GO AND DO LIKEWISE!

V/​ I will turn to you O God, 

R/​ to God who gives joy to my youth

V/​ Give me the Wisdom that sits by your throne; 

R/ that I may be counted among your children

Lord, in your all-providential plan, you have led me to this moment to rediscover me in your Word and Wisdom. Aid me to make this time of meditation and prayer enriching, transforming, and liberating for my well-being and others. Amen!

GO AND DO LIKEWISE!

By Fr. Nicholas Macedon, OCD

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Deuteronomy 30:10-4; Psalm 69(68): 14, 17, 30-37; Colossians 1;15-20; Luke 10:25-37

Sunday 13th July 2025

A scribe asked Jesus a very basic religious question: “What should I do to inherit eternal life?” In answer to the question, Jesus directed the Scribe’s attention to the Sacred Scriptures. The Scriptural answer is “love God and express it by loving your neighbour.” And to clarify who a neighbour is, Jesus told him the parable of the Good Samaritan. The parable indicates that a “neighbour” is anyone who needs help. Thus, the correct approach is not to ask the question “Who is my neighbour?” but rather to ask, “Am I a good neighbour to others?”

The first reading, taken from the Book of Deuteronomy, reminds us that God not only gives us His Commandments in Holy Scriptures, but that they are also written in our hearts so that we may obey them and inherit eternal life with God. The refrain for today’s Responsorial Psalm condenses the lessons of the three readings in a single memorable promise, “Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.” In the second reading, St. Paul reminds the Colossians —and us —that just as Christ Jesus is the “visible image of the invisible God,” so our neighbours are the visible image of Christ living among us. Jesus, the Heavenly Good Samaritan, gave us a final commandment during the Last Supper, “Love one another as I have loved you,” because the invisible God dwells in every human being.

Jesus told the Parable of the Good Samaritan, not to embarrass the Jews who hated Samaritans, but to describe His own mission. In a world full of selfishness, hopelessly fragmented, and painfully agonising in violence and misery, Jesus envisions a world where people fully obey the will of the Father, transforming it into the Kingdom of God – a kingdom of peace, justice and love. The only way to achieve this vision is love of neighbour – by reaching out to others, getting out of our comfort zones, and being ready to be disturbed by the needs of others. Jesus shows us his own example as the Good Samaritan, the perfect image of true compassion and unconditional love. As followers of Jesus, we are invited to share in his mission: “Go and do likewise.”

The world is severely afflicted with the sickness called selfishness. It is this sickness that makes people hardened, indifferent and insensitive to the plight of their neighbours. Have you ever wondered why tyrants and dictators use the symbol of a tightened hand? A closed hand cannot and does not want to give. It wants everything for itself. But since it is closed, it also cannot receive. We may not admit it, but this is true for so many of us nowadays. In a society of closed hands, life is meaningless – everything comes to a standstill. Nothing comes and nothing goes. This is what makes life ugly and miserable.

The consequence is terrorism, wars, and various calamities stemming from our smug complacency, insensitivity and self-sufficiency. We need to realize that we cannot remain unaffected by others. No one can be totally independent and self-sufficient. No man is an island. God created us as complementary and interdependent beings. We need each other. This is the greatest lesson we learned from the pandemic. It is only in reaching out to others and in being one with them in their times of need that we discover the beautiful meaning of life. It is then that we begin to live life to the full as God wants for all of us.

It is time to open our hands and reach out to one another. Let the words of Jesus continuously ring in our minds and hearts: “Go and do likewise.” St. Theresa of Avila says beautifully in one of her poems 

“Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world”. Amen.