Who is my Neighbor?15.11.10
Aired on November 15, 2010
Narration by Emily Bolinas
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WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR?
Jesus answered the Jewish lawyer’s question, “Who is my neighbor?” with the parable of the Good Samaritan. It is a story about the generosity manifested by one across the divide created between Jews and Samaritans. The story, however, poses another challenge at the end. Jesus asked, “Between those three—the priest, the Levite, and the Samaritan—who was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?”
It is naïve to think that the social gaps within our country can be bridged merely by resolving structural or economic problems. However, taking steps to equalize opportunity is a start, when one considers how wide the gap seems to be. Latest figures from the World Bank show that the top ten percent of our population earn 34% of our country’s income, and the lowest twenty percent earn only 5.6%. The economic divide can be seen also in social, cultural, and political terms, so taking these into account would be something to consider.
One way of reflecting upon the social aspect of the economic divide would be to consider the place of the ‘land’ in Israel’s consciousness. We read that in the Bible the promised land plays an important role in shaping the life of God’s people. The land was not just an economic necessity but a place of meaning and rootedness. Being displaced from one’s ancestral land was so disturbing that provision was made for a Jubilee year, when ancestral lands would be restored to their original owners.
In the same way, we must consider the role the land plays in how we understand the social divide. Like much of the two-thirds world, the Philippines is one place where economic circumstances have displaced people from their lands and places of origin. Thousands of landless people move from the provinces only to find themselves in subhuman conditions amidst the crowded cities. It is often in fear of the consequences they engender, such as crime, that those who are better-off move into places set apart from the many. This urban segregation is what makes the divide starker than usual.
The question, whois my neighbor? is relevant here. What if, for a moment, we thought of ourselves as being neighbor with those who seem to share the city with us but in reality inhabit a different and a more sordid place? What if we make the landless our neighbors, allowing them a piece of the earth under the same sky?