15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

Dt 30:10-14
Ps 69:14, 17, 30-31, 33-34, 36, 37
Col 1:15-20
Lk 10:25-37

Cincinnati, is a city of neighborhoods. Cincinnatians will tell you that they’re from Clifton or Hyde Park or Delhi or Over-the-Rhine. We think locally, proud of the different neighborhoods we come from.

Today, we hear in the Gospel the familiar story of the Good Samaritan. The key question is: Who is my neighbor? When the Jewish audience first heard this parable, there must have been shock: Jesus says a Samaritan—a member of a group the Jews shunned—was neighbor to the man in trouble, because he showed mercy. This story fits into one of Luke's special Gospel themes—the welcoming of the strangers, the outcast, the poor, into the circle of God's Kingdom. Luke's missionary community must have faced a special challenge to welcome people from a variety of backgrounds and cultures.

Perhaps this is a good Sunday to examine our parish's hospitality and welcoming attitude. Who is my neighbor? is an important question for every Christian community. Though we may take pride in the history and traditions of our parish, we cannot exclude strangers or newcomers. Rather, we must recognize Christ in the stranger, as we heed Jesus' command to "Go and do likewise."

Scripture:

•For this command that I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious and remote for you.…No, it is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out." (Deuteronomy 30:11,14)

•I am afflicted and in pain; let your saving help, O God, protect me. (Psalm 69:30)

•through him to reconcile all things for him, making peace by the blood of his cross through him, whether those on earth or those in heaven. (Colossians 1:20)

•But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. (Luke 10:33,34)

Reflection:

•Does the Good Samaritan save the man attacked by robbers, or does the man attacked by robbers save the Good Samaritan?

•Describe the law that is in your heart (see Deuteronomy 30:14).

•Consider how Jesus saves you by “the blood of the cross” and how you save others and others save you through “the blood of the cross.”

•Who are we called to save? How is it possible?

He says: It is a joy, a bliss, an endless delight to me that ever I suffered for you. And this is the bliss of Christ’s deeds, and this is what he means when he says: We are his bliss, we are his reward, we are his honour, we are his crown. For he still has that same thirst and longing which he had upon the Cross, which desire, longing and thirst, as I see it, were in him from without beginning…

For as truly as there is in God a quality of pity and compassion, so truly is there in God a quality of thirst and longing and the power of longing; and the power of this longing in Christ enables us to respond to this longing and without this no soul comes to heaven. And this quality of longing and thirst comes from God's everlasting goodness, and this is the characteristic of spiritual thirst, which will persist in him so long as we are in need, and will draw us up into his bliss.