Reading: Deut. 30:10-14; Ps. 69; 2Col. 1:14-20; Luke 10:25-37
Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia
LOVING GOD AND OUR NEIGHBOURS IS WHAT GOD REQUIRES FROM US
As human beings, we are always desiring to know what life requires of us, especially when we are faced with the realities of life. We often want to know the things that should be our first priority. So we always ask questions that will help us in addressing most of the challenges we encounter.
These questions may come as sentiments or bias, which sometimes means to test our ability towards understanding the realities on the ground. This is the deposition of the lawyer in our Gospel passage today, who came to Jesus to test him by asking him a question concerning the requirements for inheriting eternal life.
This lawyer backing up his question with his knowledge of the ten commandment, made reference to the 'Shema Israel’, the prayer that the people of Israel knew and recite from their earliest years, from which they learned that the most important thing in life is to love God with all their heart, and with all thy soul, and with all their mind and to love their neigbhour as well.
In other words, loving God with all our heart, with all our understanding and strength, and loving our neighbour as ourselves is what is required of us, and it is the foundation of all the things we have to know and do. But this lawyer needed more clarification concerning these requirements, then he asked Jesus a second important question when he said: Who is my neighbour? At this point, Jesus did not just explain, he illustrated what a true neighbour should be with the famous story of the good Samaritan.
In this story, the man who was going down can be referred to as Adam, who represents humanity departing from paradise to the world. While Jerusalem is paradise, Jericho is the world. The robbers who maltreated the man are hostile powers of this passing world. The priest who passed by represents the Law, the Levite represents the prophets, and the good Samaritan is Christ, who came to save wounded humanity.
The wounds are disobedience, the beast is the Lord’s body, and the inn, which accepts all who wish to enter, is the Church. The manager of the inn is the head and ministers of the Church, who are entrusted with the care of human souls. The oil and wine represent the instruments they use in carrying out their ministry of healing, restoration and salvation. Finally, the Samaritan’s promises of returning soon represent the second coming of Christ.
In fact, from the story, Jesus did not just answer the question: ‘Who is my neighbour?’ He gave us the background of his mission and plans for saving wounded humanity and also demonstrated what a true and righteous neighbour should be like, thereby showing us that our neighbours are often those we least expect to be our neighbour. For our neighbour can be anyone, even the ones we most despise or fear, just like the good Samaritan, and this tells us that a true neighbour shows compassion, love, care and makes a sacrifice for others, just like our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is exactly what Moses is telling us in our first reading today when he said: Obey the voice of the Lord your God, keeping his commandments and laws. For this Law that I enjoin on you today is not beyond your strength or beyond your reach. It is not in heaven, so you need to wonder, “Who will go up to heaven for us and bring it down to us, so that we may hear it and keep it?” Nor is it beyond the seas, so that you need to wonder, “Who will cross the seas for us and bring it back to us, so that we may hear it and keep it?” No, the Word is very near to you, it is in your mouth and in your heart for your observance.
Dear friends, God has truly loved us, we must learn to do the same by sincerely loving one another. And as we know, love is the centre of all the teachings of Jesus. Hence, St Paul made us know in our second reading that Christ Jesus is the image of the unseen God and the first-born of all creation, for in him were created all things in heaven and on earth: visible and invisible.
Therefore, we are created in the image of God, who is Love, and this love is his nature, which we share, for love is a gift from God to humanity. It is like the stream water, so innocent and pure. True love is not hidden; it radiates from the innermost being of a person who has experienced it.
So, we must learn to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind, and our neighbour as ourselves.’ For if we love God, then, we will see him in others and treat them justly and honourably. We will not hurt our neighbours but do our best to live in peace with them.
The truth is that the absence of love is the cause of all the problems in our world today, as most families exist by grace and not by love. Imagine how wonderful the world would be if we all loved one another. How I wish we could invest our time and resources in ensuring love and unity in our dealings with one another. Believe me, we will not only be fulfilling the first and greatest commandments of God, but we will also be building a happy and peaceful society.
LET US PRAY: Almighty God, in you resides the fullness of love, grant that we may truly love you and our neighbours and so conquer the world full of hatred, self-centeredness, greed and corruption, we ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Happy Sunday to you all.
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