SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI (MEMORIAL)

You have answered correctly, do this and you will live. 

You almost wish that this scholar of the law would have stopped while he was ahead. He had correctly identified the greatest commandments—love God with your whole being and love your neighbor as yourself. Everything was going well. Even Jesus approved!

But then he pressed on. Luke tells us it was because “he wished to justify himself” (10:29). He was testing the limits of the commandment: how far did he have to go in order to be justified? Exactly who qualifies as this “neighbor” he was expected to love?

Did Jesus sigh or roll his eyes? We don’t know. What we do know is that Jesus took this opportunity to tell a parable to illustrate that his command to love has no limits. Loving your neighbor includes taking care of a stranger. It includes helping someone you think of as an enemy. It includes risking yourself for someone caught on the “margins.”

The scholar seemed to want to soften the law and exempt himself from any obligation to some of his more needy, or less “acceptable,” neighbors. But let’s not be too quick to point fingers at him. We have probably all wondered what is the least we need to do to get by. Or maybe we’ve tried to limit the commandments so that they don’t require quite so much sacrifice.

That’s why Jesus tells us how far we should go in order to follow his law of love. But how do we do that? How do we imitate the good Samaritan? By paying attention to the people “at the side of the road.” We can begin with the people right in front of us. Instead of passing over them, we can be sensitive to their needs—even the ones who bother us or drain our patience. If we can do just that, we’ll begin to experience the Spirit expanding our hearts.

It might sound challenging, but remember that the Spirit lives in you to help you live in God’s love. Loving God puts you in touch with his limitless mercy. And that mercy provides the fuel for you to open your heart and your hands to the neighbors who most need your love.

“Jesus, help me to embrace your limitless mercy. Teach me how to love.”

Jonah 1:1–2:2, 11
(Psalm) Jonah 2:3-5, 8
Luke 10:25-37

WORD AMONG US