July 11, 2010 15th Ordinary Sunday Deut. 30:10-14; Col. 1:15-20; Lk. 10:25-37 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________   Readings:  http://www.usccb.org/nab/071110.shtml    ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________   Love of God and love of neighbour seem to be two sides of the same coin. Love of God expresses itself in love of others. Love should be natural to us - not just love of the world in which we live, with its spectacular sights and scents, its energizing sounds and designs, but genuine love of others. But selfish love often gets in the way, and we have to be reminded of what is most important in life. And then we have to be courageous enough to open our hearts to it.   The Parable of the Good Samaritan is Jesus' way of getting us to ask ourselves, "Am I willing, when the circumstances arise, to be a Good Samaritan to other people? If I see a person lying in a ditch somewhere or in trouble on the highway or on subway tracks in distress, would I risk myself to be of help?”   The story of the Good Samaritan wonderfully illustrates the quality of good will. Love of neighbour will not be calculating and restrained, as though one were merely doing one’s duty’ but will be, one might almost say, foolishly extravagant and lavish. Here is a constant note in Jesus’ ethical teaching and probably the most characteristic. One hears it again and again in Sermon on the Mount, where we are told to love our enemies, to go the second mile, to give our cloak, too. Many of the parables sound it - as when the employer pays all his labourers the full wage though some have worked only for an hour, and a father rewards with gifts and a great feast an utterly unworthy son. So here again we find the hallmark of Jesus: the fact that the neighbour was so completely a stranger, being of all things a Samaritan; the extravagance of his compassion, pouring on oil and wine, binding up the man’s wounds, setting him on his own beast, bringing him to an inn and taking care of him. He could have stopped so much sooner than this and still have more than fulfilled any possible rule about one’s duty to a wounded stranger. But he did not stop even then - leaving money to pay for the man’s further care, and insisting that if more were needed, he should be allowed to pay the account on his return. The Good Samaritan is not trying to do his duty. The point is that he is aware of duty at all - any more than we are aware of duty when we act generously toward ourselves. We act so toward ourselves because we want to; so the Samaritan acts toward the stranger. He loves his neighbour as he loves himself.     <<   Previous: 14th Ordinary Sunday  | Next: 16th Ordinary Sunday >>   Go Back to SERMONS (Year C)