Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Intro: just who is my neighbour? Certainly not someone who simply minds his or her own business. Today's Gospel story, whether real or a parable, pulls us up short, and tells us what we have to do in order to make our faith real and practical.
Readings: in Deuteronomy, Moses encourages his people to observe God's commandments and laws, reminding them that the Law of God is not beyond their strength or out of their reach.
Paul uses a liturgical hymn in writing to the Colossians to praise the divinity of Jesus, Who reconciles and unites everything both in Heaven and on earth and brings peace through the shed ding of His blood..
For all we know, today's Gospel may be a true story, something which Jesus had either witnessed or heard about. Lawyers require statements to be precise and unam biguous, so the lawyer wants to qualify "neighbour" .. just who is that precisely?
It's a long, twisting and dangerous road which runs between Jericho and Jerusalem. Jewish ears would have been shocked to hear Jesus say that a Samaritan stopped to aid a victim of violence. Samaritans were regarded as enemies ever since they had intermingled with foreign settlers in Israel. And when the Jews returned from exile in 520 B.C., they refused Samaritan help in rebuilding the Temple, because they looked upon them as ritually unclean. So the Samaritans constructed their own temple, appointed their own priests, and the split between Sam aritan and Jew became final and irrevocable, developing into a mutual hatred, becoming sworn enemies. So they certainly knew what it felt like to be rejected.
I suppose it's just as easy for us to have the same attitude as the lawyer - to draw boundaries, to exclude, to try and get away with doing the minimum. Whom can I ignore ... with whom do I have to get on? We're all suspicious of those who are different from us - whether it's because of their skin colour, their beliefs, their social class, their accent. Do I have to love such people? While God made me, and I can fully understand His wanting to love me ... surely those who sleep in doorways, drink out of bottles in public, shoot up, or wait for their methadone fix in Boots'... surely they don't have to be my neighbour, nor should God really expect me to love them
The answer, unfortunately, is yes. Afraid so! Think about the person you distrust most, someone who seems to oppose everything you hold dear and believe in - Trump .. Boris. Imagine then that the same person has put himself in danger to perform an act of selfless charity. How do you deal with them then? Or if a new family moves into your neighbourhood, your first question is likely to be - "I wonder what the new people are like?" Tum that question round, and put yourself in their place: what are you like as a neighbour? And not only the person next door, but those with whom you work or meet, other drivers, strangers at the the supermarket check-out or in the street.
Being a real good neighbour is something which takes time, because we have to listen in order to get to know our neighbour's needs, his hurts, his weaknesses. In order to do that, we must first love ourselves, be aware of our ourselves, our own strengths, faults, our weaknesses, our commitment.
Hostility and hatred seem endemic in our modem world, and we don't need to look far to find them - whether in the troubles of Ukraine, Syria, the multiple shootings of Americans or the stabbings in London. They can spring up from differences in religion, race, culture or any grievance which is allowed to fester in the heart. Sadly, the result can be that people feel rejected or shunned. The Good Samaritan was a true neighbour because he acted totally unselfishly. Oskar Schindler was a non-practising, fast-living Catholic, but one who saved hundreds of Jews! The challenge for us today is to act on the Lord's own words, "Go, and do the same yourself!" So ... to whom are you going to be a good Samaritan today?