7th Trinity III, 2021, Here is Everywhere

7^th Trinity III

Luke 10:25-37 

On one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"

He answered, "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, 'Love your neighbor as yourself."

"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this, and you will live."

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

 In reply, Jesus said, "A man was going

Van Gogh

down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.  A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.  So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 

"But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.  He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.' "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"

The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."

Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."

7th August Trinity

September 5, 2021

Luke 10:25-37

Christ affirms that to love God with one's whole being and to love one's fellow human beings as well as oneself is the path to eternal life. Love directed outward, beyond oneself, overcomes the deadening effects of mere self-love. Yet there comes our somewhat defensive next question: which of my fellow human beings am I supposed to love? Christ's answer in story form is— Not just my family, not just my own tribe or those with whom I can identify. Any fellow human being whom I happen upon along the way can be the recipient of a love that expresses itself in concrete action. For it is our deeds, not our feelings, that live beyond the boundaries of this life.
The key here is to regard others with an attitude of mercy, of loving-kindness. And then we give and do what we can.

Corrine Vonaesch

It may be that in the story of the Good Samaritan, the priest and the Levite felt that they could not touch the unclean man because they were on their way to do work that required their ritual cleanliness. The Samaritan, though despised by the Jews, was truly free to help (or not). He helps a stranger in both a personal, hands-on way and also by deputizing and paying the innkeeper to complete the work involved with the man's healing. He is thereby pulling in others to help. And he thus also maintains his own freedom to help the next victim he finds, to further practice his love for his fellow human beings.

Christ is saying that our neighbor is not necessarily one whom we know, the one who lives next door. It is also the stranger whom we meet along the way. It is we who are to act neighborly. The poet Wislawa Szymborska expresses the universality of this:

Some fishermen pulled a bottle from the deep. It held a piece of paper, with these words: "Somebody save me! I'm here. The ocean cast me on this desert island.

I am standing on the shore waiting for help. Hurry! I'm here!" 

"There's no date. I bet it's already too late anyway.

It could have been floating for years," the first fisherman said. 

"And he doesn't say where. It's not even clear which ocean," the second fisherman said. 

"It's not too late, or too far. The island Here is everywhere," the third fisherman said.*

 

* "Parable," in Poems New and Collected 1957-1997, trans. S. Baranczak and C. Cavanagh

 

7th August Trinity 2018, No Hands But Yours

7^th August Trinity

Luke 10: 25 - 37

van Gogh

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

He answered, “‘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, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

In reply, Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.  A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.  So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.  But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.  He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him.  The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

7th August Trinity

Sept 2, 2018

Luke 10:25-37

Corrine Vonaesch

One way into understanding the gospel parables is to consider each of the characters as parts of a single human being.  The man who was robbed and beaten represents that part of all of us traveling on life’s path - a part of our soul has been robbed of our spiritual wealth and beaten down until our souls are half-dead. 

There also lives in each of us a priest and temple servant who serve the first part of the commands of the law, the part about serving God with one’s whole heart, mind, and strength. It is a holy office, requiring that one show up at the appointed time, ritually clean, for a service performed on behalf of the whole people. 

And we all have an inner Samaritan, a foreign stranger traveling through life, who is under no tribal obligation to help a Hebrew from Jerusalem. And yet help he does, purely out of human compassion. He fulfills the second part of the commandment, the part about loving whoever one stands next to. He does so not only by personally ministering to the wounded but also by paying someone else to continue his efforts.

What Christ is saying is that our ritual observances toward God are only a part of what serving God means. We also need to fulfill the second part of the commandment, the commandment of love for our fellow human beings. We need to find within ourselves healing ways to serve the God within others. This does not necessarily have to be dramatic. But we need to be able to inwardly pause and help others we encounter along the way. We can comfort with a kind word or even a smile. We can offer something that helps soothe a wounded soul. We can help someone in whatever way we can toward their own healthier future. We can even, if necessary, make it possible for someone else to do it for us. And we can always pray for others.

Christ as Good Samaritan, Codex Rossanensis

We turn towards God with all the strength of all our soul’s capacities. And we turn toward our fellow human beings with the strength of our love. Love manifests not only in thoughts and feelings but most especially in deeds. For we are God’s hands on earth. As St. Theresa of Avila said, 

Christ has no body now but yours

No hands, no feet on earth but yours

Yours are the eyes through which He looks
compassion on this world
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

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