Sunday, July 14, 2013
15th Week in Ordinary Time 1st Reading: Dt 30: 10-142nd Reading: Col 1: 15-20 Gospel:Luke 10:25-37
A teacher of the Law came and began putting Jesus to the test. And he said, “Master, what shall I do to receive eternal life?” Jesus replied, “What is written in the Scripture? How do you understand it?” The man answered, “It is written: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus replied, “What a good answer! Do this and you shall live.” The man wanted to keep up appearances, so he replied, “Who is my neighbor?”
Jesus then said, “There was a man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him and went off leaving him half-dead.
“It happened that a priest was going along that road and saw the man, but passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite saw the man and passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, too, was going that way, and when he came upon the man, he was moved with compassion. He went over to him and treated his wounds with oil and wine and wrapped them with bandages. Then he put him on his own mount and brought him to an inn where he took care of him.
“The next day he had to set off, but he gave two silver coins to the innkeeper and told him: ‘Take care of him and whatever you spend on him, I will repay when I come back.’”
Jesus then asked, “Which of these three, do you think, made himself neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The teacher of the Law answered, “The one who had mercy on him.” And Jesus said, “Go then and do the same.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE (Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan was a direct affront to the Jews who arrogated salvation exclusively to themselves by virtue of their status as God’s chosen people. Someone may challenge the soundness of the Parable in defense of the Levite and the Priest who were only observing the law on ritual purity which prohibited physical contact with the dead. But the Parable does not intend to refute said law but to enshrine charity to a plane higher than any law.
Today we may no longer be grappling with the issue on the universality of salvation but definitely we still need to learn a lot from the Good Samaritan. Apparently, most of us are not at ease yet with the truth that we are our “brothers’ keepers”. As the Supreme Court correctly observes, “Not everyone who passes on the road to Jericho is a clone of the Good Samaritan” (People vs. Gecomo (1992)). – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: [email protected]. Website:www.frdan.org.
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