Bulletin July 14, 2013 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time C

Bulletin July 14, 2013 15^th Sunday in Ordinary Time C

Deuteronomy 30: 10-14; Colossians 1: 15-20; Luke 10:25-37
The first words of Moses today says it all, “If only you would heed the voice of the Lord…and keep His commandments…” and He continues, “For this command that I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious and remote for you.” Today the expression would be, ‘It’s not rocket science’. I wonder why so many people, myself included want an explanation of something that is so clear it needs no explanation. This happens so much with regard to God and the things of God. Someone told me recently of a conversation they were having with a person who was having difficulty facing the problems in his life. They told the person to ‘Bring it to God in prayer.’ The response was: ‘I use to be a Seven Day Adventist but now I’m an agnostic. I don’t know how to bring it to God.’
The scholar of the law in the Gospel wanted “to test Jesus”. Why did he want to do that? Did he want to prove Jesus wrong? Did he want to show the people that Jesus was a phony and couldn’t be the Messiah? Did he want to prove his own superiority? Did he do this to impress the intelligentsia in the crowd? And Jesus surprised this lawyer by giving a ‘test’ from the Covenant Law given to Moses. The man gave a wonderful rendition of the law and Jesus congratulated him and told him that if he wanted to get to heaven this was what he had to do. The lawyer again wanted to make an impression; he still was in the ‘I’ mode of superiority and not willing to listen to what Jesus said; not willing to hear from God truth. So he challenged Jesus with the question, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus responded with the parable of the Good Samaritan. When I was young there was a radio program on Sunday afternoon called, ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’ and I remember hearing this story so many years ago. It just seemed to me to be so clear and so kind and so obvious of what it means to be a person of love as Jesus was.
Jesus said, “Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?” He answered, ‘The one who treated him with mercy.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’” Isn’t this obvious? Well the lawyer, as the Jewish people, felt that ‘neighbor meant those who ‘live near’ and they interpreted this as those who were God’s people, a fellow Israelite. They felt that they had no obligation to love their enemies. And who were their enemies: all non Jews, all Samaritans and everyone else. The Dictionary of the Bible says, “In the NT Samaritans is the name given to the inhabitants of the district of Samaria; but the name has deep religious overtones. To the Jews, the Samaritans were a heretical and schismatic group of spurious worshipers of the God of Israel, who were detested even more than pagans. “ So how could this Samaritan be someone that he could love? How could a just God ask him to love this Samaritan? The requirement of the law commanded that one love one’s neighbor as oneself. Jesus is saying, so obviously, that each person, every person is neighbor. Do I live this? Do I have a ‘hierarchy’ of loving people? If they are good to me I’ll be good to them, is this a part of my life? Am I listening to what Jesus is teaching me today?
Jesus is saying that anyone in need is a person Jesus asks me to respond to. It means setting aside any barrier that society or I set up. It is the removal of selfishness and realizing that each person is a gift created by God. Each person is the image of God who created them. Jesus is saying to be a neighbor was to treat another with love and mercy.
Living the Word says this about the readings today: “When Moses said God’s law was ‘something very near, already in your mouths, and in your hearts,’ he was presenting God as a true neighbor, as near as our heartbeat. When Paul said Jesus was both the image of the invisible God and the head of His body, the Church, would any image better capture the nearness of Christ and His church? St. Teresa of Avila echoed this when she said, ‘Christ has no body now but yours, no hands or feet on earth but yours. Yours are the yes through which Christ’s compassion looks upon the world.’”
So these readings make me pause and ask all sorts of questions: primarily who is it in my life that I find particularly hard to deal with? Is it a teacher who doesn’t like me, a friend who doesn’t appreciate me, a boss who is arrogant, a relative who is always right self-righteous, is it that neighbor who is rude and overbearing? When I’m honest with myself I have to say ‘YES’ these are the ones that I don’t want to view as neighbor. Now when I do, if I am really honest, it means that I am setting limits on the people who receive my love. I could ‘love’ these people if it was convenient or ‘politically correct’ and I could get something out of it. But is this loving neighbor? Isn’t Jesus saying today what He has said repeatedly that ‘in heaven’ our neighbors will be all that He has called: coarse fishermen, greedy tax collectors, prostitutes, a criminal hanging next to Him who was condemned to death? So I have so much to reflect on:

• To love my ‘neighbor’ means that I have to abolish all boundaries, divisions. Am I doing this?
  
• To love my ‘neighbor’ means seeing things from that person’s point of view and responding to that without regard to outward appearances. How am I doing on this?
  
• The Samaritan stopped to help a man who had been robbed, stripped and beaten because HE SAW THE MAN’S NEED…and was moved by that consideration. Do I put other factors in the consideration?
  
• God is continually testing each person. Some in little ways some in big ways. These tests reveal the kind of person I am: an unselfish or a selfish person; am I working on this?
  

Sacred Space 2013 in commentating on today’s reading from Deuteronomy says: “Before I ask of anything else from God in prayer, I give thanks to God for what I have already received. The Word of God is already in my mouth and in my heart.

God does not ask of me anything that is too difficult, but asks me to begin from where I am right now at this time. I pray that I may grow in appreciation of how God ‘prospers’ me.”

“Jesus was calling for something far greater than we can accomplish on our own. Only in Christ can we truly love others, or wholeheartedly love God. And that is as incredible as a Samaritan fulfilling the law.” (From Luke, A devotional Commentary)