Today's Message: 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time C

Deuteronomy 30: 10-14; Colossians 1: 15-20; Luke 10: 25-37

Do I listen to what Jesus tells me in the Gospel readings?  Do I feel that it is difficult or easy?  Do I see it as complicated or ‘right in front of my face’?  Do I try to complicate what Jesus tells me or do I just not pay attention to it?  Do I feel that I’m doing all right in my spiritual development?  Do I feel I can address the and the complicated parts later on?  Do I feel that putting off until  later is just that I’m too busy or is it that I am just not ready to change the direction of my life?  Do I see this as the work of the devil distracting and confusing me away from the stimuluses of the Holy Spirit?  When do I really feel is the ‘right time’ to work on my spiritual life?  Do I view the Ten Commandments as still to be followed completely?  Do I couple these with Jesus’ commands of love as guidelines for my daily living?  Are these my spiritual guide or something I just address when it is convenient?

In our reception of the Eucharist, Jesus shows us the kind of love He wants each of us to have all the time.  As He gives Himself totally  and unconditionally and lovingly to us needy, wounded and sinful creatures, He invites each one of us — actually, commands us in the words of the gospel, “Go and do likewise.”

The readings today spur us on to work consistently and daily on our Christian role of followers of Jesus who showed and proved God’s love for us.

The last book of the Pentateuch is called Deuteronomy which means the ‘second law.’  It really isn’t a new law but a partial repetition of the law proclaimed on Mt. Sinai.  

Moses presents the theme of the covenant: ‘I will be your God and you will be My people.’  The introduction in the Catholic Study Bible states, “He [Moses] exhorts, corrects and threatens his people, appealing to their past glory their historic mission and the promise of future triumph. His aim is to enforce among the Israelites the Lord’s claim to their obedience, loyalty and love.”  Chapter 27 begins “the Final Words of Moses” and continues for six chapters.  Moses final appeal in chapter 32: 45-47 states:  “When Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel, he said, ‘Take to heart all the warning which I have now given you and which you must impress on your children, that you may carry out carefully every word of this law.  For this is not a trivial matter for you; rather, it means your very life, since it is by this means that your are to enjoy a long life on the land which you will cross the Jordan to occupy.’”  Then Moses went up on Mount Nebo where he would spend his last days and the Lord showed him all the lands of Canaan. The people have been instructed that the promised land is a gift from God.  If the people neglect the Giver, the gift may be lost.  Moses reminds the people that God’s law is not something they have to discover, it is entirely compatible with their identity as God’s chosen people.  God created them. His love is in their hearts .  They need only take on a spirit of humble service to God to understand what God wants of them.  This is all written in the commandments.  Do they do it their way…the way of pride…or do they do it God’s way…the way of love?

Paul is reminding the Colossians to lead a life worthy of Jesus’s life and teachings.  Jesus is described in wisdom imagery as preeminent, unique and the creator of all and above all created things.  There is nothing that can challenge His power.  He is the head of the Church.  In shedding His blood and dying on the cross, He has restored the bond between God and people. We must continue in faith.  How am I doing today with this?  This is not a futuristic question, it is a now question each and every day of my life.

Jesus has taught repeatedly that we are to be people of love.  We are to love all.  A scholar of the law, a rabbi, came up to express his own knowledge and to test Jesus’ grasp of truth.  He asked a question that is the most basic question for each person, ‘How do I get to heaven?’  There is only heaven and hell, no other choice…what must I do to get to heaven?  Now the people who heard this would have been shocked because an enemy, an outcast is the hero of the story.  WOW!   Jesus simply asks , what is written?  He responds with the Great Commandment given in Deuteronomy 6: 4-5 and then its instruction on how to spread these, verses 6-9.  But the man wanted to show how smart he was by identifying what was obviously a problem in Luke’s Christian community as to who is one’s neighbor.  Jesus responds with a story that the ordinary Jew, scholars and religious leaders would have found totally shocking.  Jesus took a realistic situation, traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho, going from the big city, through the dangerous  uninhabited wilderness down to Jericho; where muggings and robbery were a reality.  Here a man is attacked and robbed and still alive but totally helpless.  A priest and a levite, who represent the privileged and religious elite had the opportunity to help but didn’t.  There must have tension with those listening Jesus wondering who would come along and help this helpless man…would the hero be one from their own group?  Absolute silence…then Jesus identified the ‘hero’… a Samaritan.  Jews and Samaritans had hated one another for centuries  No Samaritan would help a Jew and vice versa.  They were complete enemies.  Even the injured person would rather die than be helped by a Samaritan.  What is Jesus’ lesson?  No one has exclusive rights to God’s love.  No one is off-limits for God, God loves all, all the time.  One’s neighbor is not determined by racial, cultural or religious heritage.  Rather, a neighbor is anyone who acts out of love for God and meets people’s needs with love.  Jesus  tells us that our God is too small. Unless and until we see that God is the creator of all and needs all to love and that heaven is about love, we remain unable to reach heaven our home.  God’s commandments challenge us to treat everyone with divine mercy?  Can we?  Are we willing to follow Jesus’ demand to “Go and do likewise”?  

So I reflect on:

• Describe how my body tells me whether I am or am not living the commandments?
• Who has surprised me by living God’s ways where I least expected?
• To which neighbors do I find it difficult to show compassion?  Why?
• How do I respond to the needy in my daily life?  
• When I feel I should be doing something, and I don’t; what is going on in my mind and my heart to make me feel in the right? 
• Do I regard faith as something complicated or something simple to follow?

Sacred Space 2019 states:

   “Dear Lord, You remind me here that I often seek to justify my own selfishness.  But the knowledge of the lawyer is not what You seek.  It is my heart that You seek, and the acts of love and mercy that should flow freely out of my heart.  Forgive me and let Your flame of love and mercy flare up afresh in my heart and  consume my selfish tendencies.  I pray this as Your disciple.  Amen.

   “Grant me, O Lord, to see everything now with new eyes, to discern and test the spirits that help me read the signs of the times, to relish the things that are Yours and to communicate them to others.  Give me the clarity of understanding that You gave Ignatius.”  (Pedro Arrupe, SJ,1907-1991; former Superior General of the Jesuits)