Word to the Wise
Monday, October 6, 2025 - Monday in the 27th Week in Ordinary Time
[Jonah 1:1—2:2, 11 and Luke 10:25-37]"And who is my neighbor?....."Which of these three, in your opinion ws neighbor to the robbers' victim?" He answered, "The one who treated him with mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise." [Luke]
The sheer familiarity of the parable of the Good Samaritan can lull one into saying, "Yes, Yes, I know..." and let it go by without much impact. If we fail to see the personal and collective challenge in the parable, we fail to truly hear the Lord.
The challenge arises in the lawyer's question, which we are told he asks "in order to justify himself." The clear implication is that there may be classes of people whom he need not regard as "neighbor." Jesus chooses the ancient enmity between Jew and Samaritan to illustrate the meaning of neighbor. Two Jewish figures, dedicated to sacred worship, fail to stop and help the robbers' victim, perhaps because they thought he was dead and to touch a dead person was considered to make a person "unclean" and therefore unable to go to the temple without going through a purification process. Therefore, the victim represented a big inconvenience! The Samaritan had to overcome a prejudice ingrained from youth to render assistance that included further care at an inn!
Jesus' question at the end of the story is not just a personal one for each of us to consider. It is collective as well. What is our attitude and response to those who are victims of violence or even retributional legislation (like undocumented immigrants. The Diocese of El Paso, TX, was threatened by the attorney general of the state for helping poor immigrants.) What are the prejudices we harbor that prevent us from recognizing a "neighbor?" Jesus' challenge to the "scholar of the law" runs deep. Mercy may be prohibited by legislation that enshrines prejudice, but it is not prohibited by divine law by which we shall all be ultimately judged! Jesus constantly warned against using "law" to hurt rather than to help. The priest and Levite in the parable followed the law. The Samaritan overcame an ingrained "law" to show mercy. Whom does Jesus commend? And who is OUR neighbor? AMEN