Holy Spirit Catholic Church
Homilies
Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (c) 2010
July 11, 2010
Author Daniel Goleman tells of a man entering the Times Square subway
station. As is usually the
case in New York, people were in a hurry, running down the stairs to get
to the subway platforms. As
this man descended the stairs he saw a man who appeared to be
unconscious sprawled across the stairs, shirtless and shabby.
People in their hurry were either stepping around or even
stepping over him. No one
stopped. No one even paid
attention
The
man was shocked at the inhumanity.
Upset, he chose to stop and see what was wrong.
Then something amazing happened.
When this one man stopped to help, others began to stop.
One person ran to get water.
Another went to a hot dog stand to get some food.
Someone found a police officer, another called 911 for an
ambulance. It was discovered
that the man spoke only Spanish.
He had no money and had been wandering the streets of New York,
starving, until he fainted.
Goleman points out how it took only one person stopping to get others to
show their own humanity and concern.
Goleman also describes a set of experiments in which volunteers were
asked if they would be willing to get an electric shock in place of
someone else. As part of the
experiment, the volunteers could not see the "victim" who was to get the
shock, but they were given a description of the person for whom they
were being asked to substitute.
The results were clear.
The more unlike the volunteer the victim was, the less likely the
person would volunteer to take the shock.
"Deuteronomy" means "Second Law."
It is the last book of the Torah which consists of Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
The Hebrew word "torah" means "instruction."
Together these books are often referred to simply as "The Law."
In Greek the Torah is called the "Pentateuch," which means "five
books."
Deuteronomy has nothing in it that is not already contained in the first
four books, and in fact it is a repetition of most of the Law.
The book was not written until late, probably the time of the
Babylonian exile, which
means that Moses, the primary speaker in Deuteronomy, had been dead for
centuries.
What
the writer or writers of Deuteronomy are doing is putting into Moses'
mouth explanations of the Law.
More important, Deuteronomy corrected the way people had come to
live their faith, sought to renew their observance of the Law and showed
the hope that living the Law offers.
Today's passage from Deuteronomy tells us something very basic: the Law
of the Lord is easy to know.
It is no more complicated than the Ten Commandments.
Keeping the Law is how we love the Lord with "all your heart and
all your soul." Knowing the
Law is not mysterious or remote.
It is not out of our reach.
Moses tells us that the real difficulty is not merely knowing the
Law, but keeping it!
The
lawyer who questioned Jesus asked the right questions even if it was not
for the right reason, that is, to trip up Jesus.
Jesus, being Jesus, reversed the situation and used the
opportunity not only to shame the lawyer, but also to teach us something
new.
For
the Jews of Jesus' day, a "neighbor" was defined as a fellow Jew.
Jesus' parable was explosive because he completely changed the
understanding of neighbor.
Samaritans were regarded as only half Jewish.
After the conquest of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, Assyria
relocated many of the inhabitants to other parts of their kingdom and
moved other people into what had been Israel.
It was a way of keeping control.
As was the custom, these non-Jews adopted the religion of the
land, that being Judaism, but those in the Southern Kingdom could never
accept them. Their animosity
and prejudice ran deep
The
priest and the Levite were within their rights not to stop to aid the
injured man, for by doing so they would risk ritual impurity.
But the compassion shown by the Samaritan showed that ritualistic
law lacked compassion. More
important to the story, however, the victim was never described or
identified. We are called to
be "Good Samaritans," but more important, we owe our compassion to
everyone regardless of who they are.
We
must be careful that we see the people in need in front of us, and see
the need regardless of who they are.
We must know God's "Law of Love" and find ways to live it in our
daily lives!