Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - July 10, 2016

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

July 10, 2016

We Love Because He First Loved Us

 

            There’s an old maxim that still rings true: “You can’t give what you don’t have.” I used to have a philosophy professor who would declare, “You can’t get blood from a turnip!” For someone to give you a diamond, they must first own the diamond. It’s not enough to just wish to give you a diamond – wishes are cheap, while diamonds are expensive. So you have to own a diamond if you want to give someone a diamond.

            It’s the same way with love. If you are to love your neighbor, as Jesus tells us to do, we must first allow ourselves to be loved by God.

            I want to read this parable in a different way. On face value, it’s a parable about how we ought to treat one another with love and mercy. But on a much deeper level, it’s also a story of how God treats us with His love and mercy.

            You see, we are that man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. What a huge significance, these two cities – Jerusalem was the home of the Temple, the dwelling place of God. It was in Jerusalem that people came to worship the living God. In contrast, Jericho was one of the oldest cities in the world – a city that was essentially pagan. This man who travels from Jerusalem to Jericho is a symbol of humanity – we were created for intimacy with God in Jerusalem, and yet so often we have turned our back on God and on our citizenship of Heaven, and instead we’ve chosen to pursue the worldly, pagan things of this earth.

            So humanity, having left the safety of our friendship with God, got accosted and beat up. That’s a symbol of what our sins do to us – they make us miserable, beaten, addicted, unhappy. When little kids come to confession to me and confess that they have lied, I always ask, “Don’t you find that you got in more trouble with your lie than you would have if you just told the truth?” And the same goes for all of our sin – it always promises pleasure, but leaves us unhappy.

            Then come the priest and the Levite. These two men were a symbol of our guilt, because this beaten man looks at them and realizes how far he has fallen. He is no longer pure like the priest or faithful like the Levite (the Levites were the priestly class of Israel). God gave the Israelites their laws to help them realize how holy they need to be; but it also made them – and us – realize how unworthy we are!

            But then came the Samaritan. The Samaritan was a foreigner, much like when God Himself became a man and made Himself a foreigner in our world. God sees our misery and is moved with compassion. He pours oil and wine on our wounds – a symbol of the Anointing of the Sick and the Eucharist. He lifted the dying man up (much like Christ took our sins upon His back on the Cross), brought the man to safety in the inn (as we are brought to safety within His Church), and paid for the man’s healing. The price that Christ paid for our healing was His own Blood, a price more costly than anything in the universe!

            My friends, we can only love our neighbor well if we are convinced of the Lord’s love for us. We love because He first loved us, says St. John in his letter. I think some of us have a hard time accepting that God loves us. We think we have to earn it, that if we try harder and clean up our act, then God will be pleased with us. My friends, nothing could be further from the truth! The Samaritan didn’t say to the man, “I’ll help you, but first you have to stand up on your own two feet, and you have to climb on my animal yourself.” No! The Samaritan bent down into the misery of the man, and healed him. God is not afraid of your misery!

            So many of us say to ourselves, “God can’t love me because…” God can’t love me because I sin too much. Because I’m afraid of the future. Because my parents always told me I was no good. Because I’m not successful or wealthy or good-looking or talented. Because I’m lonely. Because I’ve done things in my past that I’m ashamed of, because I’m carrying burdens.

            My friends, God’s love for you is not dependent upon what you’ve done, what you’ve endured, what people have said about you. It is a free gift, totally free. He looks at you and sees a treasure worth more than the entire universe. He looks at you and sees someone worth dying for.

            And once we have really taken this to heart, then – and only then – can we love one another.