Go and Do Likewise: The Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

                                               Go and Do Likewise:

The Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

July 10, 2022

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Deuteronomy 30:10-14; Psalm 69; Colossians 1:15-20; Luke 10:25-37

 

          This passage of the Good Samaritan is the heart of Luke’s Gospel and is the center of Christian morality. We first heard Moses telling his people that life with God through keeping the commandments was accessible and achievable. Moses tells them that the choice and responsibility to carry it out was theirs alone. Jesus, when attacked by those who do not want to know the truth, responds in the same way. When his adversaries ask him “Who is my neighbor?” because they really do not want to take responsibility for those they don’t like, he responds, “The one who does mercy is your neighbor.” He further adds, “Go, and be like the Samaritan, the person you don’t like, because he acts admirably and with compassion. Be like the one you cast out for that person is the one who acts as God calls us to act. He is the model, the one you should emulate. Go, and do likewise.”

 

          We then have to look at what mercy is and to see why that is the Gospel imperative. Mercy means to enter into the chaos of another person, which often mean showing up to accompany someone even when it is very difficult to do so. It means that we risk being vulnerable and bothered and that it will take some time that we really don’t have to give to another person in need. It means that we take on or enter into another’s person’s problems so that further harm is not done to them. It means that we have to see the person in need because many times we do not even bother to look at others. Many times, we ask ourselves, “Am I my sibling’s keeper?” Whenever we ask that question, the answer is always “yes.” Behind that question is, “Do I care enough about this person to risk my comfort to make the person feel more comfortable?” or “Do I really care anything about this other person?” or “Do I really care about someone who is not in my tribe or family?” For a Christian, the hard answer is “yes.”

 

          Being bothered to care for another person is at the heart of the message of Jesus to us, because we are siblings to one another in the grand scheme of things. We are not superior to others because of social class, income, skin color, gender, nationality, or tribe. By our privilege we have responsibility to each other. The popular slogan, “We take care of our own” is misguided because it excludes and harms others. Jesus tells us that we are responsible for one another, even though it is costly to us, but this is the way he measures our goodness and rightness. 

 

          In the Gospel passage, the Samaritan, the outcast foreigner, is the one who is neighbor to the victim because he does mercy. He is the one who bothered to care for the other person. This is the definition of righteousness. The one who does not even try to care for the other person is the sinner, the one who doesn’t even try to bother to love. Christ does not judge the weak heart that tries; Christ judges the strong heart that does not even bother to try, because that is what it means to be a sinner. For a Christian, mercy is the guiding way forward in life, the path to righteousness. Mercy can be confusing and dangerous, but it is the path forward that assures us of eternal life. How does one inherit eternal life? One sees the person in need as a fellow traveler, an honored neighbor, and bothers to care enough about that person to treat with mercy. Go and do likewise. 

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

 

First Reading: 

 

Monday: (Isaiah 1) What care I for the number of your sacrifices? says the LORD.
I have had enough of whole-burnt rams and fat of fatlings; In the blood of calves, lambs and goats I find no pleasure.

 Tuesday: (Isaiah 7) When word came to the house of David that Aram was encamped in Ephraim, the heart of the king and the heart of the people trembled, as the trees of the forest tremble in the wind.

 

Wednesday: (Isaiah 10) Woe to Assyria! My rod in anger, my staff in wrath.
Against an impious nation I send him, and against a people under my wrath I order him
To seize plunder, carry off loot, and tread them down like the mud of the streets.

 

Thursday: (Isaiah 26) Your name and your title are the desire of our souls. My soul yearns for you in the night, yes, my spirit within me keeps vigil for you; When your judgment dawns upon the earth, the world’s inhabitants learn justice.

Friday (Isaiah 38) When Hezekiah was mortally ill, the prophet Isaiah, son of Amos, came and said to him: “Thus says the LORD: Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you shall not recover.” Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord.

