LITURGY
AND LIFE
By
Lucie Leduc
‘Correct’
response not always the compassionate one
15th Sunday in Ordinary
Time
July 11, 2010
Deuteronomy 30:10-14
Psalm 69
Colossians 1:15-20
Luke 10:25-37
God’s desire, will or dream for us is simple. Loving and right
relationship with God, ourselves and neighbour is embedded in our genes,
“very near” to us, “in our mouth and in our hearts.”
In this is our joy and fullness of life. However, on our path to realizing
God’s desire for us, we inevitably fall prey to prejudices and
biases through cultural and religious conditioning, the family in which
we were raised and any other number of environmental factors.
In today’s readings we hear the message of how God’s desire
for us is simple and “very near,” indeed within us. We hear
that in Christ we are re-created and reconciled with God. However, as
the Gospel reveals, simple as the command is “to go and do likewise,”
it isn’t necessarily easy. It requires a move from the head to
the heart; from knowing about Scripture to becoming one with the living
Word; becoming the living Word.
Like the lawyer in today’s Gospel according to Luke, we may approach
Jesus with a certain air of false self-righteousness or of distance;
in other words, from a place of false pride or of false humility. “A
lawyer stood up to test Jesus” (Lk 10:25). The implication is
that this lawyer/scribe knows what he’s about; knows the Scriptures
enough to ask the right question, “What must I do to inherit eternal
life?” 
Jesus, sensing where he is coming from, turns the question back to him.
“What is written in the Law? What do you read there?” The
question is important. Jesus doesn’t ask him what he thinks, but
what does Scripture say. Jesus is the living Word and has not come to
take away from the laws and the prophets, the covenant and promises,
but to complete and fulfil them. We are to continue relying on Scripture
to inform our conscience and moral lives, and more importantly to enter
deeply into intimacy with our God from a place of true humility, from
our powerlessness and need with confidence.
Once again, the lawyer responds correctly, “You shall love the
Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with
all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.”
But he is looking for a way to justify his own cultural and religious
conditioning. He wants affirmation from Jesus that basically confirms
his prejudices about certain people or groups of people. So he asks,
“And who is my neighbour?”
Think of any person or group
of persons you prefer to have at arm’s length — drug addicts,
alcoholics, an ethnic group, a perceived enemy, someone whom you have
“passed by” when in need for any reason at all.
Jesus responds with the parable of the Good Samaritan. Now, we know that the Good Samaritan is an oxymoron for Jesus’ faithful Jewish listeners, in particular this lawyer. The Samaritans as a group were perceived as having betrayed the true and loyal Israelites. In general, these two groups were arch-enemies. Yet in the parable it is not the priest or Levite, both faithful observers of the law, who help the man who fell into the hands of robbers. We can only surmise the reasons for their passing by, perhaps purity laws or prejudices. The Samaritan is the one who reaches out with compassion; a humbling lesson for the lawyer; a humbling lesson for ourselves when we try to justify our priorities, prejudices and biases toward others in need.
The first reading assures us that the Word is not far from us, “neither
is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘who will cross to
the other side of the sea for us and get it for us so that we may hear
it and observe it?’ ” The Word is within us and the Word
is Christ. What that looks like in reality is someone who is full of
love for life, fearless and cheerful in giving to others in need, and
who will enjoy fully the good things, the natural world as gift and
endure the suffering that comes with dignity and confidence.
If we find ourselves struggling with the balance of priorities for care
in our relationship with God, self-care, and care for our neighbour
(the day-to-day encounters with anyone in need), the starting point
for recovery of balance lies in prayer that humbly acknowledges our
great need. “Seek God in your need, and let your hearts revive,”
the psalmist sings. When we know less about what’s right and wrong
in any given situation and utterly depend on Christ in our brokenness
to reveal through us the compassion of God, how to respond from the
heart of God, we will receive the grace of energy, compassion and joy
to care for others and ourselves.
Leduc is the program co-ordinator at Queen’s House Retreat
and Renewal Centre in Saskatoon.
The Good Samaritan (after
Delacroix) is by Vincent Van Gogh, 1890
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