Luke 10:25-37

Deuteronomy 30:10-14

Psalm 69:14, 17, 30-31, 33-34, 36, 37 or Psalm 19:8, 9, 10, 11

Colossians 1:15-20

Luke 10:25-37

There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said,

“Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law?

How do you read it?”

He said in reply,

“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.”

He replied to him, “You have answered correctly;

do this and you will live.”

But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus,

“And who is my neighbor?”

Jesus replied,

“A man fell victim to robbers

as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.

They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead.

A priest happened to be going down that road,

but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.

Likewise a Levite came to the place,

and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.

But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him

was moved with compassion at the sight.

He approached the victim,

poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them.

Then he lifted him up on his own animal,

took him to an inn, and cared for him.

The next day he took out two silver coins

and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction,

‘Take care of him.

If you spend more than what I have given you,

I shall repay you on my way back.’

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.”

Opening Prayer: Lord God, when you see me in need, send your Son to bind my wounds and heal me. Help me to understand and experience your loving care, so that I am more ready to give myself to those in need. May I be holy as you are holy, and merciful as you are merciful.

Encountering the Word of God

1. What is Written in the Law? In the Gospel, the scholar of the law asked Jesus a question to test him. His intentions were not altogether pure. The Pharisees were the “party of holiness.” They sought to separate themselves from all that was unclean and non-Jewish. “They believed that imitating God’s holiness meant separating oneself from everything and everyone who was unclean, especially sinners, tax collectors and, most of all, Gentiles. Jesus saw the dangerous nationalism engendered by this understanding of holiness. … Jesus had a different vision of God and therefore of ethics. The key to imitating God’s holiness was mercy” (Gray, Mission of the Messiah, 68). The Old Law that the Pharisees and Scholars of the Law sought to practice perfectly made mercy mandatory, but only upon those who were within the Mosaic covenant (see Leviticus 19:18). Jesus responds to the question about the law and inheriting eternal law by contrasting holiness as “mercy” (hesed) and holiness as separation.

2. Loving our Neighbor: When the priest and the Levite saw the man left for dead by the thieves, they practiced the holiness of separation. “The answer for their aversion of the dying man would have been crystal clear to any Jew of the first century. Both the priest and the Levite were well-trained in the Torah and the rigorous ritual regulations of the Temple and, according to the law, any contact with the dying man would have made them ritually unclean (see Numbers 19:11)” (Gray, Mission of the Messiah, 70). If they became unclean, there was a week-long process they would have to undergo to be cleansed. They sought to avoid this and preserve their ritual holiness. What at what cost? Jesus uses the Samaritan as the example of true holiness. The Samaritans “were the remnant of the ten tribes of northern Israel that had been conquered by the Assyrians in 722 B.C. The Samaritans did two things that made them anathema to the Jews: They mixed their bloodline and their worship with the Gentiles. Such assimilation was the opposite of separation that constituted holiness in the Jewish mindset. The Samaritans were viewed not simply with distrust, but disgust; they embodied the abandonment of holiness and the politics of separation. So, after a priest and Levite leave the man for dead, the astonishing part of the story is that a Samaritan is the one who has compassion on the Jewish man who lies dying (Gray, Mission of the Messiah, 71). While the priest and Levite were the literal neighbors of the man, the Samaritan acted as the true neighbor. Holiness is not defined by separation, but by merciful and self-giving love.

3. The Letter to the Colossians: During the next four Sundays, the Second Reading will be taken from the Letter to the Colossians. In the letter, Paul portrays Jesus as the risen Messiah, as the person by whom all things were made, in whom ‘the fullness of God’ is incarnate. The church at Colossae was under attack from false teachers who were denigrating the divine nature of Jesus by teaching that he was not actually God. “Their teachings stressed intercession of ‘principalities and powers’ which represented astral powers and cultic practices about food, drink, and ascetical disciplines. Though Paul had never been to Colossae, he addressed these issues head-on. These false teachings, Paul insists, detract from the work of Christ’s salvation. Spiritual renewal of the human person occurs through contact in baptism with the person of Christ. He argues that a Christian should not be concerned with placating spirits or ascetical practices regarding the consumption of food and drink. Instead, Paul writes that Christian asceticism consists in the conquering of personal sins and the practice of love of neighbor in accordance with the standard set by Christ (Colossians 3:5-16)” (A Catholic Guide to the New Testament, 235).

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you are the Good Samaritan. You did not hesitate to come to us in our need. When we were wounded by sin, you tended our wounds and poured out the wine of your Blood and the oil of your Spirit. You washed us clean and brought us to the inn of the Church. You mercifully paid the price of our Redemption.

Living the Word of God: Very simply, the Gospel commands us today to treat others, even our enemies, with mercy. We might think that we have other, more important obligations, but there is no greater obligation than to love God with all our heart and love our neighbor as ourselves. When I see a person in need, I need to see the poor Jesus there and treat them as I would Jesus himself!