MY daily reflection and prayer:
Monday, October 3, 2016
The Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Dear my friends,
Here is the Gospel for us today according to St. Luke 10:25-37
There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” He replied to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead. A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn and cared for him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, ‘Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.’ Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?” He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.
***
LET’S start our reflection and this meditation by asking Jesus Christ to help us to be like the Good Samaritan as proclaimed in today’s Gospel. The Good Samaritan has loved his neighbor above himself. Surely, we should love God and our neighbor above all things. We must practice it well in our life.
Probably most of us, like those listening to Jesus, accept that we need to love and serve God, and obey his commandments; but when it comes to loving others, we fail. True and real love has no limits.
In the parable, the victim receives help from someone he, as a Jew, would have considered to be inferior and an enemy a Samaritan. Yet it is a Samaritan whom Jesus makes the hero of the parable. Here we remember that Jesus asks us to love our enemies. Jesus wants us to practice – the same love he practiced on the cross. “Go and do likewise,” he tells us.
In the Perpetual Adoration of the Eucharist, we adore Jesus Christ who wants us to live a love for others inspired by the love he showed for us on the cross. He has loved us, even he died for our sake. When we couldn’t help ourselves and were estranged from God’s friendship because of our sins, he in his love stopped to help us. This is the love Jesus wants us to practice. Do we practise the same love he practiced on the cross?
Let’s pray: Lord Jesus Christ, we are sorry for failing to love others in the same way you have loved us on the cross. Encourage us to be more like you, to be a Good Samaritan to all we meet now and forever. Amen.
Kredit foto: Ilustrasi (Ist)
