“Neighbor.”  Not merely the person living near us, but all men of every kind and nation—­even our enemies.  The people who lived at the time of Our Lord in His country used to dispute about just what persons were to be considered their neighbors; so one day they asked Our Lord, and He answered them by telling them the following.  Said He:  (Luke 10:30) A man was once going down from Jerusalem, and on the way robbers beat him, robbed him, and left him on the wayside dying.  First one man came by, looked at the wounded man, and passed on; then another came and did the same; finally a third man came, who was of a different religion and nationality from the wounded man.  But he did not consider these things.  He dressed the poor man’s wounds, placed him upon his horse and brought him to an inn or hotel, and paid the innkeeper to take care of him.  “Now,” said Our Lord, “which of these three was neighbor to the wounded man?” And they answered rightly, “The man that helped him.”  Our Lord, by this example, wished to teach them and us that everybody is our neighbor who is in distress of any kind and needs our help.  Neighbor, therefore, means every human being, no matter where he lives or what his color, learning, manners, etc., for every human being in the world is a child of God and has been redeemed by Our Lord.  Therefore every child of God is my neighbor, and even more—­he is my brother; for God is his father and mine also, and if he is good enough for God to love, he should be good enough for me.

“As ourselves.”  Not with as much love, but with the same kind of love; that is, we are to follow the rule laid down by Our Lord:  “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”  Never do to anyone what you would not like to have done to yourself; and always do for another just what you would wish another to do for you, if you were in the same position.  Our neighbor is our equal and gifted with all the gifts that we ourselves have.  When we come into the world we are all equal.  We have a body and a soul, with the power to develop them.  Money, learning, wealth, fame, and all else that makes up the difference between men in the world are acquired in the world; and when men die, they go out of the world without any of these things, just as they came into it.  The real difference between them in the next world will depend upon the things they have done, good or bad, while here.  We should love our neighbor also on another account:  namely, that he is one day to be in Heaven with us; and if he is to be with us for all eternity, why should we hate him now?  On the other hand, if our neighbor is to be in Hell on account of his bad life, why should we hate him?  We should rather pity him, for he will have enough to suffer without our hatred.

110 Q. What is actual grace?  A. Actual grace is that help of God which enlightens our mind and moves our will to shun evil and do good.