Why is it so hard for us to do the right thing? Sure, there are occasionally situations where we\u2019re faced with some moral ambiguity, but most of the time, we make it harder than it is. If you ever listen to those founts of all modern wisdom, Dr. Laura Schlesinger on the radio or Judge Judy on TV, you know what I mean. Dr. Laura and Judge Judy take no prisoners. People will call up Dr. Laura, or appear befor Judge Judy, and explain their problems, and Dr. Laura of Judge Judy will say, \u201cThis is your mess, clean it up.\u201d Or, \u201cyou promised to do this, now do it.\u201d These people are complicating their own lives, because they either don\u2019t take responsibility for their own lives and choices, or they\u2019re not honest with themselves or their partners. It\u2019s not moral complexity that trips people up most of the time, it\u2019s our own sinfulness and weakness.<\/p>\n
This is what Moses is trying to explain to his people in our first reading from Deuteronomy. He has told them in plain terms what God wants them to do, and not to do. There are no secrets. There\u2019s no mystery. God himself has revealed the Law, and it\u2019s as plain as can be. It\u2019s easy. Of course, we know the history. The Israelites found that they couldn\u2019t keep the Law. They followed other gods. They murdered the prophets. They build idols. Was there some nuanced moral argument that let them believe that these things were OK? I don\u2019t think so. They knew it was wrong. And they did it anyway.<\/p>\n
St. Paul wrote about this. He said, \u201cthe good that I intend to do, I don\u2019t do, and the evil that I don\u2019t intend, I do.\u201d It\u2019s human sinfulness, and we all suffer from it. We all suffer because of it. So, it\u2019s not really surprising that Jesus had to confront it when he was teaching.<\/p>\n
It starts with this lawyer. Insert lawyer joke here. He asks Jesus what he has to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus responds by saying, \u201cYou know what\u2019s in the Law. Do that.\u201d It\u2019s perfectly clear. Love God with your whole heart, soul, strength, and mind. And love your neighbor as yourself. It\u2019s that simple. But wait! The lawyer wants to make it more complicated. Let\u2019s narrow down who\u2019s a neighbor.<\/p>\n
And look at the response Jesus makes! It\u2019s the parable of the Good Samaritan. Does this literary form sound at all familiar? Take off the pious glasses for a moment, and what is the parable of the Good Samaritan? It\u2019s a joke! It\u2019s one of the oldest joke forms in the world. You know: A priest, a minister, and a rabbi are out playing golf. An American, a Frenchman, and a Polish guy are up in an airplane with only one parachute. A priest, a Levite, and a Samaritan are walking down the road. You know how the joke\u2019s gonna end, even before the punch line. And all of Jesus\u2019 listeners know how it\u2019s going to end, too. The point of the joke is to make the Samaritan look foolish. The Jews of that time hated the Samaritans. They wanted nothing to do with them. And you can bet that they used ethnic jokes to poke at them, just as people do today.<\/p>\n
But what happens? The same thing that happens in all the parables. Jesus turns their expectations upside down. Remember, this began with the question, \u201cWho is my neighbor.\u201d Everybody seems to think that the poor guy by the side of the road is the \u201cneighbor.\u201d So when Jesus asks, \u201cwho was the neighbor to him,\u201d and the answer came back, \u201cthe one who showed compassion.\u201d There\u2019s the real answer: The Samaritan is your neighbor. It\u2019s not about the guy who was robbed. It\u2019s about the hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans.<\/p>\n
This is the point that Jesus is making. \u201cMy neighbor\u201d cannot any longer be limited to my family, my ethnic group, my country, my sexual orientation, or my anything. If there\u2019s anyone we\u2019re still feuding with, or excluding, or reserving just a little hatred for, then we haven\u2019t heard the message of the Gospel, and brought it into our hearts. As St. Paul writes to the Colossians, \u201cIt pleased God [by means of Christ] to reconcile everything in his person\u2014everything, I say, both on earth and in heaven.\u201d If there is anyone we\u2019re willing to leave unreconciled, then we are still not loving God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind.<\/p>\n
The difficulty, of course, is that we want to make this complicated. We have very good reasons for hating, or excluding, or avoiding the people that we do. We can construct elaborate rationalizations, and find arguments for extending God\u2019s reconciling love to less than everyone. Most of those reasons and rationalizations have to do with our own perceived victimization, our fears, or our need for revenge. But where does that get us? Ask the good Christians of Kosovo, or Northern Ireland, or Rwanda. or Sudan. No, it\u2019s really simple. God\u2019s love is unbounded. God\u2019s desire for reconciliation isn\u2019t limited. And our responsibility as followers of Christ is to love in the same way. Do this and you shall live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Why is it so hard for us to do the right thing? Sure, there are occasionally situations where we\u2019re faced with some moral ambiguity, but most of the time, we make it harder than it is. If you ever listen to those founts of all modern wisdom, Dr. Laura Schlesinger on the radio or Judge Judy on TV, you know what I mean. Dr. Laura … Continue reading Homily for the 15th Sunday, July 14, 2013<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homilies","tag-homily"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5FUlW-3m","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=208"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":377,"href":"http:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions\/377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}