Liturgical day: Monday 27th in Ordinary Time
Gospel text (Lc 10,25-37): A teacher of the Law came and began putting Jesus to the test. And he said, «Master, what shall I do to receive eternal life?». Jesus replied, «What is written in the Scripture? How do you understand it?». The man answered, «It is written: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself». Jesus replied, «What a good answer! Do this and you shall live».
The man wanted to keep up appearances, so he replied, «Who is my neighbor?». Jesus then said, «There was a man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him and went off leaving him half-dead. It happened that a priest was going along that road and saw the man, but passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite saw the man and passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, too, was going that way, and when he came upon the man, he was moved with compassion. He went over to him and treated his wounds with oil and wine and wrapped them with bandages. Then he put him on his own mount and brought him to an inn where he took care of him. The next day he had to set off, but he gave two silver coins to the innkeeper and told him: ‘Take care of him and whatever you spend on him, I will repay when I come back’». Jesus then asked, «Which of these three, do you think, made himself neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?». The teacher of the Law answered, «The one who had mercy on him». And Jesus said, «Go then and do the same».
«What must I do to inherit eternal life?»
Fr. Ivan LEVYTSKYY CSsR
(Lviv, Ukraine)
Today, the gospel’s message indicates the path to life: «You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, (..) and your neighbor as yourself» (Lk 10:27). And since God has loved us in the first place He leads us to the union with Him. Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta said: «We need this intimate union with God in our daily life. And how can we achieve it? Through prayer». Being in oneness with Him we begin to experience that with Him everything is possible, even to love our neighbor.
Someone said that Christians enter the church to love God and come out to love their neighbors. Pope Benedict accentuates that the Christian’s program – the program of the Good Samaritan, Jesus program – is «a heart which can see». See and stop! In this parable there are two people who see the needy, but they don´t stop. This is why Christ has reproached the Pharisees saying: «Do you have eyes and not see?» (Mk 8:18). On the contrary, the Samaritan sees and stops, he has mercy and thus saves the life of the needy and his own.
When the famous Catalan architect Antonio Gaudí was run over by a tramway some bystanders didn’t stop to help that injured old man. He carried no documents and looked like a beggar. Had they realized who that neighbor was and surely they would have stayed in line to help him.
When we practice the good, we think we do it for our neighbor, but we really do it also for Christ: «I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me» (Mt 25:40). And Benedict XVI says my neighbor is anyone who needs me and I can help. If everyone seeing his neighbors in need would stop and have mercy on them once a day or once a week the crisis would decrease and the world would become better. «Nothing resembles us so much to God as the good deeds» (St. Gregory of Nyssa).
«The one who had mercy on him»
Brother Lluís SERRA i Llançana
(Roma, Italy)
Today, a Teacher of the Law asks Jesus the kind of question we may have asked ourselves more than once, in our life: «Master, what shall I do to receive eternal life?» (Lk 10:25). He wanted to put Jesus to the test. The Master, though, wisely answers what is written in the Scriptures, that is, to love the Lord your God and your neighbour as yourself (cf. Lk 10:27). The key is to love. If we seek the eternal life, we know that «faith and hope will go away, but love will remain forever» (cf. 1Cor 13:13). Any life project, any spirituality, that have not love in its center furthers us away from the actual meaning of our existence. An often forgotten but important reference point, is to love oneself. Only from our personal identity can we love God and our neighbours.
The teacher of the Law goes still further when asking Jesus: «Who is my neighbor?» (Lk 10:29). And he gets his answer with a tale, a parable, a little story, far away from complicated theories, but with a clear message. The model of the loving person is a Samaritan, that is, someone who is a dropout, someone excluded from God's people. When they saw the man beaten and half-dead, a priest and a Levite just ignored him and passed by. Those who apparently are closer to God (the priest and the Levite) are those who are farther away from their neighbour. The teacher of the Law avoids to say the word “Samaritan” to state who did behave as neighbor to the wounded man: «The one who had mercy on him» (Lk 10:37).
Jesus' proposal is clear: «Go then and do the same». It is not a theoretical conclusion of the debate but an invitation to live the reality of love, which is not only a vaporous feeling but a behaviour that defeats socials denominations and stems from a person's heart. St. John of the Cross reminds us «at the crepuscule of your life you will only be examined of love».