In this week’s Gospel:
Luke 10:25–37 Jesus uses the Parable of the Good Samaritan to show what it means to be a true follower of Christ.
A lawyer stood up to question Jesus. He asked, “How can one receive eternal life?”
Jesus responded with a question of His own: “What is written in the law?”
The lawyer answered,
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.”
Jesus said, “Do this, and you will live.”
But that wasn’t enough for the lawyer. So he asked a follow-up question:
“Who is my neighbor?”
This is when Jesus shared the parable to make His point.
The parable tells of a man who was beaten and robbed while traveling. He was left half-dead on the side of the road.
- A priest passed by but avoided him.
- A Levite did the same.
- But a Samaritan, of all people, saw the man, stopped, and took care of him.
The one who was least expected to show compassion showed the most.
Jesus then asked,
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man?”
The lawyer replied,
“The one who showed him mercy.”
Jesus said,
“Go and do likewise.”
This parable is a perfect example of what we are called to do as followers of Christ: love your neighbor.
That’s the message. That’s the way we are to live.
Ask yourself:
➡️ Do you love your neighbors?
➡️ Do you love them the way Jesus calls you to — as you love yourself?
Let me be the first to admit: I have work to do.
I say I love my neighbors, but do I really love them as I love myself?
That’s the work.
Truthfully, I often love when it’s easy. I love when it suits me.
But Jesus didn’t say “Love when it’s convenient.” He said “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
And just to be clear — when I speak of neighbors, I mean the people I work with, live with, and see regularly, my world
Like the priest, I’ve passed people by when they needed me.
Like the Levite, I’ve looked the other way.
But I know I can do better. I continue to work on myself.
Jesus calls us to be like the Good Samaritan.
That means we show up.
We show up even when it’s not easy.
We show up even when we’re overlooked or misunderstood.
We show up when our neighbor can’t repay us.
Can you imagine a world like that?
It’s hard to see sometimes — but that’s the world Jesus wants for us.
A world where each person truly loves the other.
We look past race. We look past politics.
We just love.
Maybe we can’t change the entire world.
But we can start with our world.
Start with one neighbor.
Find a neighbor to love.
