Who can you be neighbour to?
15th Week in Ordinary Time: Sunday 14th July 2019
Deut. 30:10-14; Ps. 69(68):14,17,30-31,33-34,
36,37; Col. 1:15-20; Lk. 10:25-37 (Ps Wk III)
All the “commandments and statutes that are written in this book of the law” may well seem very complicated and unnecessarily burdensome. Moses suggessts that they can, however, be gathered together towards one purpose: to help us to return to the Lord our God with all our heart and soul. Wherever and whenever the Word of God is spoken to us, it will always be an expression of God’s desire that we be united with Him forever in eternal life and eternal bliss.
The question of how best to express the essence of the law was one that exercised the minds of many of Jesus’ contemporaries. Thus the lawyer could ask: “What must I do to inherit everlasting life?” While he could read all the commandments and statutes written in the book of law, he needed assurance about the most essential element in all of them. He was trying to grasp the core meaning of all that was required. Even when he did have a good answer for Jesus, there was still the puzzle: “Who is my neighbour?” The lawyer’s question was most likely a reasonably honest one, but Jesus gave it greater depth by turning it around: ‘Who can you be neighbour to?’
Lord, grant us the wisdom and compassion to know how to respond to those in need.
