On the Road to Jericho, I am a Samaritan: What about You?
Deuteronomy 30:10-14; Colossians 1:15-20; Luke 10:25-37
The book of “Deuteronomy,” from where our first reading is taken, means “second law.” In other words, the Law of the Lord was either forgotten or abandoned, which warranted the need to revamp it. You know what, it is high time we, too, revamped the laws of the Lord in our lives today. If that Law stood our ancestors in good stead in the past, it can do the same for us today who are faced with genocides, gun violence, abortion, etc.
Laws normally get negative press because the majority of people find them difficult to keep. What is more, our societies have got many laws, ranging from constitutional, criminal to bylaws. God is aware of this, so he summarizes his laws as “love of God and neighbor.” To love God is to love one’s neighbor. How simple!
The lesson today is that the laws of the Lord are not things to be memorized or to be avoided. The Law of the is RELATIONSHIP, not REGULATIONS! It is about who we should be and become and not what to avoid. It is about the cultivation of virtues and right or Christian relationships.
From the gospel of today, we all live on the road “from Jerusalem to Jericho,” it only depends on our direction, whether we are facing Jericho or Jerusalem. Our gospel tells the story of a man on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he was robbed and left for dead! This is the picture of the moral bankruptcy of our time! To take the road to Jericho is to be exposed to robbers and assassins; it is to be vulnerable to all sorts of ills and potential violence. To face Jericho is to turn one’s back on Jerusalem, the city of God, the center of the practice of virtues and God’s Law. Worse still, the inhabitants of this road, who are neither the residents of Jerusalem nor Jericho, have created a buffer zone for themselves, thinking that they are innocuous both to God’s laws or human clutches. This is the zone of sinners and the morally bankrupt!
Jesus’ face, on the contrary, is turned towards Jerusalem; Jesus goes up to Jerusalem, facing up to all the ruggedness and violence of the road. This is climbing up the higher moral ground, despite all odds. Odds of brigands and assassins. Yes, not only Jesus, Samaritans too ply that route; those who are the non-conformists of our time – these are Christians, the Samaritans of today; those who still listen to the voice of God and respect his laws, against the odds of sin and atheistic liberal democracy and despotic market economy.
“Go and do likewise.” This is Jesus’ injunction to you and me – become a lover of your neighbor, especially the dying and vulnerable, a person with a compassionate heart, a person who takes the moral higher ground and highway. This person is a Christian! We know this because that is what Jesus did for us, and he invites us to do the same!
Our second reading epitomizes the audacity of Christians – imitation of Christ. St. Paul realizes the importanceof being like Christ that is why he says of Christ, in our second reading today: “Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation” (Colossians 1:15). In other words, to see God is to see Christ, the image of God. Likewise, wherever a Christian is, there is Christ, for a Christian is the image of Christ and his ambassador. It is the lifestyle of a person that shows whether he/she is a Christian or not, not just their words!
Our collective road to Jericho, the violence and iniquities of our generation, will only cease if we decided to face Jerusalem and opt for the moral high ground of Christian virtue, despite the its consequences upon our private security and comfort. In fact, a true Christian sacrifices his comfort for the comfort of his neighbor; he/she receives the bullet destined for his neighbor and his enemies because he does not have any enemies, only neighbors. As for me, I am a Samaritan, a modern-day Christian: what about you?
*Assignment for the Week* :
Can you seek out and help any victims of accidents, robbery, rape, etc this week?