July
10, 2016
15th
Sunday in Ordinary Time
Deuteronomy
30:10-14; Psalm 69; Colossians 1:15-20; Luke 10:25-37
I remember this
conversation between a young boy and his mom. The boy who was doing his
assignment in religion class asked his mom: “Mama, what are the 10 commandments?”
The mother replied, “They are the instructions or commands of God to us.” Her
son said, “So you are higher than God then.” The mother said “Why?” The son replied, “Because you have more
commandments than God.”
Sometimes when
we are confronted with many commands, there is a tendency to lose sight of the
very heart, very center, the most important of God’s commandments. This was the
dilemma of the lawyer in the gospel today. As a devout Jew, he is aware of the 613
prescriptions of religious laws. Can you imagine that? If some of us find it
difficult to memorize the Ten Commandments, what more the 613 laws? And so he
asks, what is the most important of them all? What law must one obey to inherit
eternal life?
Let
us reflect on the response of Jesus to this question in three points:
LOVE
GOD. This was the first part of the response of Jesus to the question of the
lawyer. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with
all your strength and with all your mind.” This commandment is not something
new for us and for the Israelites. How do we express our love for God? Remember
the first phrase in the Silver Jubilee theme of our parish. If you look at one
of the banners in the walls of our church, it says there: Deeper
in prayer. We express our love for God by allotting time for prayer everyday
and going to mass every Sunday. Some even go beyond that. Some go to mass
everyday. Some spend extra time of prayer in the adoration chapel. Some are
involved in the different church activities. The point is when we allot time to
be with God, we grow deeper in prayer, deeper in our love for Him. This is just
the first part of the response of Jesus. He did not simply say, “Love God. Period.”
What else did Jesus say to the lawyer?
LOVE
YOUR NEIGHBOR. This was the second part of the response of Jesus to the question of
the lawyer. But the lawyer was not contented with the answer of Jesus. He asked again, “Can you clarify who is my neighbor?”
If we will look at the mindset of the Jews during their time, the term neighbor
does not simply refer to anyone. Neighbor
refers only to relatives and to their fellow Israelite. It therefore implies
that for them, those outside the family and those who do not belong to their
nation are not classified as their neighbors. Because of this they are already
dispensed from loving them because they are not technically their neighbor. But
Paul in our second reading reminds us that because of Jesus, we can consider everyone
as our neighbor. Here we see that the question of the lawyer somehow indicates
that he would like to put limits to his love. It is like telling Jesus: “Tell
me who my neighbors are. Name and identify them so that it is clear to me who to
love.” What was the response of Jesus?
BE
GREATER IN LOVE AND BOLDER IN MISSION. These two phrases are still part of
the Silver Jubilee theme you see in the banners hanging on the walls of our
church. The response of Jesus to the question “who is my neighbor?” is actually
an invitation to be greater in love and bolder in
mission. Jesus responded by telling a story about a man who is left dead by
thieves. Jesus did not give any qualification to this man. We do not know if
this man was a Jew or Samaritan. What we only know is that he is a human being
who became victim to robbers. What happened? Priest first passed but departed
because he had to preserve ritual purity. Same is true with Levite. But here
comes the Samaritan who makes a surprising move. Jews consider Samaritans as
their enemies and vice versa. But even if this Samaritan does not know who this
man is, he stopped and took care of the man.
My brothers and
sisters, it is not automatic that those who love God also love their neighbor. How ironic it is for a priest and a Levite to
ignore this man dying on the road. The priest and Levite are lovers of God.
They are church people but they fail to see a neighbor in this helpless man.
Our first reading reminds us, that this law of love is not something far from
us – especially for Church people (for mass goers like us). This law of love is
written in our hearts. This is what we see in the heart of the Good Samaritan.
He sees in this unknown man, not a stranger, not even an enemy but a neighbor -
someone who must be an object of love. Who is my neighbor? The answer is
everyone. Even strangers and enemies are considered our neighbors. This is
precisely being greater in love: loving not only our relatives, not
only our friends and barkadas, not only the rich and influential ones, not only
our kababayans but even strangers, enemies and the poor. We have to concretely express this love by
being bolder in mission to help our neighbor who is in need.
That is why Jesus said to the lawyer, “Go and do the same. If you want to
inherit eternal life, it is not enough to love God. Go and imitate the good Samaritan
who looked after the needy person.”
My brothers and
sisters, we will conclude our Silver Jubilee celebration this coming fiesta
mass on July 24. But the spirit of the Silver Jubilee: deeper in prayer, greater
in love and bolder in mission for Christ will continue forever. Let us pray for
our parish community to sustain the fire of Silver Jubilee spirit. If we want
to inherit eternal life, if we want to go to heaven, remember the Jubilee
spirit: deeper in prayer, greater in love and bolder in mission for Christ. Amen.
