SỐNG VÀ CHIA SẺ LỜI CHÚA-15TH SUNDAY-C

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Category: 3. Sống & Chia Sẻ Lời Chúa
  •  
    Mo Nguyen
    Jul 14 at 12:05 AM
     
     

                     REMOVING THE LABEL

     

                        FIFTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME / C  

                                                      14 JULY 2019                                

                                     REFLECTIONS ON THE GOSPEL

                                                      (Luke 10: 25-37)

                                                 REMOVING THE LABEL

    Centuries of familiarity with the phrase ‘Good Samaritan’ have dulled us to the shock involved in putting together the two terms – ‘good’ and ‘Samaritan’ – in the time of Jesus. For Jews at that time Samaritans were not ‘good’ but ‘bad’ (see John 4:9). Equivalents today would be ‘good terrorist’ or ‘good people smuggler’.

    So we can ask, as Jesus tells the parable, what would his Jewish audience have expected when they learn that the third traveller on the road is a Samaritan? Surely in contrast to the priest and Levite, he won’t just pass by. He’ll see if there are any more valuables to rob and perhaps finish the man off once and for all!

    But, surprise! Surprise! When this alien approaches the wounded man, it is not to injure or exploit him but to exercise practical compassion in a most extreme degree.

    The Samaritan does not see a conventional ethnic label – ‘Jew’ – hanging round his neck but simply a fellow human being in need of help. His ‘goodness’ smashes through the label that we so readily put upon the stranger as a way of coping with difference.

    Before urging any action, the parable challenges attitude and vision. How do I see another person? Do I see primarily an ethnic, cultural, social or occupational tag? Or do I penetrate through all these surface things and see a fellow human being who needs me to be neighbour?

    The Samaritan is exemplary (‘good’) not only in what he does, but, before that, in the way he sees other people, sees through the label.

    Brendan Byrne, SJ

     

    The Good Samaritan | GCED | Song:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjhV3lVDLdM

     

                       THE GOOD SAMARITAN