Readings: Deuteronomy 30:10-14; Psalm 69; Colossians 1:15-20; Luke 10:25-37
Grace, mercy and peace to you my dear brothers and sisters in the Lord.
Our Gospel today is one of the most powerful parables of Jesus. It is the parable of the Good Samaritan.
Three years ago, on this Sunday, I preached on Jesus as the Good Samaritan, who came to rescue humanity wounded by sin and the devil. He handed us over to the Church to be looked after and He will come again for us.
This year, let us begin by looking at the question that immediately led to the parable. A lawyer asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbour?”
This question is also very important for us today. We still need to understand who our neighbour is.
Who is my neighbour means who should I love? Who should I help? Who should I care about?
For a typical Jew, a neighbour was a fellow Jew. Some of us still have this reductionist understanding of a neighbour – my neighbour is someone who agrees with me, someone who loves me, someone who belongs to my group, someone who has the same complexion as me, someone who speaks my language. In this sense, we shut some people out of our sphere of love. Even the people who live next to us are sometimes not lucky enough to be our neighbours because they are not in our circle.
According to Jesus, everyone who shares the same humanity with us is our neighbour – anyone who is in need, anyone who bears the image of God is our neighbour.
I would have gladly ended this reflection here but it would be theologically unfair not to talk about the Good Samaritan. He was a man who noticed, who was moved and who helped.
The first sin of many of us is that we do not notice. We are too busy and self-absorbed to notice. We do not notice the tears, the suffering, the effort or the kindness of others. We do not notice someone who helps us or who needs our help. The Good Samaritan noticed the man. The world will be a better place if we all begin to stop and notice one another.
The second virtue of the Good Samaritan was that he was moved to compassion and he acted. In the history of humanity, so many atrocities have been and are still being committed today. It is heartbreaking what some people do to others. It is equally disheartening that many people are not really moved by the suffering of others, or are moved but not moved enough to help. We are too rational, too religious, too careful or too used to tears that we can still see the pains of others and move on. The priest and the Levite saw the wounded man, they possibly felt pity but they could move on. The Good Samaritan saw the wounded man and couldn’t move on. He cancelled his journey and committed to helping this man, this “supposed Jewish enemy.” More touching is the fact that he didn’t know this man before and he did all he did without expecting any recompense or payback. He just could not see a person in need and move on.
This Samaritan reminds me of St. Maximilian Kolbe, (whose cell I was opportune to visit two days ago). He saw a man in agony and tears, about to be mercilessly murdered. Maximilian stepped in to take his place. He just couldn’t hear such cries and be unmoved. Even though he was surrounded by such misery, he didn’t get used to people in pain to the point that he was no longer moved.
In the First Reading of today, the Lord says we should obey the commandments. How? The Bible says anyone who loves (like the Samaritan) has fulfilled the whole of the commandments/law (Romans 13:10).
The Second Reading says Jesus is the image of the unseen God. He is also the True Good Samaritan. It means that when we love as this Samaritan, we are the image of Jesus and by extension, the image of the unseen God.
May we become to others, who the Good Samaritan was to the wounded Jew. May we accept everyone as our neighbour and may we have the heart to notice people, to be moved by their plight and be moved enough to help them as Jesus would.
Sermon preached by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Baraka-Gukena Okami on July 10, 2022