15th.
Sunday, Year (C)
(Deuteronomy
30:10-14; Colossians 1:15-20; Luke 10:25-37)
In our readings today we have an embarrassment of riches, and
so it is a matter now of picking out one or two jewels, for in no way can I
pretend to open up to your gaze the beauty and wealth of all that we have just
heard.
In the Gospel we were told of a Scribe, an expert in the
Jewish Law, who approached Jesus in what is, truly, the only way in which Jesus
can be rightly approached:
"Teacher,"
he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
That should be our attitude at this very moment as we try
to understand and learn from the Gospel, before going on to offer Jesus'
self-sacrifice to the Father, and then finally, in Holy Communion, surrendering
ourselves to Jesus that He might draw us with Himself to the Father:
Lord
Jesus, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
Jesus replied by asking the Scribe what the Law had to say
about the way to eternal life and he responded without hesitation:
'You shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with
all your mind,' and 'your neighbour as yourself.'
Jesus had nothing to add to that. However, the Scribe -- not wanting to seem
foolish for having asked a question to which he already knew the answer -- went
on to justify himself and also pay Jesus a notable compliment by asking Him:
And who
is my neighbour?
Yes, he was an expert in the Law who knew well the words of
the Law, but here he was asking Jesus to tell Him what the words really meant: that
was the humility of a man sincerely seeking to find the way to eternal
life.
With our modern proliferation of books and skill in
information technology, it is easy for people to be satisfied with knowing about
the words of Scripture while appreciating little of their meaning and spiritual
significance. Too often today
self-styled experts and militant proselytizers attempt to show off their
knowledge of the Bible by writing or reciting words: words are their favourite
medium, for they trip so very easily off the tongue or pen, one after another,
so easy to count and multiply. Spiritual
appreciation, on the other hand, is a much more demanding than mere facility
with words: it requires that understanding which only comes from deep reverence
for, and humble submission to, God's revelation; it involves humility and patience,
prayer and open-ness, devout sensitivity and loving obedience to the P/personally
secret guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Lord, WHO
is my neighbour?
Jesus, in answer to this learned man's humility, told him a
parable about one, whom today we call the Good Samaritan, encountering a man who
had fallen into the hands of thieves.
This unfortunate victim -- probably a Jew and possibly a priest -- was
going down the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.
It was the most public road in all Judea and the only road between those
two cities for thousands of priests and Levites who, after having served in the
Temple at Jerusalem according to a fixed rota system, would then return home
until their next period for service. For
all these priests and Levites, Jericho was their chosen place of residence,
while the Temple in Jerusalem was their destination for work and worship. Despite being much used, this road was
extremely dangerous for travellers, twisting and turning through rocky desert,
and -- in the course of about 20 miles -- falling steeply some 3000 feet from
the chill heights of Jerusalem to the near tropical depths of Jericho. Jesus’ parable, therefore, when it told of a
traveller falling into the hands of robbers, was recalling an all-too-frequent
occurrence that many had suffered before and many others would continue to
experience in the future. The bandits of
the Judean desert did not scruple to kill at times, but in this case, having
robbed the man, they were content to leave him, wounded and helpless, by the
side of the road.
Now, a priest, making the same journey from the Temple in
Jerusalem down to Jericho, came upon the wounded man, and:
When he
saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
Then a Levite, having likewise completed his rota of
service in the Temple and returning back to his home in Jericho:
When he arrived at the place,
came and looked, and passed by on the opposite side.
Both the priest and the Levite would have recognized the victim
as a neighbour, a fellow Jew, indeed, perhaps as a fellow priest or Levite. And yet, both of them, out of considerations
for legal purity possibly, for personal and family reasons, or because they
simply did not want, or did not even dare, to get involved with him, passed him
by. Finally, a Samaritan arrived on the
scene.
Now, Samaritans, though closely related, were regarded as
enemies by the Jews, and, generally, Samaritans had a like opinion of the
Jews. In this case, however, the
Samaritan of whom Jesus spoke, having chanced upon the wounded man:
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'
Jesus was indeed revealing the meaning of the word
"neighbour" to the Scribe: for His story showed that that neighbour
might turn out to be someone most unexpected; and consequently, it raised, for
this Scribe, the question whether Jewish national pride and religious
exclusiveness could have any further role to play in God's coming Kingdom that would
transcend all such human boundaries and limitations.
The passing priest and Levite had the word of God on their
lips, as Moses said:
The
word is very near to you, already in your mouth.
That word they could repeat, discuss, dispute about, and
perhaps use to display their learning. However,
it was so very easy, on such occasions, to forget that Moses had gone on to say
that ‘the word’ was also:
In your
heart, that you may obey it.
Now, there have always been worldly men able to use the Word
of God as a weapon for personal advancement on earth, and those who use their
facility with the Word of God in such a way need only to apply their natural talents
and human techniques in order to win earthly patrons and stir up simple
supporters, by making and championing short-term and shallow judgments in tune
with popular sentiments. On the other
hand, those using God’s Word as a guide to our heavenly home, have to humbly ask
and long for, patiently knock and wait for, and lovingly pray with sincere
devotion to, Him Who is infinitely above us and Who judges the hidden secrets
of each and every human mind and heart. Only then will they be enabled to proclaim and
manifest something of His divine truth and heavenly beauty before men.
