Everyone has four kinds of neighbors.
First, there are the people you know to speak to, that you interact with as you go about your daily rounds: your family, first of all; your co-workers; your close friends; and a few others. Your first duty as a Christian is to this, for they are the ones God has put into your life. Loving them might be easy (because of your affection for them) or hard (because you can’t stand them) but they are in your life and they aren’t going away.
Second, there are the people who are obviously in need in your local community: the homeless, the hungry, battered women, unwed mothers, the unemployed, the imprisoned. Christ tells us that as often as we bring love to these, we bring love to Him. Loving them is both surprisingly easy and surprisingly difficult. Easy because opportunities abound. Precisely because these needs are so obvious, there are usually many organized ministries to support, either indirectly, by gifts of money, and directly, by giving time. Both are worth doing, and it is especially worthwhile to find some one ministry that brings you face to face with the people who need your love. It is people you are helping, not ministries, and it is quite possible to give money without giving love. (Prayer should be a part of either method.)
Loving this group is surprisingly hard because of our own selfishness. There is nothing technically difficult about helping to bring meals to the homeless, beyond the investment of time. The difficulty is in choosing to do it.
Third, there are the people who are obviously in need in the wider world. It seems odd to call them neighbors, when they live far away, but modern communications bring their needs to our attention. These people have the same difficulties as the second group, but few of us will have the capability of helping any of them directly and face to face. The most most of us can do is to pray and to give money, and again, this is worthwhile. But again, it is quite possible to give money without giving love, and we should remember that charity begins at home.
So far we’ve talked about the people we really know, and the people, both near and far, who have obvious unmet needs. But there’s a fourth kind of neighbor: those who live near us, who have no obvious unmet needs, and who we do not know. They live in our community; they often live on our street; but we do not know them. And yet, they need God’s love; they need others to bring God’s love to them. In our increasingly secular and a-religious world, there might well be no one doing that (intentionally, at least). (God’s love, is, of course, all around us. The sun warms us; the earth supports us; the air and water nourish us. But most take these signs of God’s love for granted.)
In future posts, we’ll talk about ways to bring God’s love to them, and why Oramus focusses on prayer.