Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 35: 12-18
Mass: Dt 30:10-14; Resp Ps 69 or Ps 19; Col 1:15-20; Lk 10:25-37

Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.

HEART OF JESUS, ENRICHING ALL WHO INVOKE THEE,
HAVE MERCY ON US.

Musings are scattered and rather lengthy on this Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. I would be interested in your reflections.

A couple things stand out in today's Gospel. First, the scholar of the law who tested Jesus with a question. Jesus answers his question with a question allowing the man to display his knowledge of the law. This is what one must do to inherit eternal life: You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.

Next is something I hadn't paid much if any attention to before. This is a pretty clear indication that I should pay attention today. The scholar wishes to "justify himself." The scholar wants to prove his righteousness, to prove himself morally upright before God and all those gathered. He poses another question to the Teacher: "And who is my neighbor?"

Jesus allows the scholar to once again answer his own question and demonstrate his skill. Jesus offers the parable of the Good Samaritan. You know the story. Still, it requires careful and reflective reading. Who is the victim of the robbers; the one stripped, beaten, and left for dead? Who is the priest who moves to the other side of the road and passes by? Who is the Levite who also moves out of the way? Next comes the Samaritan, the one considered ritually impure by the scholar, "for Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans" (Jn 4:9). A bible commentator has this to say about the relationship between the Samaritans and the Jewish people, something that may help us to answer the next question: "Samaria was the territory between Judea and Galilee west of the Jordan river. For ethnic and religious reasons, the Samaritans and the Jews were bitterly opposed to one another" (NAB, p. 1162). Who is the Samaritan? Or who is the one I am bitterly opposed to?

The scholar may have been surprised to learn that it was "the enemy" who was his neighbor, not the priest or Levite, the "models of 'neighbor'". It was his enemy who treated the one left for dead with mercy. It his own words that answer Jesus' question: So, "which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers' victim?" The scholar speaks: The one who treated him with mercy. 

Treating others with mercy is a matter not of the head, but rather one of the heart. I suppose at one time or another each one of us can identify with the scholar, the victimized, the priest, Levite, and the Samaritan. Jesus words for us today are few: "Go and do likewise." We are called to extend mercy and compassion to whomever we may identify with or identify others as, without exception. In what one small way will you extend mercy and compassion to someone today or sometime this week, especially to that someone who has been stripped and beaten? We may not have to look far for someone. She or he may be the one sitting in the cubicle next to us at the office, the one seated across from us at the dinner table, or the one seated next to us on the bus. The stripped and beaten may be each one of us. I am afflicted and in pain; let your saving help, O God, protect me. 

I DESIRE MERCY, NOT SACRIFICE. I DID NOT COME TO CALL THE RIGHTEOUS BUT SINNERS.

(Mt 9:13)

GOD, COME TO MY ASSISTANCE; LORD, MAKE HASTE TO HELP ME.
(Ps 69:2/RB 35:17)

Today's photo: Beauty abounds in our garden.