15th Sunday of Year C, 2019

May this Eucharistic Celebration make you realize that the laws are directives that will usher you into a life of union with Christ who will teach you how to love both God and your neighbors as he does. Happy Sunday +John I. Okoye.

DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(Deuteronomy 30,1 0-14; Colossians 1,15-20; Luke 10,25-37; 15th Sunday of Year C, 2019)

In the first reading for this Sunday, Deuteronomy 30,10-14, Moses instructs the people about the law's importance and its accessibility. To those who may say the law is too difficult to understand or so lofty it is almost impossible to observe, Moses replies: No! It is neither mysterious nor remote. It does not belong to the secrets hidden in heaven awaiting the end-time to be revealed. Because of human weakness it may be a challenge to follow, but it is relatively simple to understand. Nor is it located across some impossible divide, unattainable for most of us. Even a cursory examination of the law will show that while it is indeed the word of God, it arises from the experience of women and men: worship one God; do not steal; do not lie; and so on. The law of God is as close to us as our own human life. This is a bold claim, not because it minimizes the value of the word of God because it does not. It is a bold claim because it identifies human experience as the place where the word of God is to be found. It is in our mouths and in our hearts. This is less a statement about what we call natural law than a reference to the will of God that we have learned and interiorized. Moses insists that his audience knows God's will. What they must do is carry it out. 

The high Christology of the second reading, Colossians 1,15-20, extols the divine character and activity of Christ rather than his human nature and the physical life he lived on earth. Paul uses several striking terms to characterize Christ: image of God; firstborn; the beginning; head of the church. Each one adds a significant dimension to our understanding of Christ. An image can either represent something or it can be a visible expression or manifestation of it. It is clear from the passage that Christ is here considered more than a symbol. Rather, he is a visible manifestation of the invisible God. To say that Christ is the image of God is not meant to limit our understanding of God. Rather, it extols the per­son of Christ. Firstborn can also be understood in two ways. It can refer to priority in time or to primacy in importance. Since this hymn is extolling the divine nature of Christ, the reference is probably not to Christ as the first created being but to the sovereignty of the power he exercises. Christ occupies the place of preeminence over all the rest of creation, a preeminence that makes creation dependent upon him. He is the agent through whom all was created, and he is also the goal of all creation. This characterization is reminiscent of the feminine figure of Wisdom, who, though still a creation of God, was present at and somehow participated in primordial creation (cf. Prov 8,22-31). Christ's rule extends over the angelic realm as well (dominions, principalities, powers). He is said to be before all things. While this can suggest preexistence, it also means priority of distinction. Using the metaphor of body, he depicts both the union that exists between Christ and the Church and the preeminence that is Christ's as head of that body. Redemption is accomplished through Christ's resurrection. Priority of time and preeminence are both present also in the reference of firstborn from the dead, for Christ is both the first one raised and the one through whom all others will be raised. Finally, as image or manifestation of the invisible God, the fullness of God dwells within Christ. In this capacity Christ is the agent of reconciliation. This reconciliation has a universal scope. It includes all created things in heaven and on earth, things visible and invisible. Though we are accustomed to thinking of reconciliation purely in human or social terms, the text is clear. All things are reconciled. We are only beginning to explore the ecological implications of this. The means of this reconciliation that Christ brings is the blood of the cross. Thus the sacrificial death of the human Jesus becomes the means through which the cosmic Christ reconciles all creation with God. 

