A lawyer stood up to put Jesus to the test, saying, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?"
Jesus said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you understand it?"
The lawyer answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbour as yourself."
Jesus said to him, "You have answered right. Do this and you will live".

But the lawyer, desiring to justify himself, asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbour?"
Jesus replied with a parable: "A good Jewish man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and left him half dead. Now by chance a Jewish priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. Later a Levite came by and also passed by on the other side, even though the man was one of his own people.

"A while later, a Samaritan came to where the man was. When he saw him, he had compassion. He knelt down and cleaned and bound the man's wounds. He then put him on his own donkey and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
The next day he gave money to the inn keeper, saying, 'Take care of him, and whatever more you must spend, I will repay you when I return.'

"Which of these three do you think proved neighbour to the poor victim?" asked Jesus.
"The one who showed mercy on him," replied the lawyer.
"Go and do likewise."

Preprinted from The Holy Bible. 1946. Revised Standard version. Collins'Clear-type Press, London, UK.

Q: What qualities are important in friendship?

Maxim Six: "Know all people as thy brethren and treat them as such".

Q: In Galilee at the time of Jesus, the Samaritans were generally hated by the Jews, yet in this story it was a Samaritan who helped the Jewish man, while the so-called wise and mighty Jews left the man to suffer. Do you offer friendship only to those people you like, or to anyone who needs it? Should you limit friendship to a certain number of people, or try to be friends in your attitude towards everyone?

Q: What is prejudice?

Q: Prejudice exists between rich and poor, educated and uneducated, people of different cultures, religions, racial backgrounds, skin colours, townships etc. If you reflect for a few minutes, can you see prejudice within yourself? Sometimes prejudice is not obvious and it takes a while to see it. As an exercise, make a list of things that are often cause for prejudice, and see how you respond to them. For example:

1. Are you suspicious or fearful of any group of people? Do you judge some groups of people more than others?
   
2. Do you have friends from all walks of life, or do you stay with a group of people that are all from the same culture, socio-economic group, religion etc?
   
3. Are you rigid or flexible about the types of foods you eat? What is the reason for this?
   
4. Imagine a person whom you really don't like. What are the qualities about them that you do not like? Think that they are a mirror of yourself. Do you see some of the same qualities in yourself?

Q: If you were walking along the road today in your home village, town or city, and saw a man beaten up by robbers on the side of the road, what would you do, and why?

O, Master!
Thou art the real goal of human life.
We are yet but slaves of wishes
Putting bar to our advancement,
Thou art the only God and power
To bring us up to that stage.