15th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2025
Deuteronomy 30:10-14 Colossians 1:15-20 Luke 10:25-37
In his apostolic letter, ‘Aperuit illis’, issued on 30th September 2019, Pope Francis established the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time as ‘Sunday of the Word of God’. This day was to be given over to understanding afresh the relationship between the Risen Lord and the community of believers. Pope Francis says that the sacred Scripture is essential to our identity as Christians. How often do we think that the Scripture readings we hear at Mass are beyond us? Do we sometimes dismiss the Scripture as something for scholars or theologians?
In our first Reading today, from the book of Deuteronomy, Moses tells us that the ‘voice of the Lord, which is the Law of the Lord, is not beyond our strength or beyond your reach’. ‘No, the Word is very near to you, it is in your mouth and in your heart for your observance’
Then there are some, like the lawyer in today’s gospel reading, who feel that they are experts and can interpret the scriptures, sometimes to their own convenience and liking. Of course, we are each called to hear the Word of God in our own hearts and to interpret it as the Spirit leads us and we all need help to open our eyes to the truth.
We presume that the lawyer is sincere when he questions Jesus about what is written in the Scriptures. Certainly it gives Jesus the opportunity to teach on the central aspects of Christianity – Love of God and Love neighbour. Jesus, being the model teacher uses the method of story-telling to explain to the man what he must do to inherit eternal life, what love means and who is his neighbour.
The Parable that Jesus uses is a wonderful example of story-telling. Jesus could have just as easily defined ‘neighbour’ for the questioner. It would have answered the question but may not have had any effect on the lawyer. Jesus uses the shock approach by making a Samaritan the hero in the story. How could such a lowly, insignificant person do any good?
Jesus could already hear the counter arguments and excuses building up in the mind of the listeners: ‘The Priest and the Levite would have to keep themselves uncontaminated in order to exercise their religious functions’. When Jesus asks about neighbourliness he moves the lawyer away from the casuistry of definition and logical argument to the practical and less controlled approach to others which involves risk and vulnerability. So, the story that Jesus tells is not just a ‘story’. It is an invitation to the man, and to us, to enter into the incident, to find our place in the story and discover something real about ourselves. Sometimes when we enter into such a process it is shocking: but always the Word offers us hope of growth.
The Scriptures today call us to pray for the gift of discernment - that I might understand the truth about my neighbour and that my Faith is based on charity and that charity is my Faith in action. And, if we are looking for a definition of ‘disciple’, we recall the definition that Jesus gave - my disciples “are those who hear the Word of God and act on it” (Luke 8:21).
It’s the same exhortation of Jesus to the lawyer – “Go and do the same yourself”.