Deut
30:10-14; Colo 1:15-20; Lk 10:25-37
The Epic
poem “Paradise Lost “of John Milton
gives a vivid description of the fall of Angels from “Heaven”. The Satan
decided that he was equal to God, and he was powerful enough to challenge God.
So, a war broke out in heaven. Satan and his followers
rallied on the one side;
and Archangel, Michael and others on the other side. Satan was defeated and
expelled from heaven. Satan and the other rebel angels are described as lying
on a lake of fire, from which Satan rises up to claim Hell as his own domain
and delivers a rousing speech to his followers and declares, "Better to
reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.
Milton also
describes the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Paradise. Milton shows a great difference in the fall
of Satan and the fall of man. When Satan was expelled from heaven, he persisted
in his pride and declared, “It is better to reign in Hell than serve in
Heaven.” But when Adam and Eve were expelled from the paradise they fell into
despair: "They sat down to weep, not only tears rained at their eyes, but
high winds rose within. That was their inward state of mind." The
initiative to restore them to the Paradise came from God himself. Michael tells
Adam of the eventual plan of God. But, man has to respond positively.
In today’s first
reading Moses admonishes the people that the only condition to be saved is “to
observe the commandments.” Moses had told the Jews that God’s Law was written
in their hearts; it was easy for them to keep it. St Paul, in the second
reading, tells the Christians of Colossae that all we have to do to be saved is
to keep united to Christ.
In today’s
Gospel we have a Teacher of Law asking Jesus, “Master, what must I do to
inherit eternal life?”
In other words
the question means, “What is it that really counts a person to be saved?” This
question is as old as human existence. The great Rishis of India spent their
life in the silence and solitude of the Himalayas seeking an answer to it. The
pious religious teachers pondered over it. The great saints meditated over it.
When the Teacher
of law approached Jesus with the same question, Jesus asked him, “What is
written in the law?”
The man replied,
“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, and your neighbour as
yourself.”
Jesus replied,
“Do this.”
The answer given
by Jesus increased the ambiguity in his heart. The first part of the law is
clear. “Love your God.” But the second part is very obscure.
We live among 7
billion people. On our way to the office we meet some people; when we commute
by train or bus we meet some others, in the office we meet a different lot, in
the church we come across another group. Among all these “who is my neighbour?”
The story of the
Good Samaritan is Jesus’ answer.
“A man was
travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho.” – At the time of Jesus, the road from
Jerusalem to Jericho was notorious for its danger and was known as the “Way of
Blood.” The 20 mile long road was narrow, rocky and full of sudden turnings
which made it the happy hiding-ground of brigands. So, people never travelled
alone. Rather, they travelled in convoys or caravans. Since the man was
travelling alone, he was obviously a reckless traveller, and brought trouble to
himself. We find among us, too, such typical characters. They get involved in
everything. They get into trouble very easily. They never allow any trouble to
spare them. So, always we have a group of neighbours who invite trouble for
themselves.
Jesus describes
three characters. The first two
are: “A Priest” and “A Levite”. They happened to be
travelling down the same road, but when they saw the man, they passed by on the
other side. They were probably going back to their home after a week’s duty in
the Temple. They had spent a whole week performing religious duties. For the
Priest to touch the dead man would mean losing his turn of duty in the Temple,
and he refused to risk that. The Temple and their worship failed to be
translated into action. They set rituals above charity; the prescriptions of
the Law above the pain of man. Our
prayers, our ceremonies, and our celebrations will become meaningless if they
fail to be translated into action.
Rabindranath Tagore wrote in Gitanjali.
Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads!
Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of
a temple with doors all shut?
Open thine eyes
and see thy God is not before thee!
He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard
ground
And where the pathmaker is breaking stones.
Meet him and
stand by him in toil and in sweat of thy brow.
The third
character Jesus describes is “The Samaritan”. The Jews hated the people of the
region called “Samaria.” They refused to worship at the Temple of Jerusalem.
The Jews called them heretics.
The Samaritan
traveller was moved with compassion for the wounded man. He bandaged his
wounds, carried him to the inn and looked after him. Feeling compassion without practical action
is useless. So, “compassion to be real, must issue in deeds.”
Jesus concluded
the parable with a direct command “Go and do the same.”
In our daily
life we meet many good Samaritans, who translate their compassion into action.
On Jan 15, 2009, the world witnessed a remarkable emergency landing when
Captain Sullenberger skilfully glided the US Airways flight into the Hudson
River, saving the lives of all 155 aboard.
One bridge over
China’s Yangtze River sees hundreds of suicides Chen Si, a Nanjing man started
spending weekends there saving lives. Chen Si has stopped about 144 suicides.
(The Los Angeles Times reports.) “All people really need is one person willing
to lend a hand,” Chen says. After saving people, he tries to help with kindness
and money.
A paper reported
about the miserable condition of a labour camp in Sharjah. The Next day the
children of Our Own School, Dubai, collected large quantity of food grains to
be delivered to them.
These are some
of the good Samaritans of today.
Today Jesus
command to us, too, is “Go and do the same”
Satish