6 October 2014 Monday of the Twenty-seventh week in Ordinary Time Readings of day Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 10:25-37. There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus 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. He took him to an inn and cared for him “Who is my neighbor?” In answer the Word explained, in the form of a story, Gods entire economy of salvation. He told of mans descent from heaven, the robbers ambush, the stripping of the garment of immortality, the wounds of sin, the progress of death over half of mans nature while his soul remained immortal. Then came the passage of the Law that brought no help—neither the priest nor the Levite tended the wounds of the man who fell among robbers—for “it was impossible for the blood of goats and oxen to remove mans sin” (Heb 10,4). And then he came, clothed in our human nature as the first-fruits of the mass in which there was a portion of every race, Jewish, Samaritan, Greek—all mankind. With his body (that is, the beast of the story) he proceeded to the place of mans disaster, healed his wounds and set him upon his own beast. He created for him the inn of his loving providence, in which all those who labor and are burdened can find rest (Mt 11,28)… “Whoever abides in me, and I in him” (Jn 6,56)… Whoever finds shelter in Christ’s mercy accepts two denarii form him, one of which signifies the love of God with ones whole heart, and the other the love of ones neighbor as oneself, according to the lawyers reply (Mk 12,30f). But “not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified” (Rm 2,13). Hence we must not merely accept these two coins… but we must by our own good deeds cooperate in the fulfilment of these two commandments. And so the Lord says to the inn-keeper that whatever he does in caring for the wounded man will be made up to him at the Lords second coming according to the measure of his devotion.
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 04:21:39 +0000
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