The Word of God is meant to be ever at work in our lives,
as the prophet Isaiah, speaking in the name of the Lord (55:11) tells us:
So shall My word be that goes
forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish
what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
The Scribe, as a Jew, preferred to limit the word
"neighbour" to his fellow Jews; but, nevertheless, He felt uneasy
about it and so he asked Jesus, "who is my neighbour?" whereupon
Jesus showed him that it was not possible to limit the significance of God's Word
according to human expectations or prejudices.
Nevertheless, despite such teaching, when -- at the end of the parable
-- Jesus asked:
Which of these three, in your
opinion, was neighbour to the robbers’ victim?
the expert in the Law still could not bring himself utter
the words "the Samaritan", so ingrained was his Jewish prejudice! He could only prevail upon himself to say:
The one
who treated him with mercy.
We are like that in so many ways, and that is why the same
prophet Isaiah proclaimed
The Lord says, ‘on this one will I look: on him who is poor
and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word’. (66:2)
We cannot determine or fix beforehand where the Word of God
will lead us; Isaiah says we should tremble -- perhaps even thrill -- at the
sound of it, because the Word of God is meant to work in us, and -- by the
power of the Holy Spirit -- to change us, in accordance with whatever plans God
has for us: it is a harbinger of beauties as yet unseen and of possibilities as
yet unknown.
As we heard in the second reading all the fullness of God
dwells in Jesus, and that is why we cannot try to restrict the effect of His
Word in our lives. We are called to
become children of God in Jesus and, if we are to be found in His likeness, we
must allow ourselves to be formed by His Spirit according to His Word. We must allow His Spirit to lead us wherever
He wills if we are to reach the blessings prepared for us, blessings we cannot
even begin to imagine of ourselves, let alone prepare for. The Spirit alone knows the depths of God, He
alone is Holy and Wise, and we must trust ourselves to Him.
There are still today many who seek to control the effect
of the Word and the work of the Holy Spirit of God in their lives. Like the Jews of old, they want to form
themselves according to their own fancies or in accordance with ideas of
goodness and holiness popular in society around them. Today, for example, most people's idea of
Christian goodness enables them to recognize and appreciate work done for the
poor and for children in need; a life devoted to prayer, however, especially as
a monk or nun in relative solitude, seems alien to them, perhaps, even
inhuman. Modern ideas of sanctity
usually involve soft words and attractive, pleasant, attitudes; on the other
hand, clear doctrinal teaching and firm discipline in moral matters is thought
to be unacceptably rigid and unsympathetic.
And so, many modern pseudo-disciples of Jesus may be found trying to
interpret the guidance of His Holy Spirit along broad, loose, lines acceptable to
modern ideas of human rights, the freedom of individuals, and God’s accommodating
goodness. However, holiness of this sort
is just as false and inadequate as, and probably much less sincere than, the exclusive
holiness of the Scribes and Pharisees in Jesus' times.
People of God, listen to the Word of God as proclaimed by Mother
Church, not that glibly quoted for popular acceptance by frequently
self-appointed and self-taught gospellers.
Beg the Holy Spirit to lead your life along the way of Jesus, to form
you in Jesus’ likeness, and then try to answer God’s call to faith, trust, and
love with a humble simplicity of mind and heart; do not allow your own prayerful
thoughts and conscientious actions to be distorted or determined by the selfish
pride, prejudices, and fears, or above all, by the excitement of modern
society.
The Spirit first led Jesus out into the silence of the desert
and then along the most unlikely way of the Cross: the disciple of Jesus is not
greater than his Master; he or she too, must be open, willing, and obedient,
enough to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit.
As Jesus said (John 3:8):
The wind blows where it
wishes and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and
where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.
Finally, let us look at what is perhaps the greatest jewel
hidden in the field of today’s readings: Who was, Who is, the Good Samaritan? How could he just postpone, or at least
seriously interrupt his journey to spend a night at the inn, where he was not
likely to have been popular as a Samaritan?
Why was he alone able to deal
with the man’s wounds? Why did he not
just pay the hotelier extra for that first day’s extra care, as well as for
subsequent days’ care, ‘bed and board’?
Was the Samaritan a real person or a possibly-real person, or was he, in
actual fact, a picture of Jesus Himself?
For He interrupted His journey by His suffering and death on
Calvary; He alone, by His Gospel provides essential medicine for fallen
man. Jesus did, indeed, continue
His journey to His heavenly home and thus definitively cured man’s grievous
wound by committing him to the care of His Church, the inn and hotelier for all
seeking true rest and eternal life, by saving faith and baptismal grace.
Today we are invited to humbly rejoice in the wonder and
mystery of Jesus; we are invited to think over, meditate on, His goodness, His
wisdom, and the challenge His sublimity offers our understanding and
appreciation of His oneness with us. A
Sunday can pass by quite quickly chewing such cud!
