Reflection for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – July 10, 2022

By Barbara Hickey, Notre Dame Associate

Luke 10:25-37

Jesus’ first and most important commandment is to love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself. We love family members and friends of course, but Jesus wants us to love people we don’t know, people who don’t want to be loved, people who need our help, people who are sick or lonely, and the list goes on.

The gospel today tells the story of the Good Samaritan who came upon a man who had been attacked and beaten and likely left for dead, a man who others ignored and moved across the street to avoid him. The Good Samaritan cared for this man, took him to a place to stay to heal, paying for his lodging and offering to pay more when he returned to the area. Would I have such compassion?

No doubt the Samaritan was condemned by onlookers who saw him helping someone who was not highly thought of by others. In Rabbinic Judaism, the Samaritans were more despised than the gentiles.

How would I react to someone who had been attacked, hurt, abused? Would I go to “the other side of the street” and let someone else take charge or would I do as the Good Samaritan did and help those I am expected, even required, to help because they require no less?