The love of God is inseparably bound up with love of our neighbor. Nothing is clearer in scripture. In fact, the two become one great commandment. There is an enormous amount of neighborliness in the world; kindness, thoughtfulness, ready to help in difficulties, sympathy, generosity. Nevertheless, the disciples of Jesus must exceed the demands of mere neighborliness, wonderful as it is. Perfect love of our neighbor must be our aim, and this can only flow from a pure and selfless heart. We must begin with our inmost heart and this, in practice, means that charity begins at home.
We all know that it is relatively easy to be kind and neighborly to those who don’t press too closely on us. It is far more difficult to be always loving those with whom we live or rub shoulders with every day. A great deal of what we call charity may be self-love, satisfying a need in ourselves rather than pure seeking of our neighbor’s good. It is only when we are making sure that we are loving the neighbor whom we see that we may hope that our more far-reaching charity is pure. Love should flow in concentric circles with the center at home.