15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 13, 2025

How can I be a better neighbor. and who exactly, is my neighbor?

Luke 10: 1–12, 17–20

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."

Music Meditations

You've Got a Friend—Judy Collins

The Summons

Love Goes On-- Bernadete Farrell

Whatsoever You Do

Preparation / Centering

If done in a group setting, the prompts are read aloud by the leader; otherwise a silent meditation.

Adapted from Sacred Space: The Prayer Book 2025

Presence of God:

Jesus, As I come to you today, fill my heart, my whole being, with the wonder of your sacred presence. Help me to become more aware of your presence in my life, and more receptive to that presence. I desire to love you as you love me. May nothing ever separate me from you.

[1-2 minutes of silence]

Freedom:

Jesus, Grant me the grace to have freedom of spirit. Keep me from being bound by desires and actions that are not good for me or others. Cleanse my heart and soul that I may live joyously in your love.

[1-2 minutes of silence]

Consciousness:

Where am I with God? With others in my life? What am I grateful for? Is there something I am sorry for, words or actions that have hurt others, and which I now regret? I take a moment to ask forgiveness of God and of those whom I have hurt. God, I give you thanks for your constant love and care for me. Keep me always aware of your presence in my life.

[2-3 minutes of silence]

Opening Prayer

Open my eyes, Lord, to the needs of those around me, to a world that is broken and in which the ‘unimportant” suffer. Give me courage to go beyond my discomfort and my fears to make someone’s life a little better, even if there is a cost. Give me compassion to see those with whom I disagree or whom I dislike as your children, beloved by you and hurting. Teach me to love my neighbor, in whatever guise I find “neighbor”.

Companions for the Journey

From a homily delivered at Memorial Church 2010:

Jesus' parable is not about the result, it's about human motivation and love. Which brings us to several questions we all face when confronted by the needs of others:

What is going to happen to me if I get involved?

To be honest, we learn early on is that being a "neighbor" might carry some risk. Risk of failure, risk of being misjudged, and worse, risk of being harmed. What's the payoff? Will I feel good for having done this? Will I be thanked, or even rewarded? Often we are prudent to the point of paralysis. The safest course of action is never to venture into the unknown, especially when it is to help someone who might be an unknown quantity. The gang member in the gutter could have been a decoy. The wounded man could have been lying in wait to rob a traveler who stopped to help We build walls between us: in our homes, neighborhoods, nation and in the world. Huge walls, whether physical, emotional, or simply metaphorical seem to be there to protect us, but in reality, they lock US into a world where our growth will be stunted and our generous impulses squelched, and our fear magnified.

Jesus wants to dismantle those walls, stone by stone. That's not an easy thing to do in a suspicious and selfish world.

What will happen to this person if I do not get involved

The reason the Samaritan stopped and helped is because he asked a totally different question: "What is going to happen to HIM if I DON"T get involved?".

What will happen to him if I don't get involved makes us realize that loving my neighbor is not optional. We are called to be neighbor to anyone who needs our help, whether they deserve it or not. (What exactly do we mean by the term "deserving poor?") Whether they were born here or not. Whether they are grateful or not. When another has need, Jesus teaches, then we are neighbors. There are no reserve clauses. The categories of family friend, stranger, enemy blur together when people are in need and I have the ability to respond. We don't even have to like the people who need our help, or agree with what they stand for. But what we can't do is turn our backs, ignore their desperation. Almost all of Jesus' actions of healing were responses to need, not rewards for good behavior. The first letter of John asks: "How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?"

Eli Weisel, the great Jewish writer said: "In the face of suffering, one has no right to turn away, not to see. In the face of injustice, one may not look the other way. When someone suffers, and it is not you, he comes first. His very suffering gives him priority".

What, possibly, can my involvement do to help?

When we talk about sin, we usually focus on bad things we have done, but the fact is that we commit way more sins of omission (inaction) than commission. There is nothing we can do to help, because the problem is so big. Overcoming hopelessness which leads to inertia is a big challenge. I am going to suggest that we can follow Blessed Teresa of Calcutta who said "If you can't feed a hundred hungry people, feed just one". We need to stop finding excuses for inaction, and pick something, anything, however small, and do it with great love: whether it is sending money to doctors without Borders working in Ukraine, campaigning for a candidate who is working for racial justice or for refugees, or the undocumented in this country. Anyone can do something.

And finally: Should I care?

Unfortunately, we have domesticated this parable into a pius platitude: "Love your neighbor," ignoring the real challenge Jesus puts to us: Just who is my neighbor, anyway? If the violence and anger that were on display this week is an indication of where we are as a country, we aren't feeling very "neighborly" right now. And that angry, judgmental feeling flies in the face of the hard message of this parable. Our neighbor is not just some who looks like us, speaks the same language, holds the same political opinions and prays in the same way we do. Our neighbor is often “the other": Our neighbors are refugees, immigrants, homeless people, people who are angry over the way those and others who look like them are treated, people who are in prison and people who put them there. Our neighbors are denizens of Main Street and denizens of Wall Street, citizens of this country and citizens of a country we are fighting with.

The major message of Jesus is hard to take: we cannot decide that certain people merit our concern and certain people are outside the pale. We have seen this week what comes of fear and hatred of "the other"--the "not-our-neighbor".

