15th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Fr. Leo
A Judaic scholar asked Jesus, “What must I do to inherit everlasting life?” His question is already answered in our first reading by Moses who teaches that God’s ways are within our hearts. All we need to do is carry it out. Jesus appeals to this inner understanding of the way of God when he asked his audience who showed compassion to the man beaten and left for dead.
When They admitted it was a Samaritan, they were also owning up to the fact that their religious laws did not live up to the will of God. The hated one showed compassion and no religious rationalizing could deny it.
As we grow in the Spirit of Jesus Christ and live in communion with the Father and the Spirit, we gain another perspective that transcends time, space, and cultic religious practice. Knowing beyond doubt what love requires, we know when we need to act differently than what the expectations of our society and even the church may insist is right.
We each have a conscience and we must pray for the honesty to know God’s ways and the courage to live His truth into reality whatever the cost. Jesus laid his life down for love and with his grace we can willingly and lovingly do the same. We live in a time of great tension and the pull of light and darkness is all around us.
Only grounding ourselves in God will give us the vision of truth and love exemplified in Christ. The Spirit, we pray, can guide us through the darkness and bring us fully into the intense light of God. Let us pray for the gifts of the Spirit that God’s love and truth may be our way, our truth and our life.