Love is being near
“Lord, what do you want from us? What should we do to inherit eternal life?” Sometimes, we would like the Lord to give us a task, something we can do ourselves, so that once and for all we can get rid of the problem of saving ourselves and the fear of condemnation. How often do we “love” our neighbor simply as a way of getting rid of them? That is, we do for our neighbor what we have to do, and then we move away from him. It seems to us that, by giving our neighbor what he needed, we have completed our work: we are “justified,” and we can now go and do whatever we want. Perhaps we believe that to love our neighbor is to approach him when he needs something and then turn away, as if he were not really part of our life... In today’s Gospel ( Luke 10:25-37), the Pharisee knows that he must love his neighbor, that he must do something for his neighbor. But perhaps it was not very clear who was the “neighbor,” that is, the one "nearby,” the one who is considered “close.” Who is my...