 

Saturday (Micha 2) Behold, I am planning against this race an evil from which you shall not withdraw your necks; Nor shall you walk with head high, for it will be a time of evil.

 

Gospel: 

 

Monday: (Matthew 10) Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s enemies will be those of his household. 

 

Tuesday: (Matthew 11) Jesus began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!

 

Wednesday (Matthew 11) I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.

 

Thursday (Matthew 11) Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.

 

Friday (Matthew 12) Jesus was going through a field of grain on the sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the sabbath.”

 

 

Saturday (Matthew 12) The Pharisees went out and took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. When Jesus realized this, he withdrew from that place. Many people followed him, and he cured them all, but he warned them not to make him known. This was to fulfill what had been spoken through Isaiah the prophet.

 

Saints of the Week

 

July 11: Benedict, Abbot (480-547), was educated in Rome, but left after a few years to take on a life of solitude. He became a monk at Subiaco and lived alone, but his lifestyle developed followers so he built 12 monasteries for them. He left to found a monastery at Monte Cassino where he wrote his Rule that became a standard for Western monasticism. He adopted the practices of the austere Desert Fathers for community life and emphasized moderation, humility, obedience, prayer, and manual labor.  

 

July 13: Henry, king (972-1024) was a descendent of Charlemagne who became king of Germany and the Holy Roman Emperor. His wife had no offspring. He merged the church's affairs with the secular government and built the cathedral in the newly erected diocese of Bamberg. He was a just ruler who paid close attention to his prayer. 

 

July 14: Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1680) was the daughter of a Christian Algonquin mother and a non-Christian Mohawk chief. As a child, she contracted smallpox and was blinded and severely disfigured by it. She was baptized on Easter Sunday 1767 by Jesuit missionaries and was named after Catherine of Siena. She kept a strong devotion to the Eucharist and cared for the sick. She is named "the Lily of the Mohawks."

 

July 15: Bonaventure, bishop and Doctor (1221-1273), was given his name by Francis of Assisi to mean "Good Fortune" after he was cured of serious childhood illnesses. He joined the Franciscans at age 20 and studied at the University of Paris. Aquinas became his good friend. Bonaventure was appointed minister general of the Franciscans and was made a cardinal. He participated in the ecumenical council at Lyons to reunite the Greek and Latin rites. Aquinas died on the way to the council.

 

July 16: Our Lady of Mount Carmel is the patronal feast of the Carmelites. The day commemorates the day Simon Stock was given a brown scapular by Mary in 1251. In the 12th century, Western hermits settled on Mount Carmel overlooking the plain of Galilee just as Elijah did. These hermits built a chapel to Mary in the 13th century and began a life of solitary prayer.

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• July 10, 1881. Fr. Frederick Garesche' wrote from Sequin, Texas, to his Superior: "The cowboys who had not deigned at first to lift their hat to the priest or missionary; who had come to the mission as to a camp meeting, for the fun of the thing, gave in, and their smiles and awkward salutes showed that they had hearts under their rude exterior." 
• July 11, 1809. After Pius VII had been dragged into exile by General Radet, Fr. Alphonsus Muzzarrelli SJ, his confessor, was arrested in Rome and imprisoned at Civita Vecchia. 
• July 12, 1594. In the French Parliament Antoine Arnauld, the Jansenist, made a violent attack on the Society, charging it with rebellious feelings toward King Henry IV and with advocating the doctrine of regicide. 
• July 13, 1556. Ignatius, gravely ill, handed over the daily governance of the Society to Juan de Polanco and Cristobal de Madrid. 
• July 14, 1523. Ignatius departs from Venice on his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. 
• July 15, 1570. At Avila, St Teresa had a vision of Blessed Ignatius de Azevedo and his companions ascending to heaven. This occurred at the very time of their martyrdom. 
• July 16, 1766. The death of Giusuppe Castiglione, painter and missionary to China. They paid him a tribute and gave him a state funeral in Peking (Beijing).