In the gospel narrative, Luke 10,25-37 a well-known conflict story, one skilled in the law challenges Jesus' knowledge of that law, probably in an attempt to publicly shame him. Certain verbs betray his motives. He puts Jesus to a test (v. 25), and when Jesus answers his challenge correctly, the lawyer attempts to save face by justifying himself (v. 29). Jesus not only shows himself as one who knows and conforms to the law, but he turns the lawyer's challenge back on him by asking him to answer his own questions. The lawyer asks about inheriting eternal life, not about earning salvation. Inheriting means receiving blessings bestowed by another. Eternal life is an allusion to the reign of God. In a very real sense the lawyer is asking the right question, but his reason for asking is wrong: to catch Jesus in some error. In answer to his own first question, the lawyer quotes the two passages from Scripture that encompass all of one's responsibilities. We must love God with all the powers of our beings (cf. Deut 6,5), and we must love our neighbor (originally interpreted as another Jew) as we love ourselves (cf. Lev 19,18; at times resident aliens were included in this injunction, Lev 19,34). Jesus recasts the lawyer's second question, Who is my neighbor? and tells a story to demonstrate what it means to be a neighbor. When Jesus asks the recast question, the lawyer is caught in his own snare. He is shamed, while Jesus emerges from this confrontation with even greater honor. The story itself draws obvious lines of contrast. Priests and Levites were temple personnel, jealous of their ritual purity. In this account they are caught in a dilemma. Even if they wanted to help the man on the road, he may have been dead, and they would incur ceremonial defilement by touching him. Should they fulfill their social obligations to another human being, or should they protect their cultic purity so they might fulfill their ritual obligations? They chose the latter. On the other hand, the Samaritan had no ritual obligations. He was one of the despised half-breeds and was already considered unclean by the Jews. However, the text clearly states that he did not attend to the man because he had nothing to lose. Rather, he was moved with compassion (splanchnizomai), the same emotion that overwhelmed Jesus when he saw the grief of the widow of Nain (cf. Luke 7,13) and the father when he saw his prodigal son returning (cf. Luke 15,20). The Samaritan responded out of love, a love that encompassed all the powers of his being. The lawyer had asked about works and was told to love. The Samaritan loves and demonstrates it through works. He goes out of his way to meet the needs of this stranger. He cleans the wounds with the alcohol composition of the wine; he soothes them with oil; he puts the man on his own animal and walks beside him to the nearest inn; he himself cares for the man; and he pays for the care provided by another. In this episode Jesus is not interested in merely telling the lawyer who it is that deserves his love and attention. Rather, he reveals what it means to be a loving person. The focus shifts from the other  person to oneself. The admonition is striking: Go and do likewise! Put aside all racial or religious prejudices in order to meet the needs of others! Put aside all other responsibilities in order to love the other! In this parable Jesus is not the good Samaritan; the lawyer must be. 

Today’s readings give us further insight into what it means to be a disciple of Jesus and to be committed to him. Discipleship also demanded a certain ability to make the necessary shifts in understanding in order to recognize what following Jesus required. Jesus in his encounter with the lawyer did not merely repeat the religious tradition in which he had been formed; he reinterpreted it. Today's disciples face a similar challenge. We too are called to understand the religious meaning of the words and deeds of Jesus, but we must also know how these words and deeds themselves called for adjustments of understanding on the part of those who first heard and witnessed them. This will help us appreciate the need for today's disciples to make comparable shifts of understanding in order to bring the message of Jesus into conversation with the contemporary world. With Paul, we extol Christ as the exalted image of the invisible God, as the firstborn of all creation, the one in whom all else was created, and then we stand at the foot of the cross seeing the blood flow from his crucified body. The exalted one is humiliated, and it is precisely through his humiliation that he is exalted, that he redeemed us, reconciled us to God and to one another. In today’s liturgy we are told to love our neighbor, and when we ask who that might be we are told a story that turns the question around. Who is my neighbor? or Whom should I love? becomes, Who acts as a neighbor? or Who shows love? Attention shifts from the object of our love to the character of our loving, from deciding who deserves our love to loving without deciding who is deserving. The respectable person asks about righteous living, and the genuinely righteous person turns out to be the one who was not respected. The ways of God are indeed paradoxical. The challenge today’s liturgy gives us is further seen in the way the law of God was presented. The law of God, which appears to be so lofty, is really depicted as very close to us, in our mouths and in our hearts. Yet, if we understand ourselves to be part of the body of Christ, as  is depicted in the epistle, as people redeemed and reconciled to God and to one another and if we love the Lord our God as totally as the gospel exhorts us to love, we will allow the law to take hold of us in such a way that we will esteem it. This is not to promote a kind of legalism. Rather, it is a way of living inspired and informed by love, love of God and love of others, even, and perhaps especially, those whom we are not inclined to love. May the Eucharistic celebration of this Sunday make us realize that the law or commandments are pointers or directives that will usher us into a life of union with Christ who will teach us how to love both God and our neighbors as he did. Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye

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