2025 Jul 13 SUN: FIFTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dt 30: 10-14/ Ps 69: 14. 17. 30-31. 33-34. 36. 37 OR Ps 19: 8. 9. 10. 11/ Col 1: 15-20/ Lk 10: 25-37

We have all heard from teachers and other people that there is no such thing as a dumb question. No such thing as a stupid question.

We may find ourselves having to ask quite fundamental questions, for instance, if we're in an unfamiliar situation and we just have to get ourselves oriented. We have a case here of someone who is afraid that he has asked a dumb question.

This scholar of the law reminds me of the wealthy man that we also find in the Gospel who asks the same question. And it seems as if both of them want to figure out how to get this salvation thing sewn up, because it is such an inconvenient thing to have to be thinking about salvation all the time.

This man has to give himself credit, because when he answered Jesus' question about what is in the law, he took two laws that are in different books of the Torah and put them together. That is actually something to be proud of.

But after he receives that answer from Jesus, he feels embarrassed. He thinks, "I just asked him a dumb question." And so he had to justify himself by going deeper, and he latches on to that word "neighbor." He asks, "Who is my neighbor?" And Jesus definitely has an answer for him.

So we have this man who has been robbed, stripped, beaten up, and is in a terrible condition on the road. And then along comes what we could call a professional religious person.

And what does that professional religious person do? He says, "I didn't see that." And likewise, another, a Levite, likewise a priest, comes along, sees what has happened in the road. And he says, "I didn't see that." 

And then Jesus says that a third person comes along, and he is a Samaritan.

Now it's kind of strange. The origins of the division between Jews and Samaritans is rather obscure. But it may be somewhat like the situation of our own families, where maybe there's one branch of the family that we don't have anything to do with.

And someone might ask, "Why is that?" And the reply may come back, "I don't remember." But there was this split.

Well, the Samaritan who is looked down upon by the Jews acts with compassion. He is reading the law which is in his heart.

He's in an unexpected situation, but he knows that he has the time and he has the money to address this situation. And he is doing precisely what Moses is talking about. When Moses says, "The law is not up in the sky. The law is not across the sea. It is right here in your heart. You have only to carry it out."

So we have to think very deeply about the answer that Jesus gives to this scholar of the law. And it is interesting that this man cannot bring himself to say "the Samaritan." He says: "the one who treated him with mercy." And Jesus says, "Yes, that is what it means to be a neighbor." And he says, "I respond to the common humanity of all of us in spite of any barriers we may put up." 

In addition, we're beginning to read from St. Paul's letter to the Colossians, which begins with actually a hymn, a canticle, which describes Jesus as the firstborn of all creatures. That line has caused us a lot of trouble. It was especially troublesome in the very early Church. People read that line and said, "Oh, Jesus is not God. There was a time when he was not." But we corrected that mistaken notion.

In fact, it's been said that it's probably well to translate that line, the firstborn OVER all creation. And we remember that there is another line in there that echoes that line. It is the line, "He is the firstborn from the dead." It's good for us to keep those two lines of this canticle in our mind and in our heart, remembering that Jesus toward us has been the good Samaritan, responding to the sorry state, the state of sin that we find ourselves in. He has responded to us on the road and he has lifted us up.