Today's Gospel

The Danger of Busy

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where each day we're exploring the genius of the gospels. The genius of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Today's gospel comes from Luke, chapter ten, verses 25 through 37. And behold, a lawyer stood up to put Jesus to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus said to him, "What is written in the Lord? How do you read it?" And he answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself." And he said to him, "You have answered right. Do this and you will live." But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

And Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and left him half dead. Now, by chance, a priest was going down the road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him pass by on the other side. So a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion, and went to him and bound up his wounds pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn and took care of him.

And the next day, he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, "Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I return. Which of these three do you think proved to be neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed mercy to him." And Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

What jumps out at you today? It's an epic reading. In my book, Holy Moments, I talk about the idea that the good Samaritan is like the patron saint of Holy Moments. And you look at these characters, and you think about the others that pass by. Why did they pass by? And what were their reasons? And I think our instinct is to say, "Oh, their reasons were bad. They were selfish. They were ignoring this man in need." And this is our judgmental tendencies, right? But sometimes, like you're driving down the road and someone comes speeding past you, and what do you think about that?

You probably get those judgmental tendencies going again. But that guy might be taking his wife to the hospital, and she's three minutes from having a baby. But we tend not to give people the benefit of the doubt. And they might have had good reasons. I don't know what they were but they also might have just been in too much of a hurry. I'm just finishing up a book right at the moment. I'm just a few days away from finishing it. It's called slowing down to the speed of joy. And it talks about the busyness of our lives. It talks about the incessant urgency of our lives. It talks about, you know, how much of a hurry we were in all the time. And maybe the first two people, they were just in too much of a hurry. They were just too busy. They just had too much going on to stop and take care of this guy who desperately needed to be taken care of. And so it's an epic story. There's so much here to learn. So love the Lord with your whole heart, with your whole soul, with your whole strength, with your whole mind. What's that about? It's about wholeheartedness. When's the last time you did something wholeheartedly? You would do a lot of stuff half-heartedly. And God calls us to wholeheartedness. And that requires great intentionality. That doesn't happen by-- that doesn't happen by mistake. But the questions are so powerful. And the question that gets asked here is, who is my neighbor? It's like when Peter comes to Jesus and says, how many times I got to forgive this guy? It's another great one. But here we got what I believe is the most crucial question in the history of humanity. Yeah. It's just stuck in there between two parts of the story. Who is my neighbor? I want to write a book about this one day because it is such an important question because it changes everything, right? If my next door neighbor was out of work, lost their job and had a couple kids and their kids were starving, they couldn't feed their kids, I wouldn't let those children go to bed tonight hungry. Okay? Why?

Well, it's our humanity. It's my neighbor. But why is that neighbor different to the guy on the other side of town whose kids are going to go to bed hungry tonight? And why is the guy on the other side of town different to the guy on the other side of the world whose kids are going to bed hungry tonight because what's the name of our series? Radical and relevant. The gospel is radical. It's relevant to our lives and it wants to have a radical impact on our lives. And this question, who is your neighbor? I am telling you, it will keep you up at night. If you really go into it, you really think about, "Okay, who is my neighbor?" Really think about, "Okay, how does God value people?" Really think about, "Okay. Why do we value an American life different to a Sudanese life?" Or a Chinese life or whatever? But we do and we have to own that. We have to claim that. And we might say, "Okay, but I don't." But as a society we do and we have to take a part of responsibility in that. Who is your neighbor? God's constantly trying to get us to see everyone is our neighbor. It's a human family. And I'm telling you, it's a disturbing question. I'm telling you, it is a radical question. It will have a radical impact on your life if you open yourself up to the question, who is your neighbor? But maybe something else jumped out at you today. Whatever jumped out at you, whatever word, phrase, idea, take it with you into your day. Allow it to lead you, to guide you, to encourage you, to challenge you, to enrich you, to nurture you, whatever God wants to use that word, phrase or idea for in your life today, allow it to work in you. Allow the gospel to work in you. Have a great day. Be bold and Be Catholic.