A reading from the gospel according to Luke 10:25-37

25 There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?”
27 He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
28 He replied to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.”
29 But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 Jesus replied, “A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead.
31 A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
32 Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
33 But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight.
34 He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn, and cared for him.
35 The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, ‘Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.’
36 Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?”
37 He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

Reflection: Love In Action

Two Important Questions

There are two very important questions in the gospel reading above:
1. How do we inherit eternal life?
2. Who is our neighbor?

A scholar of the law asked these two questions to Jesus. (Scholars love asking questions even if they already know the answer. They enjoy intellectual entertainment very much.) Jesus threw back the first question but He went to tell a story in order to answer the second question.

Indeed we cannot inherit eternal life unless we love. God is love and we cannot be reunited with Him if we are devoid of love. First, we love God with all our being because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). Our whole being came from Him and dependent on Him. Next, we shall love our neighbor as ourselves. So who is our neighbor? With the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus gives the answer. It is anyone who is in need regardless of ethnicity, nationality or religion.

It is noteworthy that the person to whom Jesus told the parable was a scholar who must be aware of the enmity between the Jews and the Samaritans. Yet, Jesus gave honor to the Samaritan as the hero in the parable, not the priest or the Levite who was expected to help the wounded man but both deliberately chose to go away.

Love is action and the Samaritan in the parable showed us how to love in full. It does not matter to him who the victim was. He was just compassionate, period. He does stop at putting bandage on the wound. He brought the victim to a nearby clinic and gave money for the latter’s needs just in case. He does not even mind whether the victim will repay him or not.

At the end of the story, Jesus tells the scholar to go and do just like the Good Samaritan. That is how to inherit eternal life!

*****

It is easy to define and explain what love is but to put it into practice is the harder part. Many times the people we expect to be our example of Christian living are the ones who fail to live up to our expectation. On the other hand, the people we least expect or even look down are the ones who truly live the gospel message of love. The good Samaritan shows us what authentic Christianity means.

Commentary:
1. Who were the Samaritans? – They were the people of Samaria who had a long history of disagreement with the Jews but both people believed in Abraham as their common ancestor.
2. Who is a Levite? He is a member of the Tribe of Levi, the third son of Jacob and Lea. In biblical times, he served particular religious duties for the Israelites such priestly duties.

3. The road from Jerusalem to Jericho was a tortuous and dangerous one, about eighteen miles long. see map below.