Word to the Wise
Monday, October 6, 2008 - Monday in the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
[Galatians 1:6-12 and 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?"
This question from a "scholar of the law" is not the only one of its kind in the gospels. There's also the question from the "rich young man" who "went away sad for he had many possessions." Jesus' response to him was difficult because it would mean giving up the material things that were the young man's security. In today's gospel scripture, Jesus' response is the well-known parable of the "Good Samaritan," which results in a new understanding of what it means to love God and neighbor. Here, the challenge is to overcome deeply held prejudices about touching someone who seemed to be dead and also realizing that those whom we consider "alien" might be just as kind or even kinder and more merciful than we who think God "is on our side." In short, would any of us, after reading the passages about the rich young man or the Good Samaritan have the courage to walk up to Jesus and ask, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" Would we be afraid of what he might ask us to do? After all, both those guys were observers of the law and Jesus told them both that they were on the right track before they pushed for a deeper response! That deeper response in both cases was to "let go" of material security or of ingrained prejudices in order to draw closer to God Perhaps Jesus would say, after hearing from us, "You seem to be doing OK!" Would we "push" and say, "I feel I should be doing MORE!" The Young Man and the Scholar could be reminders to us that there could possibly be a MORE in our lives. It might mean "letting go" of something in order to have something better. It might mean pulling ourselves out of a lukewarm or mediocre religious faith to embrace a truly intentional faith - a deliberate Catholicism or other Christian commitment. Sharing material possessions to the point that we live more simply just with what is "necessary" or seeking out those who are suffering and "pouring on wine and oil" and taking care of them would mean MORE for most of us who are in the world's minority - those who have enough of this world's goods and people who care about us. We can ask the question and trust that Jesus will give us something well within our ability to do or we can go away sad or we can say nothing.....the choice and the gain or loss is up to us. AMEN
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