When we start out asking the wrong questions, we’ll inevitably end up with the wrong answers. The legal scholar in today’s Gospel begins well enough, asking Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus, knowing the man is well versed in the Scriptures, turns it back to him and says, “Come on, you know this.” The scribe answers well: it’s all about love, for God and neighbor.
But Jesus has seen through this man’s question to his heart. “And who is my neighbor?” seems like a reasonable follow-up question, but Jesus knows the scribe’s motive is to limit the love he owes to others, not expand it. He’s really asking, “Who is not my neighbor? Whose needs can I ignore and still be assured of eternal life?”
So Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan, then turns the scribe’s question on its head: “Which of the three men who came across the robbery victim made himself the man’s neighbor?” “To whom do I owe an obligation?” is the wrong question. The right question, Jesus tells us, is “How can I love as God loves?” When we go through life asking ourselves that question, we’ll be less preoccupied with our own spiritual safety, and more in love each day with the God who loves everyone equally, without regard to ethnicity, religion, or other boundaries. Then we won’t have to wait to “inherit” eternal life, because we’ll be living it right now. And God will rejoice.
Susan Pitchford
Susan Pitchford is a retired sociologist and a Third Order Franciscan. She is the author of The Sacred Gaze, God in the Dark, Following Francis, and The Paradox of Poverty. She is a frequent speaker and retreat leader, and the Guardian for Lifelong Faith Formation for the Third Order, Society of St. Francis’ Province of the Americas.
