15th Sunday of Year C - 11th July 2010

Who is my Neighbour

The story of the Good Samaritan is so commonplace we simply allow ourselves to be reassured by its familiarity rather than be challenged by its radicalness.

It is a story that tears open closed communities, and breaks boundaries. We know that Jews despised Samaritans, and that Jesus was challenging the lawyer to see that goodness can be found beyond the chosen people. We might also reflect that Samaritans in their turn rejected Jews, and that not long before Jesus told this parable he was turned away from a Samaritan village because he was a Jew. Remembering this, we can see that Jesus is challenging not only the lawyer but his own disciples. Those who follow him need to examine their hearts regularly so that they can strive to be free from prejudice. They are to recognise goodness at work wherever it is to be found and to realise that no group has a monopoly on holiness and virtue.

If you doubt the lingering effects of prejudice, consider the story itself. After Jesus has told the story, he asks the lawyer: "Which of these three proved himself to be a neighbour?" The obvious answer would be "The Samaritan," but the lawyer cannot bring himself to say the word "Samaritan". Instead, he says it in a roundabout way: "The one who took pity on him."

The Good Samaritan story really is another expression of the Great Commandment to love. The love that Jesus asks of us is certainly to love the rejected and the beaten among us, the immigrant, the asylum seekers, and the homeless in our city, those whom no one wants.

Both Levite & Priest were of course good men, but for their own reasons, while they saw the injured man, they perceived him more as a threat to their plans that day. Broken lives rarely shoehorn themselves into our agendas. The Samaritan also had his tasks in mind for that day, but he saw a brother in need. Our own needs do not justify us ignoring those of others.

Who am I passing by? Are there other injured people in mind or spirit or body who need my help? "Who proved himself a neighbour to the injured man? The one who took pity on him. Go, and do the same yourself."

In our own day, it is so easy to apply this story to others. The real Gospel gift is to allow the power of God's word not only to challenge us but to change us, remembering that self-righteousness is much more treacherous than selfishness.