Scriptures for my homily for the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time. (Key understanding today's gospel is the reality that Jews and Samaritans were religious/social/political enemies of each other.)
They say the
scriptures are an inexhaustible resource for instructing us in how to live the
Christian life. And this weekend I found out that’s really true!
I've been preaching the gospel of the good
Samaritan for 53 years - and this was the first time I took notice of one
particular word in the story. It's in the dialogue between Jesus and the
scholar of the law. Remember this? “And because the man wished to justify
himself, he asked Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?"
The word I've overlooked for more than five
decades is justify. The man wanted to justify himself. Now, this man is
a lawyer, so he's accustomed to defining the letter of the law. Jesus has just
detailed for him the law one must obey to inherit eternal life. “Love God with
all your heart and being, with all your strength and your mind - and love your
neighbor as you love yourself.” And because the man wished to justify himself,
he asked, "Who's my neighbor?”
As a scholar of the law, the man
immediately recognizes that the term "neighbor” was a category of persons
open to incredibly broad interpretation. So he wants to justify himself. He
wants to define the category, set some limits. He wants to be very clear about
who is and who is not his neighbor - lest he transgress the law
and forfeit the eternal life he's seeking.
What this lawyer doesn’t yet understand but
is about to find out is that Jesus is the defense attorney, in a class
action suit, representing every neighbor in the history of humankind.
So, before you and I try to figure out if
we identify more with the kind and compassionate Samaritan, or with the self-absorbed,
uncaring priest and Levite, we might want to examine how we all identify
with the lawyer. We might want to look at how sometimes we want
to justify ourselves by defining the term and setting limits on just who our
neighbor might be.
Sitting at the defense table is Jesus and
in The Case of the Good Samaritan, Jesus is arguing that everyone is our
neighbor (just what the lawyer hoped would not be the answer) and that each of
us is called to be neighbor, to everyone.
Jesus makes his case very simply and
quickly by proving, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the category of neighbor
includes, without reservation, even:
• those
I don't know - complete strangers, left for dead on the road
• people
I don't prefer;
• people
who annoy me;
• folks
I don't like, folks who don't like me;
• people
I deem undeserving
• those
who despise me, those whom I despise;
• those
who oppose me, my sworn enemies.
All these, says Jesus, are my neighbor - and
to all of these am I called to be neighbor. Jesus says that - like
the good Samaritan who bandaged, transported and cared for the man he found on
the road – we too, are to touch and care for and carry our neighbor, whomever
our neighbor might be.
Not only that, but Jesus gives us here, I
think the first example of paying it forward. Remember that the Samaritan left
the injured man at the inn and slipped the innkeeper some coins. "Take
care of the guy till I come back. And if it costs more, I'll reimburse you.”
Let's go back to where we started. “Because
the lawyer wished to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘Who is my neighbor?’”
It's not an easy question. It's a hard
question. And it's a loaded question even today, isn't it? We still look for all kinds of ways to
justify ourselves because it's so hard to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Consider the religious, social, and political tensions that fester and erupt in
hatred and hostility, in all-out war, at the boundaries and the borders and the
divisions that separate neighbor from neighbor.
Boundaries, borders, and division…
Think of Northern Ireland and the Republic
of Ireland;
Think of Palestine and Israel, India and
Pakistan.
Think of our own nation divided by how we
answer the question,
“Who is my neighbor and how will we love
our neighbor at the border - as we love ourselves.
Now, not for a moment would I suggest that
today's gospel offers a strategy for peace in the Middle East. It doesn't.
And not for a moment would I suggest that the
story of the Good Samaritan offers us a plan for immigration reform. It
doesn't.
What I will suggest is that what Jesus does
in this gospel is to give us Christians The. Starting. Point. for all
our consideration, negotiation, planning, and strategizing for resolving these
difficult critical international issues. And this starting point, Jesus gives
us his followers, is the question “Who is your neighbor?”
Fortunately, Jesus also gives us the
answer. Our task is to take the question and the answer, and then as Jesus told
the lawyer, go and do likewise. Now,
doing likewise will involve many factors. Doing likewise means attending to
social concerns, legal matters, constitutional questions, financial realities,
international relationships and political differences. It’s our answer to the
question “Who is my neighbor?” that must precede and inform the way we attend
to all the secondary factors.
Not attending to these factors would be
irresponsible. Not attending to these factors would be to
reduce the word of Jesus to a slogan. But the words of Jesus are never a slogan
- at least not for folks like the lawyer in the gospel, for folks like you and me, folks who want to
know what we must do to inherit eternal life.
The words of Jesus here are so much more
than a slogan. They are words of wisdom and truth. And the story of the Good
Samaritan is The. Starting. Point. - the only starting point for us to
consider and to answer the question, “Who is my neighbor?”
Any other starting point, any other
starting point, lies outside the faith that you and I profess here today.
We are gathered at the Lord's table in the
shadow of the cross, where Jesus laid down his life for his neighbor. He
laid down his life for those who would love him - and he laid down his life for
those who would never know him. He laid down his life for those who would
abandon and betray him; for those who would not deserve him or his mercy; for
those who would, over and over and over again, fail to recognize him in
their neighbor.
So, pray with me today that we will hear
the words of Jesus and begin anew to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
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