15TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (C)

And who is my neighbor?

Lk 10: 25-37

There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test him and said, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus said to him, "What is written in the law?

The scribe was an expert of the Law. The question he posed was probably not to trap Jesus but to see how good his answer was and thus, see for himself how good a teacher he was.

In Mt and Mk, the question of the scribe was: “What is the greatest (or first) commandment?”

The answer of Jesus was a question which demanded from the scribe to publicly state his position.

He said in reply, You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself."

The first part of the response of the scribe is taken from Dt 6:5 while the second was from Lv 19:18. It was common for Rabbis to quote both verses. But what is unique here was that the scribe made love of neighbor as important as love of God.

He replied to him, "You have answered correctly; do this and you will live."

Jesus approved the answer of the scribe.

But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

At that time Jews considered only fellow Jews as neighbors. Non-Jews were not neighbors. In his sincere search for eternal life, the scribe seriously pursued the question as to who belonged to the category of neighbor.

The answer of the parable was: your neighbor is anyone who is in need. It is for this reason that the nationality and religion of the victim was never mentioned.

Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers' victim?"

This question of Jesus served to further reveal the deeper meaning of the parable of the Good Samaritan. It is not a question of who is our neighbor. Rather it is a question of us behaving as neighbors to others. It is not the responsibility of others to merit our assistance. It is our responsibility to assist others no matter who they are.