Well, this Good Samaritan story is, of course, one of the most
familiar to us in all of Scripture. And in this Gospel passage three
questions are asked: What must I do to inherit eternal life? Who is
my neighbor? And, which of these three was neighbor to the victim?

What must I do to inherit eternal life? Well, as I said when I
preached on Trinity Sunday, the Scripture is very clear and it’s
repeated today very, very, very clearly indeed. Love God totally and
your neighbor as yourself. There is nothing more important. There is
nothing that should supercede it in our conversation, our writing,
our preaching. We should never tire of hearing about love because God
is love. It is of course, the putting into practice of all this that
causes the problems for us. And so, we are guided by the words of
Jesus in Holy Scripture and by the ancient traditions and teachings
of our Church.

But who is my neighbor? Well, it is easy enough to say everyone. But
the reality is that one of the main ways that a group maintains its
own identity is by underlining the differences between it and other
groups. And that is why the Jews and the Samaritans were such bitter
enemies, and why Jesus picked this figure of the Samaritan to
underline his message. The difficult thing for any group is to
maintain its own identity without despising others. Intense loyalty
can promote hostility towards other. And bloodshed and massacre can
easily follow, as history and present reality show us very, very
clearly indeed. As Christians we are asked to reach out to all, while
maintaining loyalty to our own Christian traditions. And as
Catholics, we are required to honor and respect other Christian
traditions while taking pride in our own. Now, this admittedly is
very difficult to do. And yet, the word of Jesus really leaves us
with no choice. The words of Scripture leave us with no choice.

What must I do to inherit eternal life? Love God and love my
neighbor. And all of humanity is the one creation of God and there is
more uniting us than there is dividing us. You may recall the musings
of Shylock in the Merchant of Venice. “I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew
eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections,
passions, fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by
the same winter and summer as a Christian is?” I think Shylock got it
right. Shakespeare got it right. There is no difference between
people, be it race, color, or creed or religion that gives any group
the right to despise others. So, let the Scriptures tell you who your
neighbor is. There are lots of people, individual and groups, that
really cry out for our Christian compassion.

And that brings us to the third question. Which of these three was
neighbor to the victim? The answer in the Gospel is “the one who had
compassion.” Now, some translations say “the one who had mercy.” But
I prefer the word “compassion.” It’s a much richer, deeper word. It
means “suffering with.” That’s what compassion means. It means
feeling deep within ourselves the anguish and the sorrow and the
suffering of all of humanity. In our culture we speak about the heart
as the center of affections. In the Jewish world and in the Greek
that was used in the Scripture, they used the word “the bowels.” They
talk about the bowels of compassion. And they talk about the bowels
of God’s compassion, the compassion of Jesus. And this word also
applied here to the Good Samaritan, that he felt compassion in his
bowels. In the depth of his being he felt this compassion. And so he
is compared to God in the great compassion that he felt for this
victim. The compassion of God, so much praised in Scripture, took
flesh in Jesus, as Paul said in the reading today. “Christ Jesus is
the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation. In
him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and through him to
reconcile all things.” To reconcile all things.... That is, to bring
everything and everyone together as creatures of the one God. And you
will, I am sure, recall some of the compassionate words of Jesus: “Be
healed. .... Young man, I say to you ‘Arise’ .... Lazarus, come
forth. .... Your sins are forgiven. .... Neither will I condemn you.
Go now and sin no more....” Doesn’t this say something to us?

As Christians, we are asked to “put on” the Lord Jesus. Wonderful
expression! “To put on the Lord Jesus,” like we put on our clothes.
And that means a daily effort to express the compassion of Jesus,
especially for the wounded, the marginalized and the most vulnerable.
We just cannot pass by on the other side of the road. And all the
great concerns of today, healthcare, immigration, poverty,
homelessness, the genocide that is going on in Darfur, the war in
Iraq and Afghanistan, the unrest in Palestine and Israel, all would
surely benefit from our approaching them with Christian compassion
because they all deal with people who are suffering. And these people
are our neighbors. They may not be of our race, or nationality or
religion. But the gospel does regard them as our neighbors. And so,
our love, our concern, our compassion must reach out to them. And it
is the only way that they are going to see the face of God. And
indeed it is the only way that we ourselves will inherit eternal life.

And so, the three questions remain: Who is my neighbor? Am I neighbor
to the victims of our society? And, what must I do to inherit eternal
life? And these are not abstract questions. So, let today’s gospel,
indeed the whole teaching of Jesus, inform our answers. Amen.