July 10, 2022

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time ( C)

How Far Do I Have to Go?

Msgr. Thomas Gervasio

Many people came to Our Lord not to learn from him but to test him. We meet one of them today—a scholar of the Law, a lawyer, who asks Jesus: “Who is my neighbor?” This was not an unusual question since the Jews debated the meaning of the word neighbor. Did neighbor mean a fellow Jew, or did it encompass everyone? The scholar wanted to know how far his obligation to love extended. He was seeking the minimum possible outlay of effort. We also see this attitude in St. Peter’s question to Jesus: “Lord, how often must I forgive my brother who wrongs me? Up to seven times?”

The Lord answers the question with a parable. The story opens at a crime scene on the perilous road from Jerusalem to Jericho known as the “Bloody Way” On that road a man was robbed and left to die by his assailants.

Two temple officials pass by—men of religion and piety—those from whom one would expect compassion. They see the dying man but move to the other side of the road. They do nothing to help him and so they missed a graced moment. Theirs was a great sin of omission.

A Samaritan comes along. Unlike the others, he tends to the man’s wounds and takes him to an inn to be cared for. He pays the innkeeper saying, “Look after him and when I return, I will reimburse you for any expenses.”

This story is compelling because it is a Samaritan who comes to the victim’s rescue. There was a long history of hostility between Jews and Samaritans and so they despised one another. In fact, the most offensive term that a Jew could apply to others was to call them a Samaritan. But it is precisely in a Samaritan that we find compassion.
 
The Samaritan did not think, “This man is most likely a Jew. Why should I help? He’s not my responsibility. Let his own people help him.” The Samaritan also knows the Law and recognizes the man lying on the roadside as his neighbor. He put aside centuries-old prejudices in order to save the man’s life. He did not see an enemy before him but a child of God, a fellow human being.  
As he dressed the wounds, the Samaritan knew that this victim most likely despised him and could even be ungrateful and angry, but this did not stop him from extending his help which was so lavish in generosity.

At the end of the parable, the scholar was forced to acknowledge that it was the Samaritan who was neighbor to the robbers’ victim. Did you notice, he could not even bring himself to say the Samaritan but the one who treated him with compassion. But he had to acknowledge that his own love had to extend even to one despised and considered an enemy.

So too, must our love be. So often we have opportunities to help others who may never be able to return the gesture… those who do not care for us…those who are ungrateful. This parable urges us not to pass to the other side of the road when such opportunities arise. We should do good anyway. St. Teresa of Calcutta put it this way:
 

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.     
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends
and some genuine enemies.
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere, people may deceive you.          
Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.    
Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.         
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today will often be forgotten.
Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.
Give your best anyway.