Today\u2019s readings remind us that it is not hard to know the Lord\u2019s expectations for us. We\u2019re the ones who complicate things. The difficulty comes in doing what Our Lord expects of us. Why?<\/p>\n
In today\u2019s First Reading Moses, in his parting words to the Israelites, encourages them to see that what the Lord expects of them is not hard to know or achieve: it is turning to God with all their heart and soul. The Lord had come to them when they were slaves in Egypt, led them to freedom, and constituted them as his people at Mt. Sinai, giving them the Ten Commandments that we live even today. When they rebelled, the Lord had Moses lead them through the desert for forty years, but his expectations never changed. They resisted for a long time, but he\u2019d already told them at Mt. Sinai what he expected of them. When Moses speaks to them in today\u2019s First Reading, just before they would finally enter into the Promised Land, he is almost pleading them to turn to their Lord with all their heard.<\/p>\n
The Lord has made this even easier by sending us his Son, the image of the invisible God, as Paul describes in today\u2019s Second Reading. Moses in the First Reading describes the Lord\u2019s commandment as close, already in their hearts and lips, waiting to be carried out. With the coming of Christ, the Lord\u2019s expectations become even closer: we see them in the flesh, in the Son. Paul reminds us that all things were created in, through, and for the Son. By conforming ourselves to Christ we are conforming ourselves to what humanity is truly meant to be, turning away from any confusion or disfiguration due to sin. This is not just a process of aligning our goals with Our Lord\u2019s. We were created in the image and likeness of God, so by conforming ourselves to the \u201cimage of the invisible God\u201d we conform ourselves to the pattern of life the Lord wants for us. It is the best lifestyle for which we can hope. Through the Son we are aided in turning to God with all our heart and soul; he not only leads by example, but also empowers our charity through his act of love on the Cross.<\/p>\n
In today\u2019s Gospel the scribe shows wisdom in seeing that love for God and for neighbor are the path to fulfillment in life. He just wants to know one point of fine print: who should we consider our neighbor? The answer is not hard: everyone is our neighbor, as the parable of the Good Samaritan teaches. The man waylaid on the way to Jericho was heading from a \u201cgood part of town\u201d to a \u201cbad one\u201d (Jericho often symbolized turning your back on Jerusalem and heading into sin); anyone could have rationalized that when you head to a bad part of town you deserve what you get. The Samaritan was overcome with compassion at the sight of his neighbor bleeding and half dead alongside the road. In Luke\u2019s Gospel the scribe asks in the context of asking what he needs to do in order to inherit eternal life. That Samaritan\u2019s goodness and compassion, by extension, despite all the bad blood between Jews and Samaritans, won him eternal life. It\u2019s not complicated. We make it complicated. Strive to love God and every neighbor and you will accomplish something in life and achieve everything truly worthwhile.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not uncommon that when we hear Our Lord\u2019s expectation that we love our neighbor one or two people come to mind that make us shudder (\u201cLove him? Love her? No way!\u201d). The Good Samaritan today was moved with compassion at the sight of the beaten man. Sacred Scripture doesn\u2019t say what the Levite felt, only that he kept his distance. Whether someone invokes compassion or revulsion in us, Our Lord expects us to love them. Love is a conviction, and, at times, there won\u2019t be feelings to back it up. Anyone who has experienced love has experienced how strong it is when it is not backed up by pleasant feelings. If there is anyone in your life that your feelings are keeping you from loving, make the resolution to love them and wish for them whatever will make them healthy and holy. Your feelings may not change, but your love will.<\/p>\n
Readings:\u00a0Deuteronomy 30:10\u201314;\u00a0Psalm 69:14, 17, 30\u201331, 33\u201334, 36, 37;\u00a0Colossians 1:15\u201320;\u00a0Luke 10:25\u201337.<\/em> See also 15th Week in Ordinary Time, Sunday, Cycle C<\/a>, 3rd Week of Lent,Friday<\/a>, \u00a09th Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a020th Week in Ordinary Time, Friday<\/a>, and\u00a027th Week in Ordinary Time, Monday<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today\u2019s readings remind us that it is not hard to know the Lord\u2019s expectations for us. We\u2019re the ones who complicate things. The difficulty comes in doing what Our Lord expects of us. Why? In today\u2019s First Reading Moses, in his parting words to the Israelites, encourages them to see that what the Lord expects … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[61,45,15,190],"class_list":["post-3392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-fifteenth-week","tag-ordinary-time","tag-sunday","tag-tags-cycle-c"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p65qtw-SI","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3392"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3394,"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3392\/revisions\/3394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}