Sunday, July 14, 2019

Won't you be my neighbor


The scholar of the law asks Jesus: "What must I do to inherit eternal life?"   This is a question many of us might like to ask Jesus:  What do I need to do, what are the rules, maybe even what is the least I can do to sneak into heaven?

So, Jesus asks him what the law says, and he responds correctly as you would expect from a lawyer: love God and love your neighbor.   Then, he asks Jesus the tough question:  "Who is my neighbor?"   He was probably thinking that he was willing to love his family and his friends but he certainly didn't want to love his enemies or the downtrodden. 

So, Jesus responds with the well-know parable about the Good Samaritan.  The priest and the Levite passed by the man on the opposite side.  But, the Samaritan was moved with compassion at the sight of the man who had been beaten and left half- dead.  The Samaritan treated the man's wounds, took him to an inn, and paid the innkeeper to care for him.
People hearing this story would have made excuses for the priest and the Levite. The victim was left half dead we are told. If they touched the man and he were dead they would have become ritually unclean and not allowed to officiate or participate in Temple worship, which their positions required. Others will defend the two men saying they were alone on a notoriously dangerous road. This could have been a set up, a trap for a solitary traveler.

Jesus does not condemn the two who passed by. But he refocuses our attention on one person, a foreigner, the Samaritan, who crossed over to the other side and took a chance to help the victim.   What is it that makes people reach out to others in their time of need? 
  
When my children were growing up, they often watched Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.  Mr. Rogers always sang the song: "Won't you be my neighbor?"   I couldn't help but think about that song as I reflected upon today's Gospel.  How neighborly am I?  How often do I reach out to someone I barely know? 
 
As a nation, we are becoming increasingly divided.  It seems to me that we are more divided now than we have been at any time during my lifetime, except maybe during the Vietnam War.  And this division has caused some to hunker down and not reach out to others, especially those who aren't like us.  When we ignore others and don't reach out to those who need our help, we are like the priest and the Levite who pass by on the opposite side. 
As Christians, as disciples of Christ, we should share his love and compassion with our neighbor.  One way to express love for one’s neighbor is to perform works of mercy.  There are fourteen such works, seven spiritual and seven corporal.  The spiritual works of mercy are: to convert the sinner; to instruct the ignorant; to counsel the doubtful; to comfort the sorrowful; to bear wrongs patiently; to forgive injuries; and to pray for the living and the dead. The corporal works of mercy are: to feed the hungry; to give drink to the thirsty; to clothe the naked; to shelter the homeless; to visit the sick; to visit the imprisoned; and to bury the dead.  At first, this list may seem to be daunting.  But, we don't have to do all of them.  We can just begin with one or two works or mercy to share Christ's love with others.

We may get discouraged by the problems that we see in our world today because we cannot do much to fix them.  We cannot have much of an impact on the abandoned and sick at our borders.  We probably cannot even do much to assist the beggars that we see when we attend a football or baseball game in Cincinnati.  While we can give them some money, we're not even sure if we are helping or hurting them by doing this. 

So, what can we do?  There are lots of people in Lebanon and even in our parish who are hurting physically, emotionally, or spiritually.  There are older people who need a helping hand or a friend.  There are young adults who might appreciate the wisdom and friendship of a senior citizen.  We can attend funerals of parishioners to support the family and set an example of Christian charity.  And there are many volunteer opportunities for us to reach out to others in our community or our parish.  We would be helping those in need through spiritual and corporal works of mercy.

We can welcome strangers in our lives as well, even those we don’t particularly care for.  When we take the time to get to know our neighbor, we will normally find some things about him or her that we can relate to.  We have a responsibility as Christian people to invite the refugees in our midst as our brothers and sisters.  Christ passes no one on the roadside.

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