Who is the Good Samaritan?

~ Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time ~

 

~~Deuteronomy 30:10-14~~Psalm 69 or 19~~Colossians 1:15-20~~Luke 10:25-37~~

 

Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.

 

The 'words' God gave to Moses we know as the Ten Commandments.

Ten rules to guide you in the way of God.

 

Moses himself describes the law of the Lord...

For this command that I enjoin on you today
is not too mysterious and remote for you.

It is normal for us to see that God does have laws.

If we look at nature we see many examples of the these laws.

The laws of God make sense.

Already within our hearts is a sense of a higher power.

A higher power that deserves our love, honor and praise.

Moses also says to the people referring to the laws...

 '...it is something very near to you,
already in your mouths and in your hearts;
you have only to carry it out.'

 

If what you have in your hearts is not supported by your actions

 then you are not being true to your heart.

 

In the Gospel today Jesus is questioned by a scholar of the law.

This scholar is asking if the old law are still to be obeyed.

Jesus never had the intention of abolishing

the laws given to Moses.

As a scholar of the law this person knew

the laws given to Moses.

 

Loving God with your whole heart, being, strength, and mind...

this is not mysterious...

this is already in your hearts.

Just as Moses was preaching.

It is the next part that causes us the greatest difficulties.

 

'...and your neighbor as yourself.”

 

This causes us problems because we are left to determine

who our neighbors are.

Most of the time we chose the easy most comfortable

 definition of our neighbors.

Our neighbors...

who are they?

The family next door, our friends,

 the people in our book club or bible study,

those who go to the same church;

these people are our neighbors.

But are these our only neighbors?

Jesus goes on with the example of the Good Samaritan.

Here we see the definition of neighbor greatly expanded.

 

It seems that our definition of neighbor is very controlled;

we set our own boundaries.

We want to be comfortable with our neighbors.

 

The definition of neighbor that Jesus presents is far from ours.

The Good Samaritan goes above and beyond what most of us would

consider doing for a friend much less a neighbor.

 

The Good Samaritan is an example for all of us to reach toward.

 

We are challenged to view our neighbor with compassion.

We are challenged to go out of our comfort zone to help our neighbor.

 

To me the person that comes closest to the Good Samaritan

would be Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

She enlarged her circle to include all kinds of people as her neighbors.

She said...

"Intense love does not measure, it just gives."
 

It seems that loving our neighbor as ourselves requires us to consistently

reevaluate if someone meets the guideline to be our neighbor.

Loving our neighbor as ourselves is not something carved in stone

rather it is in the folds of our heart.