Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year C
1st reading: Dt. 30: 10-14
2nd reading: Col. 1: 15-20
Gospel: Lk.: 10: 25-37
Our Gospel episode today possibly occurs in a Synagogue where Jesus is teaching. A lawyer or a doctor of the Law stood up to put Jesus to the test with his question: “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life”? Jesus firstly turns this question back on the Lawyer and asks for his answer: “What is written in the Law.” Given the promptitude of the Lawyers answer, taking two texts from the OT which are not usually put together like this – the Shema, love the Lord with all your heart (from Dt.: 6) and the command to love ones neighbour as oneself (from Lev.:19:18) – it does seem as if the Lawyer was prepared for this and ready with his next question: “Who is my neighbour?” The Israelites were commanded even to love the foreigner or the sojourner, God reminding them that they themselves had been sojourners in the land of Egypt. But Jesus does not allow Himself to be drawn in to such details and consequences of the Law, but rather goes right to the heart of the Law, to a depth not anticipated by the Lawyer. With His parable of the Good Samaritan, His view is to endeavour to expand the hearts of the Lawyer and the other listeners. He draws them into a contemplation of charity, the Charity of Mercy.
A man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho is attacked by robbers who beat him and left him half dead on the roadside. One after another, both a priest and a Levite by chance come that way, but each passes him by on the other side of the road. Note that Jesus does not choose a Pharisee or a Scribe, but a priest and a Levite, who were especially called to exercise compassion to the people. God upbraids them in the Book of Hosea for not showing faithfulness and kindness, blaming them for a lack of knowledge of Him in the land. They especially were called to exercise the Charity of Mercy.
Then a Samaritan came by and saw the injured man. He immediately had compassion on him and began to exercise the Charity of Mercy to him. He bound up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. He sets him on his beast and brings him to an inn to take care of him. The next day he pays the innkeeper to look after him, promising to repay any expenses incurred, on his return. Jesus then asks the Lawyer, not who is your neighbour – the man left for dead on the side of the road, who could be anyone – but which of the three men proved to be a neighbour. Which of the three exercised the Charity of Mercy?
When we are confronted with difficult situations of people in need, we may perhaps have the initial tendency to excuse ourselves, allowing our minds to develop all sorts of reasons why we ought not to get involved. Perhaps the priest or the Levite was afraid they might become ‘unclean’ or even that this may be some kind of trap. They don’t even wish to investigate. If we allow the excuses to occupy the forefront of our minds the Charity of Mercy takes second place or even lower.
Man is made in the image and likeness of God, Who wills therefore that just as in Himself so also in man all things must be set in order by love and for love. St Francis de Sales writes that “Holy Love takes up the abode in the soul’s highest and most exalted region. From so exalted a place it is “heard and obeyed by its people, namely by all the faculties and affections of the soul which it governs with an incomparable sweetness.”
The saints of course are the experts we should seek to imitate in their Charity of Mercy. It was this that inspired St Francis of Assisi and St Damien to be totally fearless in their embrace of Lepers – work which eventually claimed the life of St Damien. It was the Charity of Mercy that inspired St Teresa of Calcutta and her sisters to work among the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta and taking the name for their order the “Missionaries of Charity.” It was the Charity of Mercy which inspired Our Lady unhesitatingly to go immediately to the assistance of her cousin Elizabeth. It is the Charity of Mercy that enables the monk to bear with the burdens of his brothers. Even the simple gesture to say ‘thank you’ to a neighbour, to a doctor or nurse or to anyone who offers the kindness of their assistance. As Catholics living lives centred on the Holy Eucharist, the Sacrament of Love, we need to he the experts in the world exercising this virtue. For this way of Divine Love, the Charity of Mercy, is at the very heart of the Church in the world.
Dom Brian Gerard Kelly.