Who, exactly, is my neighbor?

Would not the Christian life look different if we spontaneously and unquestioningly heard "Save your soul" as "Save your neighbor"?

Christ has no body now but ours, so we are required to save one another in this lifeboat we call planet earth.

Who needs me to BE neighbor?

What will it cost me to make his life change for the better?

What will it cost her if I do nothing?

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today's session….

Go and do likewise

Living the Good News

Reflection Questions:

From Sacred Space:

Who is my neighbor? Jesus seems to suggest that it is the person whom I view with suspicion and don't like, or who views me with suspicion and doesn't like me.

Do I have any neighbors in this challenging sense of the word?

What is Jesus trying to say to me?

Who is the modern day equivalent of a Samaritan for me—someone from a different country or culture, someone from a different religion, someone with political views I find repellent, someone from the wrong neighborhood?

Do I mistrust them?

Dislike them?

Do I care what happens to them?

Do I think they care what happens to me?

Is there a “pecking order” of obligations, starting with family and only reaching those not in my “circle” when—“oops!”-- my funds and compassion are depleted?

Has God ever put someone in my path whom I would prefer to avoid?

When has loving someone else been inconvenient, costly, or difficult?

Were my efforts appreciated?

What are my expectations when I go out of my way to help someone else?

What happens when these expectations are not met?

How do I define mercy

To whom do I own mercy?

After praying with this parable, do I see that there are any changes in my schedule or financial priorities that I need to make?

Specifically, where do the poor and the marginalized fit in?

How am I like the injured man?

Am I willing to admit that I need help?

Has Jesus been a source of that help for me?

Has another, maybe even someone I do not know or admire, been a source of that help to me?

What does : moved with pity” say to me?

Have I ever been ‘moved with pity “ for someone and did it affect my behavior towards that person?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style: Asking Questions:

Father Patrick LaBelle, O.P. our first Dominican Campus Mininstry Chaplain, loved to preach on this parable. He said that the main lesson from this parable is that a lot of us, when faced with a need that is inconvenient, costly, or even dangerous, ask themselves the WRONG question. Our first question is very likely to be: “What will happen to me if I help this person?”. Father Patrick suggested that the question the Samaritan asked himself was the one we need to make our question: ”What will happen to this person or this situation if I do NOT intervene?” That is a difficult question to be asking ourselves sometimes and one we often fail to ask because the answer is not one we want to consider. Have you ever been in a situation where you were faced with someone else’s crisis and need to respond? What was your first question? Why is it sometimes a difficult thing to ask what might happen to this person if I do not help?

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Imagination:

Set this scene in today’s Gaza. Who is the sick or wounded person needing your help? Imagine the situation more fully. Where is this person? where are you? What else is going on? Is it night or day? What kind of help might this person need? Who would be the equivalent of the priest in this story? The Levite ( someone charged with caring for holy places or perhaps places sacred to one group or another) Why do you think they pass this person by? Noe it is your turn. What if this person is a decoy and the whole situation is a trap? Is this person from a group you have been known to fear? What, exactly do you think is wrong with him? How might you be able to help? What if it is a woman in a culture tht has strict rules about touching someone you are not married to? What can you do? What will you do? What do you think Jesus asks you to do?

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:

This parable makes us realize that loving our neighbor is not optional. We are called to be neighbor to anyone who needs our help, whether they deserve it or not. Whether they were born here or not. Whether we admire them or not. Whether they are grateful or not. Almost all of Jesus' actions of healing were responses to need, not rewards for good behavior

When another has need, Jesus teaches, then we are neighbors.

Jesus' command is very clear: "Go and do likewise".

This is the bottom line of this gospel.

We can't let ourselves off the hook.

You and I are to go and do likewise.

You and I are to go and do likewise

Go, and do likewise!

Poetic Reflection:

IN THE EVENING WE SHALL BE EXAMINED ON LOVE

-St. John Of the Cross

And it won't be multiple choice,

though some of us would prefer it that way.

Neither will it be essay, which tempts us to run on

when we should be sticking to the point, if not together.

In the evening there shall be implications

our fear will turn to complications. No cheating,

we'll be told and we'll try to figure the cost of being true

to ourselves. In the evening when the sky has turned

that certain blue, blue of exam books, blue of no more

daily evasions, we shall climb the hill as the light empties

and park our tired bodies on a bench above the city

and try to fill in the blanks. And we won't be tested

like defendants on trial, cross-examined

till one of us breaks down, guilty as charged. No,

in the evening, after the day has refused to testify,

we shall be examined on love like students

who don't even recall signing up for the course

and now must take their orals, forced to speak for once

from the heart and not off the top of their heads.

And when the evening is over and it's late,

the student body asleep, even the great teachers

retired for the night, we shall stay up

and run back over the questions, each in our own way:

what's true, what's false, what unknown quantity

will balance the equation, what it would mean years from now

to look back and know

we did not fail.

from Lights & Mysteries, by Thomas Centollela

Closing Prayer

Jesus, you have shown us how to live and how to love. Why do we sometimes find it so hard? Open our hearts, strengthen our resolve and give us your mercy. Accompany us on our journey ….