In today’s Gospel, a scholar of the law asks Jesus the essential question: “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus points him to the heart of God’s command: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart… and love your neighbor as yourself.” But the man, looking for limits or loopholes, presses further: “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus responds not with a strict definition, but with the Parable of the Good Samaritan. What makes the Samaritan good is not his title or knowledge of the law, but his compassion in action. He stops, sees the suffering, binds wounds, and gives of himself—while the priest and the Levite, respected religious figures, pass by, perhaps out of fear, ritual concerns, or inconvenience.

Jesus shifts the question entirely—from “Who qualifies as my neighbor?” to “Will you be a neighbor?” This challenges us deeply today. Who are the wounded along our modern Jericho roads? The poor, the migrant, the addicted, the lonely? Even those we disagree with or would rather avoid? Christ calls us not to limit our love but to extend it without boundaries, making compassion practical and costly.

St. Paul reminds us in Colossians that Christ is the one “in whom all things hold together,” the ultimate Good Samaritan who crossed from heaven to earth, bore our wounds, and gave His life for our healing. If Christ lives in us, then His love must flow from our hearts into our hands. Let us not ask, “Who is my neighbor?” in search of limits, but instead choose daily to live as neighbors to all. May we hear and heed Jesus’ command to each of us: “Go and do likewise.” (Luke 10:37)