XV Sunday of the Year

LOVE HAS NO BORDERS

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

Readings for the XV Sunday of the Year

In July 2003, the successful heart operation on two-and-a-half-year-old Noor Fatima, a child from Pakistan, put the spotlight on Dr Devi Shetty and his Narayana Hrudayalaya (in Bangalore). Patients from several countries continue to visit this hospital. Dr Shetty says: “Pain has no language… reaction to pain and suffering is the same, so our response to the problem is also the same.” 

Through the parable of the Good Samaritan, this is what Jesus tells the scholar of the law who asked him: “Who is my neighbour?” The scholar asks Jesus the meaning of Leviticus 19:18 (which he has just quoted). For the Jews, one’s neighbour was the people in one’s own group, camp, area; it had a restrictive meaning.

But Leviticus 19:33 reads: “The stranger who sojourns with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself.” So the command to love one’s “neighbour” extended to foreigners, immigrants, and sojourners.

Love has no borders and knows no barriers. Love reaches out to anyone in need. Love gets involved, regardless of who the person is and regardless of the cost. 

This is what the unlikely hero of the parable does. The Samaritan goes beyond the boundaries of religion and nationality; he reaches out to the wounded man in need, gets involved in his life, spends time with him, and pays the innkeeper to minister to him. Recall that the Jews considered the Samaritans half breeds, thieves, and heretics. The Samaritan—the one least likely to keep the law—is the only one who keeps it.

Jesus gives the “man” no name, no religion, no nationality… in times of need, these are irrelevant. Further, he reverses the question: it is not important who my neighbour is, but to whom am I a neighbour! 

In an era when we build “gated communities” with religious, ethnic-racial, socio-economic fences, when we want to build walls and fences on borders, Jesus challenges me to live the commandment of love by going beyond all barriers and to build his kingdom as a neighbourhood with no frontiers.

How do we respond to people in need: are we moved with compassion and do we reach out to them with mercy or do we walk on pretending they don’t exist? To whom and how will I be “neighbour” in the week ahead?

May our love be across borders and boundaries.