Homily For The Fifteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year C

The Question is no longer “Who’s my neighbor?” But “What Kind of Neighbor Am I?”

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fifteenth  Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

St. Gerard Majella Church

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Today’s gospel taken from Luke 10: 25-37 is about the dialogue between Jesus and a certain lawyer. The intention of this lawyer is not really to gain the knowledge, understanding and the wisdom needed to inherit eternal life, but to test Jesus: “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” But Jesus directs the question back to him and reminds him that he is an authority on God’s law: “(Tell me) what is written in the law? How do you read it? The lawyer answered by quoting the “Great Commandments:” 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.

Jesus acknowledges his knowledge of the Law, but immediately points out that the knowledge of the law is not enough. Knowledge of God’s law must lead to a God-centered life: “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” But the lawyer seeking to justify himself and also to test Jesus even further asks “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus is not ready to waste his time giving a dictionary definition of the word “neighbor.” So, he decides to tell him a parable that will drive home the points he is making:

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. A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. 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.

Then Jesus asks the learned man: “Which of these three, in your opinion was neighbor to the robber’s victim?” “The one who treated him with mercy.” he replied. Then Jesus drops the injunction: “Go and do likewise.” 

The scholar of the Law wants to define neighbor in reference to others. But Jesus defines neighbor in reference to him. He is also defining neighbor in reference to us. As far as Jesus is concerned, neighbor is not the object of the sentence, but the subject. Therefore, the question is no longer: “Who is my neighbor?” rather, “What kind of neighbor am I?” Now mark this: Our neighbor is not only the man on the side of the road; it is not only the woman sitting on the margins of the society. Our neighbor is not only the person who lives close to where we live. Our neighbor also includes the voice of the conscience that speaks from within us. If we can possibly avoid the neighbor outside, the neighbor that we see with our physical eyes, we may not be able to run away from the neighbor within us- the voice of the conscience. For us to compassionately and selflessly pay attention to the neighbor outside, we must first pay attention to the neighbor within- that is, the voice of conscience. It is this neighbor (the voice of the conscience) that ultimately urges us to treat each other with  respect and to love one another as Jesus loved us. While most of the needy neighbors we encounter daily are saying to us: “Please help me,” the neighbor within us speaks daily to us: “Please help him/her.” But the fundamental exhortation of the neighbor within us is this: “Do good, and avoid evil.” If we listen to the voice of the neighbor within us and do its bidding, we would most often than not, listen to the voice of the neighbor outside us that seeks our attention.    

Today’s Gospel has the following message for us:

i.  Be willing to help someone even when he or she was responsible for his/her plight.

ii. The needy are our neighbor.

iii. The help we render must be practical and not just merely feeling sorry. Saying “You are in my thoughts and prayers” is not enough. Feeling sorry is not enough. I am sure the priest and the Levite felt sorry for the wounded man. They may have said a prayer in their hearts as they walked away, but then, they did nothing. For compassion to be real, it must be demonstrated in deeds.

iv. Since our neighbor includes the voice of conscience speaking within us: “Do good and avoid evil,” we must strive to pay attention and listen to it, and carry out its bidding.

Beloved in Christ, as I said earlier on, the question today is no longer “Who is my neighbor?” rather “What kind of neighbor am I?” What Jesus said to the lawyer at the end of their dialogue: “Go, and do likewise” he also says to us today. Doing likewise will determine the kind of neighbor we are.