From a practical point of view, in the parable of the Good Samaritan, the most important thing is the distinction between what the scribe, who asks Christ about eternal life, understands by the word "neighbor," and what the Lord Himself understands. The scribe, quite in the spirit of ordinary human thinking, considers a neighbor to be the person who stands in a certain relationship to us. He expects in response a word that would belong in the same category as the concepts of "relative, friend, neighbor, fellow countryman, coreligionist." The necessity of helping those who are near us is repeatedly spoken of in the Holy Scriptures of both the New and, especially, the Old Testament.

It must be said that the position of the Old Testament law on this issue is quite exalted; it requires doing good to everyone, from relatives to refugees, whom it calls strangers in our land. And yet, the Old Testament consciousness does not differ in this from the mindset of all people. It assumes the existence of ever-widening concentric circles of people who are located closer or further from oneself. In the proper sense of the word, a person, including an Old Testament person, considers relatives and friends as neighbors. We are ready to treat them with all goodwill, even with love. "Do not even the Gentiles do the same?" asks the Lord ( 5:47).

However, the Old Testament, compared to pagan beliefs and customs, significantly expands this circle. Not only relatives and neighbors, but also completely unknown fellow countrymen must be considered neighbors. Even a slave and a disenfranchised stranger are also human beings, therefore you must treat them humanely, that is, as your neighbors. Thus, the Old Testament brings the answer to the question: "who is my neighbor" to its limit: "any person who happens to be nearby."

The Lord, however, concludes the parable of the Good Samaritan with a counter-question to the scribe: "Which of these three proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers" ( 10:36). The Synodal translation in this verse is somewhat approximate. The Greek text contains not the verb "to be", but the verb "to become, to be born, to be made". The Lord is saying that you became a neighbor to a person because he is in need of your help.

It is not a matter of a relationship of closeness or kinship, but of a relationship of need for another person. Moreover, He emphatically reverses the concept: it is not that the one who fell among robbers became a neighbor to one of the three travelers — this would be quite in the spirit of the Old Testament; on the contrary, one of them became a neighbor to him. Thus, at the center of the circles defining the concept of "neighbor," the Lord places not you, but the other, the one who needs you. A neighbor, therefore, is not the one to whom you would like to give something. A neighbor is not even the one to whom you could give something. A neighbor is the one who needs you.

And here it is important to remember how the Apostle Paul calls those who have believed "fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God" ( 2:19). We become neighbors to God because we need Him. And He invites us to define a neighbor exactly as He Himself does, that is, to follow His path, to be like Him.

Both of these biblical texts, so different at first glance, reflect a single understanding of life.

The foundation of the understanding of life in Ecclesiastes is, perhaps, that within the framework of earthly life everything that seems valuable and significant to man is, in fact, vanity and a chasing after the wind. Ecclesiastes seeks and finds nothing on earth to which the heart should be attached, which could become a source of happiness, a source of life for man. Even wisdom and moderation, so valued by the ancients, give us nothing but privation, even voluntary privation. Only in God does Ecclesiastes hope to find meaning; but God remains incomprehensible and distant to him. To draw near to Him is hardly possible for man.

The understanding of life in Ecclesiastes is colored by inescapable sorrow, because in this life he sees suffering and emptiness behind everything. The book ends with an unspoken hope for "that day" when the sun and stars will grow dim, and this earthly world will come to its end. The "Day of the Lord," the "Day of Judgment," as the great prophets of the Old Testament called it, may perhaps give man some understanding of the meaning of existence. But the light of this hope is hidden from Ecclesiastes; written in the period between the return from the Babylonian captivity and the coming of Christ, this book sums up the hopeless, joyless, and meaningless existence of man before Christ. The sorrow of Ecclesiastes is such that nothing earthly can quench it, and in this lies the greatest realism of this book.

The fundamental meaning of the understanding of life behind the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount is that only God Himself can be the answer to all our questions. The only thing that can be the purpose and meaning of human life is God Himself. Not something proceeding from Him, not earthly life in itself, nor even eternity can quench the thirst resounding in the words of Ecclesiastes. Only God… And the most important thing that the Lord Jesus proclaimed to people is that God has come to us to give us meaning, joy, and life. Even suffering becomes for us not just a symptom of mortality, but a meeting place with the Incomprehensible. Deeds of mercy and the fulfillment of the law, meekness and the rejection of violence, love for people itself — everything gains meaning only because here we find God. "The kingdom of heaven is at hand," the Lord repeats more than once in the Gospel. That Kingdom where life finds meaning, that for which it would be worth living, is inaccessible to us — but this Kingdom itself has drawn near to us out of God's great love.

