Theos-Talk Archives (November 2003 Message tt00003)

John wrote: <<Philotes, thanks, happiness is 
assisting others, John>>

I seem to recall at some point coming across 
words to the effect that one ought to love 
one's neighbour and hate one's enemy. I'm 
trying to figure out if that was attributed 
to Jesus by somebody. I have an excellent 
memory, but all too often it seems to be kind 
of short on particulars, for some reason, so 
for all I know, maybe Jesus never said 
anything like that. Aside from whatever 
contextual, broader meaning that comment from 
John might be seen to have, or "does have" or 
"might have" from John's point of view ... 
Anyway, that comment brought to mind that 
"love/hate" topic. Maybe somebody can 
correct me about it. At any rate, if one 
tends to go with "happiness is assisting 
others," (in general?), then one might wonder 
(as in my case) whether one ought to assist 
one's "friends" (however defined?) as well as 
one's "enemies" (however defined?)---ie, 
"assist" (possibly?) without (apparently?) 
all that much defining of "others" or 
"happiness" (apparently?) or ... So, for 
example, if one considers the case of RC 
Churchman Eugenio Pacelli and his 
associations with the Nazis during WW2, one 
might wonder about the nature of the "help" 
and "happiness" with respect to "others," 
that might be "seen to apply in his case" ... 
(not that I'm suggesting that John's "help," 
"happiness" and "others" to me seem somehow 
comparable to Pacelli's case in some way). 
I'm not suggesting anything much, just wonder 
about a few things.

^:-/ ...
Mauri