The Great Reformer of the morals of the nations, the Teacher of Light and Truth, the Lord, made deep incisions, like a skilled Spiritual Surgeon, into the spiritual and moral darkness that covered the peoples of the earth during the time of His Divine Presence on earth. But so great was the darkness covering the…
The Great Reformer of the morals of the nations, the Teacher of Light and Truth, the Lord, made deep incisions, like a skilled Spiritual Surgeon, into the spiritual and moral darkness that covered the peoples of the earth during the time of His Divine Presence on earth. But so great was the darkness covering the souls of men, and such were the laws that held sway until then — “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth” — that He could not reveal His Truth to men without a veil. For this reason He spoke to them in parables, one of which is the parable under study here, concerning the “neighbor.”
The concept of “neighbor,” as the Lord redefined it, was unknown until then. For this reason it was, for His own time, like an earthquake — an earthquake in the souls of men, who saw and judged things by their own limited knowledge and outlook; a seismic tremor in their consciousness, meant to raise them above everything held and believed until that time. It was a new outlook, a new beginning in the revelation of Love upon the earth, as He who was its Perfect embodiment — Love Itself, the Infinite — revealed it, taught it, and kept it.
For this reason He met with the fierce reaction and hostility of those people who clung to their own views — the Priesthood of His time in particular — who believed themselves to be God’s chosen, the keepers of Truth and the Law, whose souls had neither opening nor room to receive the Radiance of His Love, which poured forth abundantly upon all people and all things; and the narrow-hearted, short-sighted Pharisees crucified Him as a heretic!
The Great Moral Teacher of the ages placed the subject of the “neighbor” on a Universal footing, free of any dogmatism, limitation, racial distinction, or religious bigotry. These concepts, this outlook, are now accessible to our own age, in which the human spirit has developed and its spiritual horizons have opened wide enough to receive and absorb ideas, teachings, and conditions on a Universal scale.
For, as is natural, the Lord taught from the Spiritual height of His Divine All-Wisdom, and not within human limitations, and His teachings can, with the passing of time, expand without end, because they concern all humanity.
“And who is my neighbour?” (Luke 10:29). Every soul that dwells on earth is a “neighbor” — your “neighbor,” my “neighbor.” There is no distance in the working of Spiritual laws; rather, Spiritual laws work across the whole length and breadth of the earth, without any limitation. Through us, the Law of Divine Love must heal wounds, dissolve delusions, and restore Light and order.
The “neighbor” (Luke 10:25-37) refers to the outward forms in which life is manifested in the material realm — whether this is your own body or the bodies of other persons. To bind up wounds is to seek to preserve the forms in which life is manifested, through the help we offer, so as to assist them in reaching their destined purpose. It is, further, the activation of Love. We all have life, and this is the Eternal Life of God, but it does not become our own reality until we are able consciously to bring this fact about.
He who enters into Eternal Life, as Jesus did, must rest upon that ever-present Life and make it one with his own Self and with his own body. This is the secret of the inheritance of Eternal Life: to feel compassion for, and to love, the manifestation of life in the bodies of all creatures, and especially in your own body. To proclaim life as continually dwelling within the organism of your own body.
What makes someone a “neighbor” is not tribal kinship, or kinship of blood, or knowledge of the letter of the Law, or any position or authority one holds, but Love — which stands above all these things, and which pays no heed to the letter of the Law, because it possesses the Spirit — the Essence of the Law — in action, in our daily life and in its various and manifold expressions.
The lawyer’s own answer to Jesus gives the impersonal, unbounded definition of “neighbor”: “He that shewed mercy on him” — an answer that holds true for every nation, race, age, class, and era, without limit of time or any other kind, because it springs from the Universal Law of Love and the inner unity of all things.
The essential spiritual position, then, in interpreting this parable of the “neighbor,” is whether we showed, by our own conduct, “mercy” — our own love. Then we saw that person as our neighbor. Take heed, I ask you, for the Scriptures say: “For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy” (James 2:13). That is, we too shall receive mercy from the Great Mercy of God, in proportion to what we have shown to our neighbor and brother.
These interpretations and these positions are the first inward, penetrating meanings that lead us to another way of seeing things, to an approach with motives and standards different from those known until now. They are our first steps on the ascending path.
They lead us to the inner unity of all human beings, to brotherhood, which is a necessary preliminary stage before our final Spiritual destiny — our becoming Christlike. They lead us, further, to understand more deeply, on the one hand, that we all have the same Begetter, the Father, whom the Lord taught us of and revealed to us, and on the other, the working of the Universal Law of God — of Catholic, Impersonal Love — which His Images on earth must take to heart and put into practice, in order to become Sons of God.
This is the deeper interpretation of this Gospel lesson, and the spiritual, underlying purpose toward which it looks.
