Contemplating today's Gospel
Today's Gospel + homily (in 300 words)
Meanwhile, Jonah had gone down into the hold of the ship, and lay there fast asleep. The captain came to him and said, «What are you doing asleep? Rise up, call upon your God! Perhaps God will be mindful of us so that we may not perish». Then they said to one another, «Come, let us cast lots to find out on whose account we have met with this misfortune». So they cast lots, and thus singled out Jonah. «Tell us», they said, «what is your business? Where do you come from? What is your country, and to what people do you belong?». Jonah answered them, «I am a Hebrew, I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land». Now the men were seized with great fear and said to him, «How could you do such a thing! They knew that he was fleeing from the Lord, because he had told them.
They asked, «What shall we do with you, that the sea may quiet down for us?». For the sea was growing more and more turbulent. Jonah said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea, that it may quiet down for you; since I know it is because of me that this violent storm has come upon you». Still the men rowed hard to regain the land, but they could not, for the sea grew ever more turbulent. Then they cried to the Lord: «We beseech you, o Lord, let us not perish for taking this man's life; do not charge us with shedding innocent blood, for you, Lord, have done as you saw fit». Then they took Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea's raging abated. Struck with great fear of the Lord, the men offered sacrifice and made vows to him. But the Lord sent a large fish, that swallowed Jonah; and Jonah remained in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. From the belly of the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God. Then the Lord commanded the fish to spew Jonah upon the shore.
For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the sea, and the flood enveloped me; all your breakers and your billows passed over me.
Then I said, «I am banished from your sight! Yet would I again look upon your holy temple».
When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; my prayer reached you in your holy temple.
But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 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. 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. 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.’ Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?” He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
“What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Fr. Ivan LEVYTSKYY CSsR (Lviv, Ukraine)Today the Gospel points us to the path of life: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart… and your neighbor as yourself” (Lk 10:27). And because God has first loved us, He draws us into union with Himself. St. Teresa of Calcutta once said: “We need this deep connection with God in our daily life. How can we obtain it? By prayer.” When we are united with God, we begin to experience that with Him all things are possible—even loving our neighbor.
Someone said that the Christian enters the church to love God and leaves it loving his neighbor. Benedict XVI emphasized that the Christian’s program—the program of the Good Samaritan, the program of Jesus—is “a heart which can see.” To see and to stop! In the parable, two men see the wounded traveler, but they do not stop. This is why Christ rebuked the Pharisees, saying: “Do you have eyes and not see?” (Mk 8:18). The Samaritan, on the other hand, sees and stops, is moved with compassion, and in doing so saves the life of the wounded man—and, in a way, saves his own as well.
When the famous architect Antoni Gaudí was struck by a streetcar, passersby did not stop to help the injured old man. He carried no identification, and by his appearance he looked like a beggar. If people had known who that neighbor was, they surely would have lined up to assist him.
When we do good, we may think we are doing it only for our neighbor. But in truth, we are also doing it for Christ: “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Mt 25:40). And my neighbor, as Benedict XVI reminded us, is anyone in need whom I am able to help. If each of us, upon seeing a neighbor in need, were to stop and show compassion once a day—or even once a week—the world would be a better place. For “Nothing makes us resemble God more than good deeds” (St. Gregory of Nyssa).
Thoughts on Today's Gospel
“For ours is no trifling aim, but our endeavour is for eternal life.” (Saint Cyril of Jerusalem)
“In the messianic programme of Christ, which is at the same time the programme of the Kingdom of God, suffering is present in the world in order to release love, in order to give birth to works of love towards neighbour.” (Saint John Paul II)
“(...) We cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves: ‘Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.’ (1 Jn 3:15) (....)” (Catechism Of The Catholic Church, Nº 1033)
Other comments
“The one who treated him with mercy.”
Brother Lluís SERRA i Llançana (Roma, Italy)Today, a Teacher of the Law asks Jesus the kind of question we may have asked ourselves more than once, in our life: “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Lk 10:25). He wanted to put Jesus to the test. The Master, though, wisely answers what is written in the Scriptures, that is, to love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself (cf. Lk 10:27). The key is to love. If we seek the eternal life, we know that faith and hope will go away, but love will remain forever (cf. 1Cor 13:13). Any life project, any spirituality, that does not have love in its center takes us further away from the actual meaning of our existence. An often forgotten but important reference point is to love oneself. Only from our personal identity can we love God and our neighbors.
The teacher of the Law goes still further when asking Jesus: “Who is my neighbor?” (Lk 10:29). And he gets his answer with a tale, a parable, a little story, far away from complicated theories, but with a clear message. The model of the loving person is a Samaritan, that is, someone who is a dropout, someone excluded from God's people. When they saw the man beaten and half-dead, a priest and a Levite just ignored him and passed by. Those who apparently are closer to God (the priest and the Levite) are those who are farther away from their neighbor. The teacher of the Law avoids saying the word “Samaritan” to state who did behave as neighbor to the wounded man: “The one who treated him with mercy” (Lk 10:37).
Jesus' proposal is clear: “Go and do likewise.” It is not a theoretical conclusion of the debate but an invitation to live the reality of love, which is not only an ethereal feeling but a behavior that overcomes social discrimination and arises from a person's heart. St. John of the Cross reminds us “at the twilight of your life you will only be examined of love.”
