12th Sunday after Pentecost 23.8.09 Identity
Loving others – do we have to? Apparently yes. It is in today’s Gospel of the Good Samaritan and peppered through many passages in the Scriptures.
OK, we have to, but why? Why do we have to love those who do not love us, or even who mean to harm us, or those who are just generally unlovable?
These questions come from the wrong angle. They presume that ‘I’ am the reference point. Other people have their value insofar as they affect me favourably. Those who are good to me are valuable; those who are not good to me have no value.
But I am not the reference point; God is. It is His will that must be done, not mine.
It is much emphasized today that we are unique beings, important to God. We are not just individuals, however. Our importance also is that we are part of a team, the ‘team’ in our case being the Church, the Catholic Church; or even more impressively, the Body of Christ.
We are joined to Christ and therefore to each other. If one part of the body suffers the whole body suffers. If I have a sharp pain in my right elbow, would my left elbow rejoice at that? Hardly. If my right elbow is hurting then I am hurting.
So with the Body of Christ. We must be in sympathy with each other because we belong to Him. (And those outside the Body should be in it, so we include them in our concern as well.)
If we understand God’s view of who we are, we see that though we are loved as individuals, He did not intend us to live isolated from others. To be indifferent to others or hating them is definitely not the plan.
God wants us to be very aware of the importance of other people and to take our place in helping them. And I mean really help them. Help them spiritually, to be saved.
The only use many can see for the Church is its charitable arm. We feed the hungry and give shelter to the homeless, etc. We do that and so far so good.
But that is not our primary point. What we are really after is to save their souls. Almost a faux pas to say that these days, not recommended for the dinner table. ‘Nothing wrong with my soul, thank you.’
It is still true, however, that every person, no matter what their current status, is in need of saving; needs to know God; is meant to go to heaven. Even if they don’t know or agree with this it is still true.
To love others is to be concerned for their spiritual welfare. This is our driving concern.
When we look at other people we are looking at souls. If I am in a queue at the checkout and I am muttering at the slowness of the people in front, then I am seeing them as ‘objects’ whereas really they are ‘subjects’ each one having an immortal soul.
If you were in an antique shop and holding a valuable plate... don’t drop it! Well, don’t harm that valuable soul!
We might want to be famous, to be acknowledged. But the real status is to be a person who loves others and to know where you come in the team. You may be obscure and people don’t even know your name, but if you are doing what God wants then you are the happiest person alive.
The Good Samaritan was humble as he went about doing what he had to do.
We do not ask Why we have to love one another; we are the same flesh; our fates are intertwined. The only legitimate question is How? What shall we do to help? Help can take many forms – action, prayer, sacrifice, forgiveness... God will make it plain to us what is required, once we have the will to love.
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