FIFTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
10 JULY 2016
The scholar of the Law asks Jesus a question about
inheriting eternal life not because he wants to know the answer, but because he
wants to test him. This guy is highly
educated with a degree in the Law of Moses.
Even though he addresses Jesus as teacher, the scholar knows that he is
a peasant from Galilee with no academic credentials. As a good teacher, Jesus asks a question in return: what is written in the law? How do you read it? The scholar knows the right answer and
summarizes the law as love of God and neighbor.
Jesus pats him on the head and tells him what a good student he is. But because he wants Jesus to know how smart
he is, he asks him to parse the word “neighbor.”
In response, Jesus tells this parable of a man who is
severely beaten and left half dead on the dangerous road which goes from the
heights of Jerusalem to the depths of Jericho.
Both the priest and the Levite are neighbors to the victim, because he
is a fellow Jew. He does not give a
reason why the priest and the Levite do not respond. Some have speculated that each of these
temple officials avoid their neighbor, because they fear that he might be
dead. The Law of Moses requires being
quarantined for a week as a result of contact with a dead body, keeping them
from their Temple duties. But, they are
traveling from Jerusalem and the Temple.
They are lazy. They don’t want to
deal with their neighbor.
It is the hated Samaritan who comes to the aid of the
victim, who would never have been considered a neighbor. The scholar of the Law is so stunned by this
new definition of a neighbor that he could not say the actual word. He has to admit that “the one who treated him
with mercy” is the neighbor.
In telling the scholar of the Law to go and do likewise,
Jesus says the same thing to us. Neighbors are not just those people we
like. Neighbors are those we encounter
who need our help. A neighbor might be
someone who has a completely different political view than I do, but I treat
that person with respect and debate issues instead of attacking. A neighbor is someone who asks directly for
our assistance, as our neighbors at our sister parish of Saint Adalbert do, or
those people with cardboard signs at intersections along Indiana 23. A neighbor might be someone who is the butt
of gossip at school or at work. Instead
of jumping in and adding more juicy red meat, we walk away or try to defend the
person.
Saint Augustine had an interesting take on this
parable. He said that each of us is the
victim, beaten up by life’s difficulties.
Jesus is the Good Samaritan who pours oil and wine into our wounds and
binds them with his garment. He takes us
on his beast of burden to the Church, which is the Inn where his Sacraments
heal us and make us stronger. If the
Divine Physician has treated us in this way, then we can extend that same mercy
to neighbors who need our help.
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