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15th Ordinary Sunday                                                                                    Luke 10:25-37

Our faith is as simple as it can be: Love God with our whole being and our Neighbor as ourselves. We don’t have to be doctors of philosophy or theology to understand the meaning of what Jesus said. We don’t have to find the Dali Lama to explain the meaning of the mysteries of life. 

Theologians, Philosophers, and thinking people of all kinds who are ignorant of God’s revelations are baffled by the meaning and purpose of life. It can’t be wealth because no one ever seems to have enough. e.g. Elon Musk, the richest man in the world; he still wants more! It can’t be joy for life is too short to enjoy all the pleasures that would satisfy us. It isn’t power for only a few can gain it, but their hold on it is tenuous and short-lived. 

So Jesus presents us with a story (parable) offering three philosophies of life concerning our neighbors. The Scribe that asks Jesus how he can be saved, already knows the answer. So, Jesus throws the question back at him, and he gives Jesus all the right answers. But then he presses the Teacher further to ask, what does he mean by the term ‘Neighbor’. For the Jewish law at the time meant a neighbor is one who practices the Jewish faith, even those who did not follow the law. Was he to love those also? 

Jesus gives him the answer in a story (parable) which will not only surprise the Scribe but will shock him. We have heard the story and its meanings. It is difficult at this time in history to understand the impact that this story would have had on the traditional Jewish listener, even more so to a Scribe. To try and equate it with our world. It would be like a Palestinian terrorist coming to the aid of a Jewish man in Israel, who had been abandoned by his fellow Jews. Or how about a U.S. Marine who comes to the aid of a Taliban whom he just disarmed. — Which did happen on a regular basis. 

The question of Jesus is very interesting; “Which of the three was a neighbor to the injured man?” The answer by the Scribe is equally interesting: “the one who showed compassion toward him.” The answer then to “who is my neighbor?” is not everybody, though that is true. The answer Jesus gives us: a neighbor is someone who shows compassion to another who is in need — no matter who the person in need may be. It is not a question of who is my neighbor but by being a neighbor to others regardless of race, nationality, gender etc. etc. In other words, the answer to “Who is my Neighbor” is not WHAT or WHO is our neighbor but a command to go and BE a neighbor.

If you travel around this country, like I have for many years, you will meet all kinds of people with compassion for others, for example the floods in Texas just recently, it drives something in you to want to help. The whole nation now desires compassion for these poor innocent people taken in their sleep to heaven. Then on the other side we will see those who are in the grip of the evil one; they find political advantage in this tragedy rather than compassion. Another example of what St. John Paul II called the “culture of death.” 

This parable shows us that the Law of God is not something negative “Thou shalt not” — but something completely positive — love. All the baptized are called to holiness, which does not consist in not sinning, but in loving , in doing positive things, in bearing fruit in the form of the love of God. 

When the Lord describes the Last Judgment stresses the positive aspect of the Law of God. The reward of eternal life will be given to those who have done good.