"Love your neighbor
as yourself." Adding the words "as yourself," Jesus
puts us in front of a mirror before which we cannot
lie; he has given us an infallible measure for
determining whether we love our neighbor.
We know well in every circumstance what it means to
love ourselves and how we want others to treat us.
Note well that Jesus does not say: "What the other
person does to you, do to him." This would be the
law of talion: "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a
tooth." He says rather: as you would like others to
treat you, treat them in same way (cf. Matthew
7:12).
Jesus considered love of neighbor "his commandment,"
that which summarizes the whole Law. "This is my
commandment: That you love one another as I have
loved you" (John 15:12). Many identify the whole of
Christianity with the precept of love of neighbor,
and they are not completely wrong. We must try,
however, to go a little beyond the surface of
things. When we speak of love of neighbor our minds
turn immediately to "works" of charity, to the
things that should be done for our neighbor: giving
him to eat and drink, visiting him, in sum helping
our neighbor. But this is an effect of love, it is
not yet love. Before "beneficence" there is
"benevolence," that is, before doing good there is
willing good.
Charity must be "without pretense," in other words,
it must be sincere (literally, "without hypocrisy")
(Romans 12:9); you must love "from a true heart" (1
Peter 1:22). Indeed, you can do "charitable" acts
and give alms for motives that do not have anything
to do with love: to impress, to look like a
do-gooder, to earn heaven, to ease your conscience.
A great deal of the charity that we offer to Third
World countries is not directed by love but by a
desire to ease our conscience. We realize the
scandalous difference between them and us and we
feel somewhat responsible for their misery. You can
lack charity even in "doing charity"!
It is clear that it would be a fatal error to oppose
the heart’s love and active charity, or to take
refuge in good intentions toward others in such a
way that we use them as an excuse for a lack of
active and concrete charity on our part. If you meet
a poor person, hungry and numb with cold, St. James
says, what good does it do to say "You poor thing,
go, keep warm and eat something!" when you give him
nothing of what he needs? "Children," St. John adds,
"let us not love in word or speech but in deed and
truth" (1 John 3:18). It is not a matter of
devaluing external works of charity, but of making
sure that they have their basis in a genuine
sentiment of love and benevolence.
This interior charity, or charity of the heart, is
charity that can be exercised by all and always, it
is universal. It is not a charity that only a few --
the rich and the healthy -- bestow, and others --
the poor and the sick -- receive. All can give and
receive. Furthermore, it is very concrete. It is a
matter of beginning to look with a new eye upon the
situations and people with which we live. What is
this new eye? It’s simple: it is the eye with which
we would like God to look upon us! The eye of mercy,
of benevolence, of understanding, of mercy.
When this happens all our relationships change. As
if by a miracle, all the prejudice and hostility
that kept us from loving a certain person falls away
and we begin to open up to what he is in reality: a
poor human being who suffers from his weaknesses and
limits, like you, like everyone. It is as if the
mask that people and things placed over his face has
begun to slip and the person appears to us as he
truly is.
