In God, All Things Hold Together

 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time: July 10, 2022

Readings: Deuteronomy 30:10–14; Psalm 69:14, 17, 30–31, 33–34, 36–37; Colossians 1:15–20; Luke 10:25–37

The Good Samaritan
To listen to my audio-video reflections via YouTube, please click on this link: https://youtu.be/hqQmgHMCmJo

There are a few moments or incidents that occur in our lives and make a difference in the lives of others. Such incidents may seem to be ordinary yet they can change the lives of others because someone was able to enter into their lives at the right time. The liturgical readings of this Sunday could be read from this perspective.

1. Reaching out to others at the right time

The story of the Good Samaritan that we read today (Luke 10:25–37) from the Gospel of St Luke is really captivating. Everyone likes to have people around them when they are on their feet, healthy and doing well. The poor Jew who was stripped, beaten and half-dead on the roadside by the robbers was seen by the priest and the Levite. Yet they did not react. The wounded man was noticed only by a Samaritan. Even though the Samaritan came from another rival community, he not only had a soft corner for him but even went to the extent of taking care of him by giving him first aid and later putting on his carrier animal and treating him at the hospital at his own expense. What a generous, gentle, compassionate and caring that Samaritan might have been?

Jesus takes this incident of the caring nature of the Samaritan as an ideal one to reach heaven. It is not just the idle talk of how we must help others will take the person to God but only those who practise compassion and mercy in day-to-day life. An action-oriented life is greater and holier than a life of indifference. We must be moved by the suffering and woundedness of people. Reaching out to those who are in dire need of our help is much more pleasing to God than just observing the dogmas or rituals of our religions.   

2. Way to eternal life is here

The question of the Scholar of the Law to Jesus "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" is indeed self-reflective. Many believe that following rituals and customs of religion will end up in heaven. Jesus has a different, moreover radical answer. For Jesus, eternity will be earned based on one's caring and loving relationship with one's neighbour. The practical help and support rendered to those around you and who are in great need in itself is one of the ways to reach heaven as the Good Samaritan did. The Good Samaritan showed boundless mercy which simply gave a new lease of life to the wounded man.  Amelia Earhart says “a single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves.”

There is no religion to do good and to be kind. To be human means to do good and to be kind. Everyone who feels the pinch of pain must reach out to others that is going beyond their religious or cultural affiliations. Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, a document of the Vatican II states that “those also can attain to salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace, strive by their deeds to do his will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience” (No.16). The emphasis of Jesus always has been to doing good and time to time, the Church documents invite us to pursue that sure path which leads to eternal life. 

 3. Heeding to the voice of the Lord our God

Moses invites his people to listen to the inner promptings of God their Lord. For Moses, God has written in our hearts and laws and statutes to be observed and followed. What is necessary is listening to it attentively and putting it into practice with one's heart and soul. God has given each one conscience to see what is right and what is evil. Following the directives of one's conscious is essential to do the will of God. Therefore, Moses says that God’s Word is not mysterious or remote (Deuteronomy 30:10–14).  I don’t have to go in search of it. It’s already in my mouth and my heart. I just only have to carry it out with my whole being. 

Jesus is, indeed, "the image of the invisible God," St Paul tells the Colossian community (Colossians 1:15–20). In Christ Jesus, the love of God has come very near to us. By the blood of his Cross, by His sufferings, he showed us what it means to be a good neighbour, a good samaritan. St John of the Cross writes that “where there is no love, put love, and you will draw love out.” Jesus showed us by his own example how to heal, and what does it mean to care for others. His love has known no limits and ours cannot be either. We are to love as we have been loved, to do for others what He has done for us, joining all things together in His Body, the Church.

Questions for Reflections

1. Where today do you see a lack of love (or the presence of evil) and what can you do to put love there?  
2. What is your immediate response having heard the story of the Good Samaritan?
3. In what ways, God takes delight in you? What is it in particular that God delights in, when God looks at you today?
4. Where do you have to go to find this God who loves you?

Prayer:
God of love and Father to all, you made humankind in your image and likeness.  Grant that I may love all as my neighbour, especially those who I most struggle to see goodness in, and the poor, who are so often forgotten. 

I pray to you, O LORD, in your great kindness answer me with your constant help especially when I am afflicted and in pain. Let you let your saving help, O God, protect me. I make this prayer, in Jesus' Holy Name,  Amen.   

- Fr Olvin Veigas, SJ

July 08, 2022