Whenever we are confused or torn between two choices or eager to justify our motivations and our actions or—inactions, the Lord Jesus invites us to resort to the Word as the source of truth, light and resolve to choose right: “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” 

In telling the story that defines “our neighbor,” Jesus cuts right through all the vagueness, the uncertainty, the endless discussions in which law experts were engaged.  

The law of love is physically written on scrolls; it is memorized in the classroom and mentioned occasionally in our priests’ homilies but, most importantly, it is poured in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (see Romans 5:5) 

Thus, we should never be so foolish as to try to justify ourselves if we fall short of loving any of our neighbors. 

The first detail mentioned by Jesus (Luke 10:25-37) is that, in genuine loving, there is no need to identify people to make sure that they fall within our narrow definition of “neighbor.” 

At times, it might be impossible to do so. For true Christian believers, every single person must qualify as “neighbor.”  

The impossibility of neighbor identification should be fully welcomed by us! 

The unfortunate victim of robbers was stripped naked and so he had no revealing garment or headdress to prove his ethnicity.  

Therefore, the priest, the Levite and the Samaritan traveler had no way of determining if the unlucky man was a Jew, i.e. “neighbor,” a Samaritan, a Gentile, a stranger, a nomad or somebody else. 

Lesson # 1: The law of love makes no distinction, nor sets any boundaries of engagement. 

The law written in our hearts orders us to be neighbor to anyone in need. 

Confronted by this unsettling and troubling situation, conveniently, the priest and the Levite silenced the cry from their hearts and justified themselves by invoking very specific laws relative to ritual purity. 

The robbers’ victim could have been dead.  

Touching him would have made them impure and thus, incapacitated to offer God a lawful sacrifice prior to climbing back up to Jerusalem and undergoing lengthy purification rituals. 

Unable to silence the law of love clamoring in their hearts they had to pass by on the opposite side of the road. 

They had to put physical distance between themselves and the man to whom the law in their hearts was telling them to draw near! 

Lesson # 2: The countless victims of violence, exploitation, indifference, greed and all other heartless dispositions will remain teetering between life and death for as long as we silence the law written in our hearts and manage to live with rationalizations, application of legalistic clauses and convenient justifications. 

Jesus, as the consummate teacher and storyteller that he is, levels the hastily built tower of our disengagement by shattering our mindset. 

Logically, after a priest, a Levite, the third person coming down the road from Jerusalem to Jericho should have been a Jew. 

Instead, the third one (who turns out to be the hero of the story) is a hated, despised, written-off heretic, a Samaritan!  

Lesson # 3: the law of love is such that it can be heeded by those whom we look down upon and ignored by those whom we place on a pedestal. 

The Samaritan draws near, that is, becomes “neighbor” to this unknown man in trouble. 

The Samaritan responds to the law written in his heart; he is moved with compassion; he dresses the victim’s wounds; he inconveniences himself liberally and substantially; he even risks a great deal including violent retaliation from the victim’s family if the wounded man were to die while in his care. 

Lesson # 4: Love is proven not by empty words and by trumpeted displays of some perfunctory care, but by concrete, quiet acts.  

Genuine love is also bestowed in an open-ended fashion free of calculations about reward and recognition as well as free of worry about personal cost incurred. 

“Go and do likewise.”  This order confronts us every single time we see a person in need as, without fail, the law of love cries out from our hearts. 

One thing should be clear, so clear as to remove from us any trace of self-righteousness: Jesus replies to the scholar’s insidious question by quoting the two major commandments of the law. 

However, with his death on the cross Jesus has given us a new commandment: to love each other as he loved us on that cross.  

And his resurrection proves the validity of that new commandment. 

Hence, to avoid self-righteousness, now we must lead our lives according to the second commandment: “For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Galatians 5:14 

This realization is simply unsettling, but beneficial. 

We will avoid a possible pious delusion, and we will begin to have an accurate gauge of our real love for God from the time we do take Jesus’ new commandment seriously. (See 1 John 4:20) 

If we want to know how much we love God, we can simply ask ourselves which of the four lessons taught by Jesus, realistically, we are able to implement. 

We might find out that we have a hard time just getting started with the first lesson. 

Hence, I see an urgent need to invoke the Holy Spirit to come to our aid. He has already poured the love of the Holy Trinity in our hearts. So, the law of love is in its right place.  

We need his divine assistance to practice the four lessons with determination and firm will. 

We should practice them until it becomes a reflexive, automatic action for us to become a neighbor to anyone in need. That would be the only sure way to inherit eternal life.