In Christ, man finds what Ecclesiastes sought and did not find. But nowhere else but in Him can this be found — in this both the book of Ecclesiastes and the Sermon on the Mount converge. Of course, this answer is necessarily brief and most likely incomplete. If we briefly answer your second question in the same way, it will be something like this: The purpose of our life is God Himself, a Person whom one can love, seek, comprehend, and trust. At the same time, the purpose of our life is to fulfill God's design for us: to bring His love into the created world, to serve as a creative principle in the world. This is possible for us only together with God; by ourselves we can create nothing but chaos. These two aspects of the purpose of our life unite in the possibility of being the presence of God in this world, a Temple of the Holy Spirit, as the apostle Paul expresses it.

The meaning of life is thus hidden in the Almighty Himself. As Saint Augustine, the great Christian thinker of the late 4th — early 5th centuries, said addressing God: "You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You." The Lord Jesus Christ Himself expressed this mystery in the words of a prayer addressed to the Father: "That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us." The love that unites us with God to the very depths of our and His nature — this, perhaps, is the meaning of our life. The value of human life I would measure by God's love for each of us. We are weak, empty, and barren; our life often seems worthless to us. But God loves us not because we are good, but because He is God. And we are valuable not because we are good, but because we are loved by Him.

It is unlikely that this answer can claim completeness and objectivity. But, I hope it is direct enough. Practice shows that it hides a wonderful power of life; moreover, it is important to bear in mind that when we meet God, questions disappear. Not that we receive answers, — but there comes a moment when you forget about questions and begin to live, because God Himself is the answer to everything.

In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself explains these words quite clearly, saying, "do not resist an evil person". In human society, including in Israel during the time of Christ's earthly life, the widespread opinion is that violence must be avenged. The main commandments of the Old Testament seek only to confine this vengeance within certain limits, requiring that retribution for violence be commensurate with the violence itself.

However, the Lord says, it is impossible to overcome evil and violence in this way. What then is to be done? Through His entire life, the Lord shows us the way to stand against evil; it is the way of love and forgiveness, faithfulness to God, and the acceptance of suffering. This path led Jesus Himself to the Cross, and only the Resurrection of Christ testifies to all His disciples that this is the only way to stand against evil.

As for the specific phrase that prompted your question — one must admit it is shocking. But, you must agree, such an extreme degree of rejecting violence as a response to violence has proven to be more than memorable. Even in atheistic societies, through culture, it is absorbed into people's minds, compelling us to think about it.

In practice, striving to follow these words leads to the realization that we are not alone in the suffering inflicted upon us by people: the Lord takes this suffering upon Himself. And if we dedicate our rejection of violence to Him, He grants us an incomparable joy that no violence can take away from us. The only thing to bear in mind is that each of us is called to respond in this way to the violence inflicted upon us personally. Violence inflicted upon others requires a different response.

In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself explains these words quite clearly, saying, "do not resist an evil person". In human society, including in Israel during the time of Christ's earthly life, the widespread opinion is that violence must be avenged. The main commandments of the Old Testament seek only to confine this vengeance within certain limits, requiring that retribution for violence be commensurate with the violence itself.

However, the Lord says, it is impossible to overcome evil and violence in this way. What then is to be done? Through His entire life, the Lord shows us the way to stand against evil; it is the way of love and forgiveness, faithfulness to God, and the acceptance of suffering. This path led Jesus Himself to the Cross, and only the Resurrection of Christ testifies to all His disciples that this is the only way to stand against evil.

As for the specific phrase that prompted your question — one must admit it is shocking. But, you must agree, such an extreme degree of rejecting violence as a response to violence has proven to be more than memorable. Even in atheistic societies, through culture, it is absorbed into people's minds, compelling us to think about it.

In practice, striving to follow these words leads to the realization that we are not alone in the suffering inflicted upon us by people: the Lord takes this suffering upon Himself. And if we dedicate our rejection of violence to Him, He grants us an incomparable joy that no violence can take away from us. The only thing to bear in mind is that each of us is called to respond in this way to the violence inflicted upon us personally. Violence inflicted upon others requires a different response.