July 12: Preparing to Celebrate Sunday’s Mass

A risk we have to confront each time we open our Bibles is this: there are some episodes, stories or parables that we have heard so many times that we react by saying “We’ve heard this before.” The risk is then followed by a temptation: to close our minds and hearts to what the Lord might want to say to us this time.

The parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10, 25-37) is a perfect example of a story we have heard frequently and which we might “tune out” because of our supposed familiarity with it. Let’s not fall into that temptation this weekend at Mass.

Jesus uses this well-known parable to give us a new definition of “neighbor.” In the book of Leviticus, quoted by the scholar of the law, a neighbor is one from our own “tribe” and is to be loved. What emerges from the exchange with Jesus is that a neighbor is one who loves. Jesus in effect answers with a question, a question that needed to be asked then and is still being asked today: “Who is capable of becoming a neighbor?”

Before coming to Mass this weekend, ponder this: We don’t need to ask “Who is my neighbor?” That question is already settled (everyone, everywhere). Now we have to ask, “Am I a neighbor?”