This morning’s Gospel reading is Luke 10:25–37:
There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test him and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” 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.” He replied to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.”
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.”
“Won’t you be my neighbor?” For generations, children heard that gentle invitation from Fred Rogers in his mostly spoken-word theme song for his show Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. Mr. Rogers — it seems almost heretical to call him anything else — offered that invitation for fifty years to one and all, asking all of us to enter into a relationship with him without judgment or prerequisite. As someone who eventually graduated from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and was ordained a Presbyterian minister, Mr. Rogers’ faith clearly influenced this message, but it wasn’t exclusively bound to a particular faith.
Instead, Mr. Rogers wanted everyone to be his neighbor — and by extension, wanted to make himself a neighbor to all. In other words, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood had no boundaries, geographic or otherwise. Mr. Rogers not only modeled the grace of today’s parable from the Gospel, he made it seem very simple indeed. The proper scope of Jesus’ commandment to “love thy neighbor as thyself” (to quote the poetic King James version language) is as simple as it is universal.
That point comes across clearly in our first reading from Deuteronomy 30:10-14 too, and applies to more than just identifying one’s neighbors. Moses lectured the Israelites on making it too complicated and remote to successfully follow the Lord’s command. Not only is His Law not difficult to discern, Moses emphasized that He had already written it into their hearts:
“For this command that I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious and remote for you. It is not up in the sky, that you should say, ‘Who will go up in the sky to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?’ Nor is it across the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross the sea to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?’ No, it is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out.”
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Moses makes this very clear indeed. Complexity is a dodge, an excuse for rejecting the Lord’s commands, when compliance is as simple as aligning one’s heart with the Lord’s will. The Israelites knew what God wanted — all they had to do was to act out of love for Him and for each other. As Jesus teaches repeatedly and again in this parable, this is the encapsulation of the Ten Commandments.
What happens in this instance, however? A “scholar of the law” attempted to make it more complicated by insisting on a definition of “neighbor.” Luke notes this with the comment that the scholar wished to “justify himself.” How would this “justify” the scholar? By limiting precisely who qualifies as a neighbor, the scholar could then justify his impulse for un-neighborliness and selfishness. In other words, the scholar wants to insert complexity into simplicity as a way to avoid compliance, just the same impulse against which Moses inveighs in Deuteronomy.
In answer, Jesus chooses a hypothetical that rubs across a sore point for the Judeans — their neighbors and rivals, the Samaritans. Both groups considered themselves the True Chosen People, and both groups claimed that their temples held the exclusive legitimacy of sacrifice and worship. Their rivalry had grown so bitter that both shunned the other entirely, a point that comes up more than once in the Gospels.
Jesus makes use of this grudge to force the scholar to admit to the universal scope of the identity of “neighbor.” In this parable, Jesus asks the scholar to choose between a priest, a Levite, and a Samaritan as the true “neighbor” when the first two abandon a man in distress and the Samaritan offers true love of other instead. The scholar has no choice but to admit to Jesus that “neighbor” can be anyone and everyone — and in fact is anyone and everyone.
The clear lesson here is that grudges and rivalries create complications that blind us to the truth of God’s love. We are called to love each other as ourselves because we are all children of God, the result of His creation. That does not mean we will always agree, and it doesn’t mean we won’t suffer injury and insult. However, if we truly love the Lord, we must truly love His children no matter where we find them and no matter what injuries we recall, real or perceived. Anything else is just a form of self-justification to excuse sin and put our judgment ahead of the Lord’s.
As Mr. Rogers taught us for fifty years, it really is that simple. The sooner we realize that and act upon it, the sooner we can all have a beautiful day in the Lord’s neighborhood.
“Sunday Reflection” is a regular feature, looking at the specific readings used in today’s Mass in Catholic parishes around the world. The reflection represents only my own point of view, intended to help prepare myself for the Lord’s day and perhaps spark a meaningful discussion. Previous Sunday Reflections from the main page can be found here.
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