Recently, I was away from the parish for a few weeks.  I’m happy to be back, but there are a few things that I didn’t miss at all while I was gone.  One of those things is junk mail.  Church offices receive at least as much junk mail as private residences receive, but of a different sort.  Instead of advertising for Medicare Advantage Insurance Plans, churches receive advertising for plans to improve parish life. 

Among the junk mail that greeted me when I returned to the office was a flyer for a program that promised to help parish communities provide mercy and hope to their congregation members.  This would be a very attractive program if it weren’t for one significant issue that is addressed in today’s Gospel reading.  

In the Gospel reading, a scholar of the Law asked Jesus who is the “neighbor” whom one should love in order to fulfill the Commandments.  Jesus responded by telling a parable about an unidentified victim of violence who was in need of help.  The parable was intentionally silent about whether the robber’s victim was a Jew, a Samaritan, or a gentile.  Jesus’ response to the scholar’s question was to say that one’s obligation to love one’s neighbor can’t be determined by the ethnicity, nationality, background, or personal history of the neighbor in need. 

Then, Jesus answered a second question, one that was not asked by the scholar but was implied by the scholar’s question about the neighbor who deserves to be loved. 

The two men who passed by the robbers’ victim were described as a priest and a Levite.  Hebrew priests were descendants of Aaron, the brother of Moses; they were the members of the tribe of Levi who had the unique responsibility to perform worship rituals in the Temple.  The Levite in the story was among the larger (non-priestly) population of the tribe of Levi who were responsible for providing religious instruction and worship services in the many localities outside Jerusalem were Jews resided. 

Upon seeing the man whom the robbers left for dead, the priest and the Levite would have been faced with a dilemma.  All members of the Covenant were obliged to help the afflicted and the needy.  On the other hand, touching a dead body would have prevented the priest and Levite from fulfilling their religious duties.  These two faced a difficult choice between being hospitable toward the robbers’ victim, on the one hand, and incurring ritual impurity, on the other.  They erred on the side of caution. 

The Samaritan would have been similarly obliged to show hospitality toward the injured man and, although he doesn’t appear to have been a religious functionary like the priest and the Levite, he also would have incurred ritual impurity by touching a dead body.  He erred on the side of compassion. 

The implied question that Jesus answered was about what it means to be a neighbor to someone in need.  Being a neighbor, according to Jesus, means acting lovingly even to unidentifiable strangers.  In order to amplify the shocking nature of the teaching, Jesus identified the loving neighbor as a Samaritan, a member of a despised mixed-race group which practiced an archaic form of Hebrew religion. 

Jesus’ two-part response to the scholar’s question about fulfilling the Covenant’s demand for love of neighbor is rather challenging.  In the parable, a despised foreigner fulfilled the commandment of love of neighbor to an extraordinary degree. (Lk 10:34-35)  In effect, Jesus’ response to the scholar’s rhetorical question was to raise two rhetorical questions of his own.  Firstly, if you were injured, abandoned, or disadvantaged wouldn’t you want someone to come to your aid?  If so, you should help those in need.  Secondly, would the identity of the person who volunteered to help matter to you?  If not, you shouldn’t care about the identity of those whom you help. 

The junk mail that offered guidance for providing mercy and hope to church congregation members got everything right except one important point.  Jesus does not command his Church to preach hope, and to minister mercy, to itself.  Rather, the Church is commanded to bring hope and mercy to the world, especially to those in need – and to do so without regard to their identity.  The parable in today’s Gospel reading provides detailed instructions about how to fulfill this command.  Jesus said that we owe loving kindness to those in need, and we find those in need by paying attention to our immediate environment. 

Further, by identifying the neighbor as the one who is compassionate without reserve, Jesus addressed the concern of Church members who feel that they should be the recipients of mercy and compassion; he said, ‘be more concerned about others and less concerned about yourself.’  This isn’t a command to practice extraordinary virtue or heroic self-denial; it is common-sense wisdom.  If you found yourself in great need, would you want the people able to help you to be more concerned about you or about themselves?   

The self-concern that focuses on one’s own needs instead of the needs of others is a natural response to the unpredictable nature of human existence; it’s not morally wrong, but it is insufficient for the life of faith.  Faith in God provides supernatural help to rise above one’s natural self-concern and to work for the betterment of society.  If you would expect others to rise above their self-concern to respond to your legitimate needs, you are obliged to “go and do likewise”. (Lk 10:37)