who is your neighbor?

"christ told us how to survive when he answered the question, who is my neighbor? in the tenth chapter of luke he tells the story of a samaritan who care for a jew who had been badly wounded by thieves. as we know from the precedign chapter, in which the disciples suggest in effect the firebombing of a samaritan village, the smaritans and the jews were enemies. to modernize the story, then, and so to understand christ's answer, we may substitute any other pair of enemies: fundamentalist christian and fundamentalist muslin, palestinian and israeli, captor and prisoner. the answer: your neighbor is any sufferer who needs your help.

~ wendell berry