My good friend and theologian Jack Shea consistently brings profound insights into spiritual matters, particularly for the scriptures. Please see his three volume work entitled Spiritual Wisdom of the Gospels for Christian Preachers and Teachers published by Liturgical Press. You may be aware that I quote him often. One of my favorite insights that he offers is, “In regard to the Gospels, it is always dangerous to ask Jesus a question.” Shea cites many examples of passages in the scriptures where people ask a question of Jesus and end up getting much more than a simple answer.
In this week’s Gospel passage from Luke we enter into some very dangerous and thought provoking territory in which Jesus is asked two questions:
What must I DO to attain eternal life?
and
Who is my neighbor?
Interestingly enough, Jesus ask three questions in return:
What is written in the Law?
How do you read it?
and
Which of the three were neighbor to the man who was beaten by the robbers?
The lead off question is one designed to test Jesus and it is given by a scholar who knows the Law well and who knows the answer. He is trying to trip Jesus up. Jesus is well aware of this, so he does a wise thing. He asks two questions in return back to back, aware that the scholar knows in his HEAD what is WRITTEN in the law, but probably not how to DO it in his heart.
The scholar proceeds to answer the question perfectly with a combination of two quotes from the Law of the earliest Old Testament books: Deuteronomy 6 4-9 and Leviticus 19:18.
They read:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and might
and
Love your neighbor as yourself.
I can only imagine that the scholar is pleased with himself, so he asks Jesus HIS (and our) most important question – Who is my neighbor?
We should all give significant reflection, and both spiritual and physical attention to our answer. We must not read about the answer to this question or consult laws about it. We must answer it from our hearts, particularly now when our world is being deluged by violence against life itself from so many sources, while considering laws that relate to such violence. Our answer is critical now in a time when disrespect for neighbors is rampant and sometimes unchecked.
I have put much self-reflection to my answer and, admittedly, need to do better at identifying and being compassionate to my neighbor. Such compassion was the core of the scholar’s answer to Jesus’ final question.
My neighbor is wealthy, successful, poor and lonely. My neighbor is Black, White, Brown, Asian and more. My neighbor is Gay, Lesbian, Straight, Transgender and Questioning their sexual identity. My neighbor identifies as Democrat as well as Republican. My neighbor is a conservative Catholic and a liberal Catholic. My neighbor is Christian and non-Christian. My neighbor is very young, very old and all ages between. My neighbor is ill and healthy, happily married, divorced, single and widowed. My neighbor speaks the same language as I do and my neighbor speaks a different language than I do. My neighbor has strong opinions which I should respect, and my neighbor is not always compassionate towards my way of thinking.
Who is your neighbor? Go and DO what the Good Samaritan did: treat your neighbor with compassion!