Sunday July 13, 2025
FIFTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Deuteronomy 30:10-14; Colossians 1:15-20; Luke 10:25-37
Rev. Dr. ReFrancis Perry Azah
The first reading of today awakens in us the consciousness of the nearness of our God to us. In that speech, Moses encourages his people to commit themselves to the Lord through the observation of His commandments. A distinctive mark of the Lord’s commandments is that they are not found in heaven or over the seas. Instead, they are weaved into every pulsating fiber of their hearts. This fact helps us to understand better the Samaritan in the Gospel of today for he embodied the commandment that the love of God must flow into the love for neighbor. For the Jews the Torah (Law) is synonymous to Yahweh. So sacred it is that they find God in every letter of it. Hence, Moses reminds us of God’s closeness to us through his word: “… For this law…is not beyond your strength or beyond your reach. It is not in heaven so that you need to wonder, who will go up to heaven to bring it down to us…?”
Therefore, God is so close to us with his hands wide open and ready for us to tap from his abundant resources of grace and love. If only we can patiently seek him, he will revive our forlorn soul when we find him. We must therefore seek him in the scriptures by asking the Holy Spirit to enlighten the eyes of our mind, so as to obey his ordinances. The word of God is God himself. Often times, we are ignorant of this fact to the extent that even in difficult moments, we do not know what to do or how to turn out of them. God has concealed himself in his word, and only those who make frantic efforts will find him. This is why the Psalmist admonishes us today: “Seek the Lord, you who are poor, and your hearts will revive.” If we must achieve intimacy with the Lord, we must devour the word of God. The prophet Jeremiah knew this secret and hence vehemently says to God: “When your words came, I devoured them…” (Jer. 15: 16). The key to fullness of life therefore, is close to, and with us.
The parable of the Good Samaritan is only found in Luke's Gospel. It is perhaps one of the best known stories that Jesus used and has over the centuries captured the imagination of many artists who have put the parable into drama, song, paintings and sculpture. The central message of the parable is found in what Jesus said before and after the story: “Do this and life is yours”, and “Go and do the same”. The lawyer was expecting a learned intellectual response from Jesus on “who is my neighbor?” Instead, Jesus told a surprising story in which a foreigner becomes a hero, while Jewish religious leaders are the bad guys. The story of the Good Samaritan is told in the context of God's command for the love of the neighbor, which was a sacred responsibility (Leviticus 19:18).
In telling this story, Jesus shows that true love of neighbor must be put into action. It is not a mere intellectual concept or feeling. Jesus cleverly dramatizes the story knowing his audience. The story is meant to get the lawyer to ask the real question, “how do I become neighbor to others?”, rather than “who is my neighbor?” The point that Jesus makes is that we do not choose neighbors. Rather, Christians respond to peoples' needs irrespective of their color, creed or origin, and by so doing we become neighbors to them. Nor can we rationalize a situation when someone is in need. Here is a concrete situation that may pose a dilemma. A beggar comes towards you, and asks for alms. You immediately smell his alcohol. What the law of love of neighbor requires in this case is to go ahead and give alms.
Jesus would not judge such a person. Neither should we. There is also an important twist to the story by Jesus. It is the despised Samaritan who cares for the person who was robbed and beaten up. The priest and the Levite were more concerned about the law on ritual purity. Therefore they preferred to avoid the wounded person in order not to be polluted. They placed observance of the law over the love and care for someone in need. In a sense Jesus becomes the Good Samaritan, the compassionate stranger who cares for all of us when we are robbed and wounded by sin. Jesus bandages our wounds and puts us in the inn (the Church) where we are cared for until He comes to us in the Sacrament of Reconciliation to restore us back to God’s grace.
So, what does this teach us about following Jesus Christ? Do we see a parallel here between what Jesus did for us and the Samaritan in the Gospel story? Thank God that we have a Good Samaritan in Jesus who could sacrifice by laying down his life to heal and restore us – giving us life in him. Now, he expects us to do the same for others, which is the point he is getting at in this Gospel. Like Jesus, 'The Good Samaritan, par excellence,' we have to follow him in identifying with the needs of others, including strangers, and enemies, showing them the same compassion that God has for each of us. Surely, we often hear “The parable of the Good Samaritan.” In fact, ‘Good Samaritan' is a frequent expression we use about a person who helps others. We think of a Good Samaritan as a moral example of compassion for the needy, and we would like to be like such a person.
Today we are called to be a 'Good Samaritan.' But the big question here is - “And who is my neighbor?” It is not only the person or persons who live next door. Whoever has a need is our neighbor to whom we must reach out as followers of Christ. It has nothing to do with the race, color, nationality and status of the other person. With “The parable of the Good Samaritan,” Jesus brought out the concrete application of 'The commandment of love,' which those different sects recite every Sabbath day, but fail to implement. Many of us think that we can earn God’s favor just by attending Church regularly, observing all days of obligations, devotional events, actively participating in various Church activities, and being prayerful. In citing that the priest, a supposedly religious person, who also chose to go by a different way to avoid helping out the injured man, Jesus is pointing out that our being religious and prayerful are not good enough; we have to be as merciful as God is toward our neighbor, who is someone in need. He will want to see us applying actions of mercy toward our fellowmen.