15th Sunday Year C: Homily by Fr Isaac Chima
Theme: Who is my neighbour?
1st Reading: Deut. 30: 10–14; 2nd Reading: Col. 1:15–20; Gospel: 10:25–37
In every religion and culture, there is a teaching that calls for the love of ones’ neighbour. Such teaching always waters the soil for the practice of the golden rule: do to others what you want them to do to you. However, it appears that the understanding of ‘who one’s neighbor is’ has erroneous interpretations in the religions and cultures of different people. For example, among the Jews, the Samaritans cannot be seen as neighbors and, as such, should not be treated with love; for the Essenes of the Qumran community, neighbors are only those who share the same religious faith with them; for the Zealots, neighbors are only those who share the same nationality and ethnicity with them; for some Muslims, Christians should not be treated as neighbors, but as infidels; even for many of us, when the word neighbour is mentioned, our minds run to our kinsmen and kinswomen, those who live close to our houses, our colleagues in school or at work. While it is true that all these people I just mentioned (our kinsmen and kinswomen, our colleagues, and those who live close to us, etc.) are our neighbours, something would be missing if these people are the only neighbours we know.
Therefore, In the gospel of today, Jesus uses His answer to the question of the teacher of the law to tell us what has been missing in the understanding of ‘who ones’ neighbor is’ according to the interpretations of many religions and cultures. In fact, he tells us what the understanding of ‘who my neighbour is’ should be in Christianity; His response is a revolution to the old understanding of who a neighbor is or should be.
Let us look at the scenario of the story in the parable of the gospel of today to draw the first lesson Jesus is giving us. The parable said that the man who fell in the hand of robbers was travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho. Dear friends, the road from Jerusalem to Jericho was a lonely one during the time of Christ, very rocky with sudden turnings that made it easy for criminals to operate successfully. Thus, it was advised that anyone making a journey on that road should go with escorts, so that robbers will not attack him. But the victim in the parable of today decided to travel alone, that was why he fell in the hands of robbers. It could, therefore, be said he was not careful about his own safety.
Though that man could be said to have been careless with his safety and, thereby, brought trouble upon himself, Jesus asked that he should be helped. What does the position of Jesus teach us? It simply teaches us that our helping hands must be extended even to those who are responsible for the misfortunes they are going through. So, Christians should not refuse help to those who are the cause of their own failures. We should not say, “leave him to die because we warned him, and he refused to listen to us.”
Thus, in the gospel of today, instead of pointing at the people around him as the neighbors of that teacher of the law who wanted to know who his neighbor is, Jesus chose to tell the story of a man in need of help. What Jesus meant is that the neighbours of Christians include those who are in need of help, even if they brought their misfortunes upon themselves. In fact, such people are our real neighbours, they deserve our help.
Therefore, dear friends, who is our neighbor? our neighbours are not only those who are from the same country with us, those who share the same race with us, those live close to our houses, our kinsmen and kinswomen, our fellow Christians, our colleagues in school or at work, but they also include those in need of help: those who have been wounded by poverty, those who have been wounded by hunger, those who have been wounded by ignorance, those who have been wounded by toxic relationships, those who have been wounded by lack of job, those who have been wounded by corrupt government systems, those who have been wounded by cultural practices, etc. Whoever is in need of help is the neighbour of a Christian, that person is your neighbor, even if he is from another family, another religion, another culture or country, because Jesus has made us one.
The Samaritan in the parable of today broke down the racial dividing wall that separated Jews and Samaritans. He understood that whoever is in need of help is his brother, his sister and his neighbor, no matter where the person comes from. So, dear friends, let us go to the streets and the highways this week and treat those in need like our neighbours through our helping hands.
As we do this, we should remember that we don’t have to be too rich — financially comfortable — before we can help those in need. Some people do say that they don’t have enough money for themselves and, therefore, they can’t help others. In the gospel of today, the Samaritan did not have enough money on him, but his lack of enough money did not stop him from helping the man in need of help, rather, he carried the wounded man to a place where he will be cared for, then he deposited the little money he had and pledged to pay any balance later. This is love and charity for one’s neighbor at work. Let us emulate him as we encounter the needy in the streets this week.
Peace be with you. Have a blessed new week
Fr. Isaac Chinemerem Chima