Fifteenth Sunday of the Year (Year C)

Fifteenth Sunday of the Year July 10, 2022

Deuteronomy 30:10-14; Colossians 1:15-20; Luke 10:25-37

(image courtesy: Google)

Once a man had gone for his weekly market fair and was returning home happy with the purchases. It was pretty dark and the path was very narrow. My mistake he slipped and fell in the pond filled with muck and it was extremely cold. However much he tried to come out he could not and worse still he went on sinking in the muck. He kept on shouting for help.  To his good fortune, a man was passing that way in a horse cart and when he heard the cries he stopped. He threw a rope to the man and tied it to his horse and with difficulty he pulled him out. Then he took the nearly unconscious man to his home, washed him clean, and wrapped him in the blanket. The man recovered in a couple of days and wanted to return to his village.  He thanked his benefactor for the favour done and asked what his name was. The benefactor refused. When the person still insisted the good man asked him a question, asking if he knew the story of the Good Samaritan.  The man responded positively.  Then he said if he could tell him the name of the Good Samaritan and he would reveal his name.  The man thought a while and said it is not recorded in the Bible. Nor will I tell you mine. Kindly go and be a Good Samaritan.

Today, in the gospel, we hear the story of a Good Samaritan. Today's story has very practical implications. Here we must remind ourselves that Jesus is not giving "religious" teaching to an elite minority. He is telling all of us how to be truly human. It is the way all people are called to behave towards each other. The Gospel reminds us that we must help those in need even if they are unlike us, even if we dislike them.  It reminds us that we ought to recognize that we in constant need of the help of others, particularly of our God, of whom we have so often made ourselves enemies.  It tells us that God’s grace comes in all forms and through all kinds of people. In fact, the Good Samaritan listened to his conscience. He acted righteously and it is this that established him on the path of eternal Life.

Some points to ponder:

We are busy with many appointments, as in Jericho, and have limited time to get there, so we do not want to get involved in what could distract us. It is a suffering world where many carry scars from the past.

Pope Francis, preaching on this reading, said: “The priest and the Levite see but ignore; they look but they do not offer to help. Yet there is no true worship if it is not translated into service to neighbour. Let us never forget this: before the suffering of so many people exhausted by hunger, violence and injustice, we cannot remain spectators.”

Someone once asked, what would the Samaritan do if he encountered the same scene every time he passed from there? It would not be enough to help the victims, for something needed to be done to solve the problem. In our times, we are less and less concerned with social problems, so that we live in an increasingly unequal and violent society. 

It is a story well narrated by Jesus! and we know it so well, we may gloss over it. It challenges us on many levels: the inclusiveness of everyone as our neighbour; the way religious people can pass by human needs and the most rejected people can respond positively; the way we try to appear experts, like the lawyer. It is a story of not missing human violence and abuse under our noses, a reminder that many suffer because of the cruelty of others. It’s mainly a story to ask us to respond as positively as we can to all human need.

Happy Sunday