The Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – July 13, 2025
Jesus never calls the Samaritan “good.” Instead, he calls him “neighbor.” Similarly, the priest and Levite weren’t “bad.” They just weren’t neighborly. Each of us can do both good and bad. The difference is whether we choose to be neighbors.
The priest, Levite, and Samaritan each saw the victimized man. However, seeing trauma does not make one a neighbor. What made the Samaritan a neighbor and the others not was closeness. Unlike the others, the Samaritan didn’t go out of his way to avoid the wounded person but stayed his course to be near to the one in need. He approached him, touched him, lifted him, sheltered him, shared his resources with him, and invited others to do likewise.
Disengagement makes no demands of us. Indifference takes no risk. God’s “style,” however, is nearness and proximity.
Often we distance ourselves from trauma, suffering, or systemic oppression. We avoid that part of town and dodge the beggar’s gaze. We wish survivors would get over it and those grieving to cheer up. But disengagement makes no demands of us. Indifference takes no risk. God’s “style,” however, is nearness and proximity: “Mercy is made tangible, it becomes closeness, service, care for those in difficulty” (Pope Francis, April 11, 2021).
The reign of God is at hand. It is something very near to you. You have only to carry it out. Let us be like God, our neighbor, who draws near to us in our suffering.
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