Go and do likewise

Duet. 30:10-14, Col. 6:1.15-20, Lk 10:25-37. On this Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C, the Church invites us to a deeper intimacy with God. Today's first reading presents part of the farewell message and final instruction of Moses which underscores the need for God in our lives. Here, Moses reminds us that God is alive, active and ever close to us: “… For this Law is not beyond your strength or beyond your reach…” God has given His Law and revealed Himself to us so that we may be faithful. Hence, the first reading admirably sets up the Gospel with its sense that we do not have to go far to fulfil what God wants. The “word is near” in the sense that it begins with the attitude we showed to those around us. It is, first of all, “in our mouth, in our heart”.

In today's Gospel, Jesus directs the young man who wants a closer relationship with God to the Scriptures. By doing this, Jesus makes him understand that, God could be found in His Word and in others. Jesus further buttresses this by telling the story of the Good Samaritan. Like the Good Samaritan, if we search for God in others, we will find Him. The Good Samaritan saw God in the victim and so was moved to help him. The Good Samaritan represents those who seek Christ in the weak, wounded and the poor. The Samaritan does not only get close to the injured man but cleans his wounds, puts him on his own animal, takes him to an inn to recover and promises to pay all his expenses. Jesus demolishes all boundary expectations. It is not social definitions such as class, religion, gender, or ethnicity that determines who is our neighbour. A neighbour is a person who acts with compassion toward others. The point becomes not who deserves to be loved as we love ourselves, but that we become people who treats everyone with compassion.

May the Lord help us to be true neighbours to the weak and marginalised in our community! Amen!! Good morning and happy Sunday!!!