All the synoptic gospels record this question about the greatest commandment in the law, to which the answer is twofold - to love God with all one's heart and soul and to love one's neighbour as oneself. It is only in Luke's gospel today that a further question is asked: Who is my neighbour? For the average Jew it was clearly another Jew. And many other races and ethnic groups would reply in the same way. Jesus sees things differently as he tells the parable of the Good Samaritan. It is presumed that the man who was robbed was a Jew. There are three other people. Two of them are called to serve God in a special way in the Temple. And that was their problem. On their way to the Temple, they could not approach the injured man who was bleeding from his wounds. To touch him would have made them unclean and hence unable to enter the Temple for prayer and sacrifice. But a Samaritan, a despised outsider, clearly on a mission of some kind, stops his journey and gives the man all the help he needs. The definition of a neighbour then emerges: It is the person who has compassion on another, irrespective of who either person is. Who do I see as my neighbours? Am I a good neighbour in this sense?