- 1st Reading – Deuteronomy 30:10-14
- 2nd Reading – Colossians 1:15-20
- Gospel – Luke 10:25-37
Today’s Gospel focuses on a couple very important questions. In fact, the most important questions that we’ll face in our lives. The first question, was asked by the scholar, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Have any of us asked ourselves that question lately? In the hustle & bustle of today’s world, how often do we think about the life that is to come? In our daily lives we get so wrapped up in what’s important to us right now, and maybe in the very near future. We dwell on the issues of our jobs & careers, paying bills, raising our children and grandchildren and various family issues. All very important things that make us think “What must I do to make it through this year?” But do we spend much time to thinking about our “Eternal Life?”.
Jesus asked the scholar, what the law says, and he answers, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your being, all your, strength, and with all your mind.” Do we do that? Can we do that? Think about what it would mean to do that; how that might affect & change our daily lives. I think, sometimes we feel that that’s what the great Saints were capable of, St. Frances, St. Therese, Padre Pio, or Mother Theresa, but that us ordinary folks in today’s modern world have too many things vying for our attention, too many things to worry about. How can we possibly have that total and complete love for God? I’m not sure what the answer to that is, but I imagine that if we do love God with all our heart, with all our strength, and all our being, it might affect how we deal with all the issues of our daily lives. For it’s when we love God fully that we open our hearts to accept the unconditional love that God is pouring out to us. It’s in this relationship of love between God and us that we can freely accept the gift of eternal life. It’s from this love that we are able, though often challenged, to love our neighbor. To inherit everlasting life is to see and experience how much God loves us, and to return that love to God, and express it to our neighbor.
That was the second part of the answer to the question “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” That is, “To love your neighbor as yourself”. Notice that the scholar in the Gospel didn’t ask Jesus “How do I love God?” Rather, he asked the second important question in the passage – “Who is my neighbor?” The 2nd question that we have to answer as well. Who is my neighbor? Jesus doesn’t answer the scholars’ question directly. He doesn’t say who his neighbor is; rather, Jesus shows him, and us, what it means to be a loving neighbor.
Look at what the Good Samaritan does and see how that might relate to us. He approached the victim, after others had already passed him by, cleaned and bound his wounds, took him to an inn where he continued to care for him, and then paid the inn keeper to care for him when he had to leave.
Then what does Jesus tell the Scholar in today’s Gospel—–and to us? “Now go and do likewise.” WOW, that’s the kind of neighbor we’re supposed to be. That’s what it means to “Love your neighbor”?
In the first reading today, Moses tells his people – “That all of God’s commands are not written on stone.” No, there are those that are very near to us, already in our hearts. The Good Samaritan, in the Gospel, didn’t base his actions on some written law, but on the Law within his heart, the “Law of Love”. The same needs to be true for us. There is no written law detailing what to do if we come across someone in need of help. There is no written law that says we have to prepare a meal for someone who is bedridden and unable to cook, no written law that tells us that the kid being picked on in school needs a friend. We know in our hearts what we need to be doing and what we need to be avoiding.
St. John said, “If you cannot love your brother and neighbor whom you do see, then how can you love God whom you don’t see?” The more I think about it, the more I wonder if Loving God and loving neighbor are one and the same thing.
How many of you remember the late, children’s TV personality, “Mr. Rogers”? His mission was to accept everyone as his neighbor, —- and to be a good neighbor. Imagine what our real neighborhoods would be like if we all took a few lessons from Mr. Rogers.
In today’s busy world there is so much impatience, and lack of courtesy, leading to all types of anger, road rage, air rage, restaurant rage. God wants us to turn that around. Sometimes all it takes is one kind word to nourish another person. There is usually a wonderful ripple effect that takes place when we nourish someone. One kind word has a remarkable way of turning into many.
So, love God with all your heart and all your strength, and in the words of Mr. Rogers’ famous song, “Let’s make the most of this beautiful day, since we’re together, we might as well say, “Would you be mine, could you be mine, won’t you be my neighbor?””