A his equal, let alone his neighbor—how great is that pride! “And who is my neighbor?” he says. And after other things: “Is there not a father for you, O man, no mother, no brother, no friend, no kinsman, no neighbor, no relative, or finally any other person in the city similar to you?” Shame on the conceit and arrogance that demonstrates the folly of a man who believes himself superior to human nature! For this reason, the Savior, seeing him thus foolishly puffed up, brings to his mind others who are neighbors to him by nature, and others by choice, adding those things which are recounted in the parable as fitting to the matter. He brings forward Adam, B as the common progenitor of all, from whom all men are to be considered and called brothers and neighbors, due to the communion in him; then He calls those brothers and neighbors who are joined together by the mutual and voluntary bond of benevolence, and all the more so because they have entered into a society with one another not by nature, but by free will. “A certain man was descending.” You see the parable, and through it Christ, who leads the mind of the lawyer to healthier things; you see Christ starting from Adam and teaching us all that, if we slide from the summit of virtuous conduct into the abyss of vices, we are wounded by intellectual robbers, and if we do not quickly recover and return from there, we are delivered to eternal death of the soul. Thus, therefore, are the ways of the lawyer corrected; for he himself, according to the command, “You shall love your neighbor,” and, “You shall hate your enemy,” by dividing nature into two, considers every foreigner an enemy. For the Law commands that a certain hostile spirit be maintained toward foreigners, not so much out of hatred—for nature is common to all—but because those C who associated with them frequently embraced their idolatry. Furthermore, he did not consider all Jews his neighbors, but only those who vied with him in the practice of virtues. But our lawyer, full of himself and thinking himself to excel all others, did not deem anyone in deed or in name worthy of himself. Wherefore Christ, intending to heal the disease of this man and of all who were afflicted with the same miserable condition, saying generally, “A certain man,” implies that not this one or that one, but every participant in human nature is to be designated by the name of neighbor, and He passes over the law that says, “Love your neighbor” and, “Hate your enemy,” as being imperfect, substituting His own, which He also commends elsewhere: “Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who persecute you.” D For all of such a kind the Jews believed to be enemies, while those who did the opposite they considered neighbors. In such a way, therefore, He tests the lawyer and, by the power of the parable, constrains him so that he might, even against his will, confess that the law which commands to hate an enemy and love a neighbor is imperfect and was spoken to the imperfect; but that the law which He Himself ordains is most perfect and perfection-bringing, teaching the love of all absolutely, and that no one, where it is necessary to show kindness, is to be considered an enemy.