Dear Parishioner,

A well-known American Catholic political figure recently said: “There is a Christian concept that you love your family and then you love your neighbour, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens, and then after that, prioritize the rest of the world….”  In today’s parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus faces the old antagonism between his own people and the Samaritans who were despised as the mixed-race descendants of Jews who had intermarried with foreign settlers and therefore married outside the faith.  After the return from exile in the 6th century BCE the Jews refused to allow the Samaritans to help them rebuild the Temple which had been overrun and destroyed by the Babylonians and surprise, surprise, the Samaritans responded by establishing a rival priesthood and temple.  As distrust and enmity grew each group’s loyalty to its own tradition simply served to nourish its hostility to the other.  So, the answer to the question ‘who is my neighbour?’ was, simply: ‘someone within the boundaries of my own racial and religious circle.’  It’s that simple, isn’t it?

In the parable Jesus questions his own people’s attitude and when a lawyer says to him ‘we have our own way of doing things’ Jesus takes issue. In doing so he challenges the lawyer about an attitude enshrined in tradition and law for hundreds of years and challenges him to be disloyal to that tradition.  If your religious tradition invites you to despise others, then you must be disloyal to the tradition.  That is quite a blunt message and not one which is easy to hear. 

For many of us the weight of inherited hostility is immense and as a northern Irish Catholic brought up against the background of the Troubles, I know the sentiment well.  The recent twentieth anniversary of 7/7 too continues to weigh heavily not only on those who suffered directly but on all of us in the wider community.  Today’s gospel challenges us to try to overcome deep-seated suspicion, enmity and hatred and to promote love.   Such a challenge is always to extend the boundaries of our love to include our traditional enemies.  Not easy to hear. But surely if the gospel does not liberate, then hasn’t Christ died in vain?

Deacon Alex