Word to the Wise
Monday, October 3, 2022 - Monday in the 27th Week in Ordinary Time
[Gal 1:6-12 and Luke 10:25-37]"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, "God and do likewise." [Luke]
The Gospel According to Luke has some of the most vivid and lasting parables of Jesus. The Prodigal Son, the Rich Man and Lazarus, the Pharisee and the Tax Collector are all well known, but the Good Samaritan has managed to become a part of our cultural language! We use the term to describe anyone who is being helpful to someone in need. (There are even "Good Samaritan" laws to protect people who accidentally harm someone when trying to assist them in an emergency!). But, to understand the parable fully we have to go back to the original question that sparked the story: "Who is my neighbor?"
The scribe ("scholar of the law") asks Jesus a big theological question about what he (the scribe) must DO to inherit eternal life? Jesus turns the question back to him and he answers correctly about loving God and neighbor. Jesus affirms him, but then the scribe asks the question that hides in the minds of humans of all kinds: "And who is my neighbor?" Ordinarily, the Samaritan would never have approached a Jew. There was considerable cultural and religious prejudice between Jews and Samaritans due to intertribal and territorial differences that gaves rise to separate temples, etc.. The encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman in chapter four of the Gospel According to John describes it: "How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink.....Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem..." (John 4:9, 20). What triumphs over all this prejudice is compassion. Jesus tells us we cannot define neighbor in a way that is convenient to us or reflective of cultural or political or territorial or personal prejudices! But we do it all the time!
The two greatest commandments of the law, love of God and love of neighbor go together. We cannot have one without the other. They are a challenge to examine our consciences individually and collectively. The history of racial prejudice in this country is terrible!!! The Good Samaritan stands above all of this with his compassion. Jesus challenges us all to "go and do likewise." AMEN