The readings for Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C may be found at:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071325.cfm
This week, the evangelist, St. Luke tells us of
a scholar of the Law
approaching Jesus to ask
“What must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Jesus responds
by asking what is written in the law.
To which the scholar responds,
"You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your being,
with all your strength,
and with all your mind,
and your neighbor as yourself."
Jesus assures him
that if he does these things
he will gain eternal life.
But the scholar,
senses something troubling in Jesus’ reply
and presses Him to define,
“Who is my neighbor?”
What the scholar wanted was specifics -
who should qualify to deserve our help.
And if that is what he wanted,
He asked Jesus the wrong question.
When asked “Who is my neighbor”,
Jesus responds with a parable.
He tells the story of a Jewish man,
stripped, beaten and left half-dead
on a remote desert road.
This remote road was long, mountainous,
Dangerous, indirect
and difficult to travel,
but favored by Jews because it avoided Samaria.
You see,
Samaritans and Jews were mortal enemies.
Jesus tells us
that the first person to come upon this half-dead man
was a Jewish priest.
And rather than help,
he deliberately moved to the other side of the road
to avoid the injured man.
You would think,
with his knowledge of God
that he would stop to help.
But he doesn’t.
Next,
a Levite came upon the man,
and like the priest before him, he too,
moved to the opposite side of the road as he passed.
Showing a complete lack of compassion and kindness.
Both failing to love their neighbor.
You can imagine what they were thinking.
I don’t want to get involved.
I don’t know this person or worse,
what the people who put him here
might do to me.
So, Jesus brings on the Samaritan.
Today,
the term Samaritan refers to
a charitable person who helps those in distress.
But in the time of Jesus,
a Samaritan would be the least likely source of help
for a Jew.
Yet, what does this Samaritan do
when faced with this injured traveler?
Move to the opposite side of the road?
Pretend not to see him?
No.
Instead,
he was moved by compassion.
He acted.
He saw
and embraced
the urgent need to rescue
and recover this man.
He showed love.
He bore the man’s burdens
as though they were his own.
Jesus tells us
that this man didn’t just give a little care,
the Samaritan made extraordinary sacrifices
for someone he didn’t even know.
His heart was so full of love
that when someone came across his path
with a desperate need he was able to meet,
he did everything he could possibly do.
Not a question,
Not a hesitation.
In other words,
the Samaritan
never stopped to ask what the expert asked,
“And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus is describing a rare love that has no limits.
So, when Jesus tells us to
“Go and do likewise” as He does today,
this impossibly high standard
should move us
not to question or to explain away or make excuses,
It should drive us to plead for grace and forgiveness.
The way that the good Samaritan cared for the traveler
is the way God loves sinners.
Today’s gospel
is a powerful reminder of how far away
we are from where God is.
It should drive us,
not only to think of everyone as our neighbor,
But recognizing the near impossibility of that,
should call us to repentance.
To call us to go to confession,
To take advantage of the great sacrament our Lord made for us,
To confess our lack of compassion and sacrificial love
And to seek grace and mercy
by turning with repentant faith
to our Lord -
The only One
who truly and perfectly fulfills what the law demands of us.
Now,
alot of people have very strong reactions to confession,
Most of us literally move to the opposite side of the road to
avoid it.
If it has been a long time
since you have been to confession,
be assured,
that God’s mercy
is always greater
than our shortcomings.
No matter how long it’s been,
He will not move to the opposite side of the road,
He will meet you in your need,
Bandage you up,
Carry you,
Care for you
And make you well again
in the sacrament.
And you might just find,
that in doing that,
in receiving the great graces
that come in the sacrament of confession,
We are better able to
“Go and do likewise”
to love our God,
the way we were made to
and to better love our neighbor as ourselves.
