Who is my neighbour?
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Today’s readings call us to love and serve others with compassion, and to care especially for those most in need.
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The First Reading teaches us that God’s word is not beyond our reach. It is already in our hearts; it is there for us to proclaim and live out with all our heart and soul.
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The Psalm celebrates the compassion and kindness of God, who hears and revives the hearts of those in need, and acts to save them.
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In the Gospel, a lawyer asks Jesus, ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus uses the familiar parable of the Good Samaritan to answer both this and the lawyer’s second question, ‘Who is my neighbour?’ Regardless of who that person is, we must put their needs before our own. Just as Jesus shows compassion and mercy to us through his saving love, so must we try to do the same for others.
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St Paul (Second Reading) reminds us that Christ is the One who shows us God. Through him everything is created and held together. Christ leads the Church, reconciling all things by his death on the cross.
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As Pilgrims of Hope in this Jubilee year, we pray that our relationships may be truer and richer in compassion, reflected both in our attitudes and our loving action. We may like to pray especially this week for those suffering through war and violence.
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Here’s a text if you’ve only a minute ...
The word is very near to you … it is in your mouth and in your heart. First Reading
Lord, answer, for your mercy is kind; in your great compassion, turn toward me. Psalm
The Good Samaritan (Le bon samaritain),
Painting by Maximilien Luce (1858-1941),
Further Reflection
​Gospel Luke 10: 25-37
The Good Samaritan
This episode follows last week’s commissioning of the seventy-two disciples. It is only to be found in Luke’s Gospel.
‘Behold, a lawyer …’ As the name implies, he is a specialist in the Law. In other stories, such people are often called Scribes.
‘What is written in the Law?’ The answer the man gives is first of all, the traditional Jewish prayer called the ‘Shema’, which observant Jews still recite twice a day (Deuteronomy 6:5), followed by a quotation from Leviticus concerning the love of one’s neighbour (Leviticus 19: 18). They are two well known texts, but until now, not usually quoted together.
‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho …’ This is a distance of about 17 miles through very inhospitable, bandit-infested, treacherous country. There is a steep change in altitude too (from 2500 feet to 800ft below sea level). Travelling Jews would often take a longer route through Transjordan (literally, ‘the other side of the river’) to avoid this area.
‘A priest … and a Levite were going down that road.’ These two men, one a religious leader, the other an assistant in the Temple, keep to the strict letter of the Law. They would have been defiled had they touched the wounded man.
‘A Samaritan traveller when he saw him had compassion.’ St John’s Gospel (4: 9) simply records that ‘Jews do not associate with Samaritans’: something of an understatement, for Orthodox Jews considered them to be heretical and unclean. Though Samaritans followed the Pentateuch, they had intermarried with the local population and considered the main centre of their faith to be Mt Gerizim rather than Jerusalem. In this instance, the Samaritan follows the spirit rather than the letter of the Law.
‘He poured oil and wine on his wounds’ These were commonly used as medication at the time, often blended together as an ointment.
‘He took out two denarii’: about two day’s wages for a worker at that time.
‘Which of these three proved to be a neighbour?’ This question is Jesus’s answer to the lawyer’s original query ‘Who is my neighbour?’ A ‘neighbour’ is not defined by location or by belonging to a particular group, but by their actions.
To aid our reflection on the Sunday readings each week we are reproducing, with permission, content from St. Bueno's Outreach. If you would like to know more about them or access their guided prayer resources, 'Prego', you can contact them via their website.​​​
Father in heaven, may the faith you have given us in your son, Jesus Christ, our brother, and the flame of charity enkindled in our hearts by the Holy Spirit ,reawaken in us the blessed hope for the coming of your Kingdom.
May your grace transform us into tireless cultivators of the seeds of the Gospel. May those seeds transform from within both humanity and the whole cosmos in the sure expectation of a new heaven and a new earth, when, with the powers of Evil vanquished, your glory will shine eternally.
May the grace of the Jubilee reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope, a yearning for the treasures of heaven.
May that same grace spread the joy and peace of our Redeemer throughout the earth. To you our God, eternally blessed, be glory and praise for ever. Amen
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Pope Francis, Jubilee Prayer