The gospel reading of the day is the famous parable of the good Samaritan. While listening to the reading it struck me that the question the person asked Jesus was "Who is my neighbour?" and Jesus replies to him, through the parable describing 'how' to be a neighbour. (Perhaps my research on language is working in the background!) There is no 'ready-made package' of who the neighbour is. So that all those who are that or 'have' that automatically can be counted as 'neighbour'. There certainly is a question of witness and living by doing.
Coming to the distinction of 'how' and 'who', would a parent describe 'how' to be a clown, when the child asks 'who' is a clown? Interestingly Jesus not only describes the qualities of a neighbour but concludes that description stating 'Go and do likewise'. Knowing who a good neighbour does not qualify one to be a good neighbour, one ought to 'do' in order to 'be'.
Coming to the distinction of 'how' and 'who', would a parent describe 'how' to be a clown, when the child asks 'who' is a clown? Interestingly Jesus not only describes the qualities of a neighbour but concludes that description stating 'Go and do likewise'. Knowing who a good neighbour does not qualify one to be a good neighbour, one ought to 'do' in order to 'be'.
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