“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." (Lk 10:25-37)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/100625.cfm
The commandment to love God and love neighbor trips us up every time. The parable of the Good Samaritan starts out apparently as an anti-clerical joke (the priest and the levite pass by on the other side). But Jesus quickly turns the tables on us when the hero is not a simple layman, but rather the enemy of the man dying in the ditch. Jesus says, "Go and do likewise." Unfortunately, we would rather destroy our enemies rather than save them. https://youtu.be/YYjurJyJN7g?si=9b7exJzi0ncEC7Xl
These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.
Monday XXVII, Ordinary Time
