Samaritan is only good, only sublime, so far as we understand that it was not that the beaten Jew and the Samaritan were too different to comingle. It was that the Samaritan recognized himself in the other. he saw in the beaten man his own bruises, sores, and pain. He experienced the common bond of having been victimized too. Somewhere, injustice had affected him in such a way that he identified with injustice. Perhaps that is the meaning of the cross. God has somehow become the victim by joining the injustice and violence of this world in a crucified Jew. And yet the victim becomes the victor when injustice and violence are overcome by love stronger than death.