15th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Sunday, July 3, 2022

First Reading: Deuteronomy 30:10-14 
Psalm #69 R: Seek God in your need, and let your hearts revive
Second Reading:  Colossians 1:15-20
Gospel Acclamation Verse: Your words, Lord are spirit and life; You have the words of everlasting life.
Gospel:  Luke 10:25-37
Theme:  Who is my neighbour?

Commentary by Jane Prini

Today’s gospel teaches us how we are to behave to have eternal life and makes it very clear who our neighbour is. 

We have spoken before of the ‘golden rule’ which is: “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 your neighbour as yourself.”  This includes every part of what it means to be human.  In this case the heart means how we feel, the soul refers to how aware we are of ourselves and others, our strength has to do with our determination and where we put our energy and our mind refers to how we use our intelligence. We are to offer back to God all that He has graced us with; our whole being. 

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus teaches us that every single human is our neighbour. As a disciple of Jesus, we are to pay attention to our own hearts as well as to the needs of those around us. As we read through this parable (a story with a lesson), perhaps we see ourselves in one of the five characters. Do we identify with the one who is beaten and left in really bad shape to fend for himself? Maybe we are like the two who did not want to get involved with this poor soul and walked on by pretending not to see him. Perhaps we can remember a time when we acted as the good Samaritan did, when we listened to our heart that felt compassion for someone and made the choice to take the time and energy to share what we had to help them in their time of need. 

Did you know that in the time of Jesus, the Jews considered Samaritans unfit for God’s service because of many cultural differences at that time? So for Jesus to include a Samaritan in his parable, he was making the point that everyone is our neighbour. Being a neighbour is more about attitude and less about living close to one another. Jesus wants us to love everyone; even those who do not choose to believe what we believe. Every human being is a daughter or son of God and therefore your brother or sister and deserves our respect, our compassion, our love. As the song reminds us: we are to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.

Jesus lived this compassion to his death. Many did not like him, yet he healed the sick and sacrificed himself to save sinners. He is our best example of how to love with our whole beings.

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