20250713 CALL TO REFLECT GOD’S NATURE
First reading |
Deuteronomy 30:10-14 |
The Law is not beyond your strength or beyond your reach
Moses said to the people: ‘Obey the voice of the Lord your God, keeping those commandments and laws of his that are written in the Book of this Law, and you shall return to the Lord your God with all your heart and soul.
‘For this Law that I enjoin on you today is not beyond your strength or beyond your reach. It is not in heaven, so that you need to wonder, “Who will go up to heaven for us and bring it down to us, so that we may hear it and keep it?” Nor is it beyond the seas, so that you need to wonder, “Who will cross the seas for us and bring it back to us, so that we may hear it and keep it?” No, the Word is very near to you, it is in your mouth and in your heart for your observance.’
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 68(69):14,17,30-31,33-34,36-37 |
Seek the Lord, you who are poor, and your hearts will revive
This is my prayer to you,
my prayer for your favour.
In your great love, answer me, O God,
with your help that never fails:
Lord, answer, for your love is kind;
in your compassion, turn towards me.
Seek the Lord, you who are poor, and your hearts will revive
As for me in my poverty and pain
let your help, O God, lift me up.
I will praise God’s name with a song;
I will glorify him with thanksgiving.
Seek the Lord, you who are poor, and your hearts will revive
The poor when they see it will be glad
and God-seeking hearts will revive;
for the Lord listens to the needy
and does not spurn his servants in their chains.
Seek the Lord, you who are poor, and your hearts will revive
For God will bring help to Zion
and rebuild the cities of Judah
and men shall dwell there in possession.
The sons of his servants shall inherit it;
those who love his name shall dwell there.
Seek the Lord, you who are poor, and your hearts will revive
Second reading |
Colossians 1:15-20 |
All things were created through Christ and for Christ
Christ Jesus is the image of the unseen God
and the first-born of all creation,
for in him were created
all things in heaven and on earth:
everything visible and everything invisible,
Thrones, Dominations, Sovereignties, Powers –
all things were created through him and for him.
Before anything was created, he existed,
and he holds all things in unity.
Now the Church is his body,
he is its head.
As he is the Beginning,
he was first to be born from the dead,
so that he should be first in every way;
because God wanted all perfection
to be found in him
and all things to be reconciled through him and for him,
everything in heaven and everything on earth,
when he made peace
by his death on the cross.
Gospel Acclamation | Jn10:27 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice,
says the Lord,
I know them and they follow me.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Luke 10:25-37 |
The good Samaritan
There was a lawyer who, to disconcert Jesus, stood up and said to him, ‘Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the Law? What do you read there?’ He replied, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.’ ‘You have answered right,’ said Jesus ‘do this and life is yours.’
But the man was anxious to justify himself and said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?’ Jesus replied, ‘A man was once on his way down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of brigands; they took all he had, beat him and then made off, leaving him half dead. Now a priest happened to be travelling down the same road, but when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. In the same way a Levite who came to the place saw him, and passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan traveller who came upon him was moved with compassion when he saw him. He went up and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. He then lifted him on to his own mount, carried him to the inn and looked after him. Next day, he took out two denarii and handed them to the innkeeper. “Look after him,” he said “and on my way back I will make good any extra expense you have.” Which of these three, do you think, proved himself a neighbour to the man who fell into the brigands‘ hands?’ ‘The one who took pity on him’ he replied. Jesus said to him, ‘Go, and do the same yourself.’
13 July 2025, Sunday, 15th Week in Ordinary Time
CALL TO REFLECT GOD’S NATURE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [DT 30:10-14; PS 69 OR PS 19; COL 1:15-20; LK 10:25-37]
In the Old Testament, the Law given to and through Moses to the People of Israel was considered a great privilege. When Moses gave them the Law, he said to them, “‘You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!’ For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him? And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?'” (Dt 4:6-8) Indeed, the laws of God are the expression of God’s being and nature. They are at the same time, laws that help them to live their lives according to their calling as the People of God. God desires that His people express in their lives the God they worship and as Moses said, how great their God is. So the laws govern their conduct and relationship among themselves and even with the strangers and foreigners.
In other words, the vocation of Israel was to be a light to the world as Isaiah prophesied. “I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.” (Isa 42:6f). What is true for the Old Israel is also true for the New Israel. Jesus instructed His people at the Sermon on the Mount saying, “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” (Mt 5:4-6). And immediately following this call, He stressed the importance of the law. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.” (Mt 5:17f)
Hence, contrary to what some people think, God’s commandment is not a burden. It is a response to God’s gift to us. In fact, it is a great privilege that we are given the commandments to guide us in our lives. Without which, we will walk the path of ignorance and be led to sin and self-destruction. When we see the commandments positively, then we want to embrace them as the way to life. Jesus Himself told the disciples to observe the commandments He gave to them. “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.” (Jn 14:23f).
Indeed, the commandments are the way to eternal life. This was what the Lord told the scribe in today’s Gospel when he asked, “‘Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the Law? What do you read there?’ He replied, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.’ ‘You have answered right,’ said Jesus ‘do this and life is yours.'”
However, many of us profess our love for God, which is easy. But to say that we really love God is seen in the way we love our neighbours. St John tells us, “Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.” (1 Jn 4:20f).
But who are our brothers and sisters? Hence, the question that also confronts us today is the same question that the scribe asked the Lord. “The man was anxious to justify himself and said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?'” This person is the Samaritan, who, for the Jews, was their enemy because the Jews despised the Samaritans for being half-Jews.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus, after teaching us on the importance of observing all the laws, spoke about the need to love our enemies. He said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt 5:43-45,47) It is the love of our enemies that actually make us really like God, perfect as He is, in compassion and in love.
To illustrate this point, instead of defining what loving our enemies meant, Jesus told the scribe the parable of the Good Samaritan. For Jesus, the perfect observance of the commandments is to show mercy and care for our enemies when they are in need. The call to love them when they are at their most vulnerable state is what makes love perfect. In the story of the Good Samaritan, he took care of the wounded man, most probably a Jew who was robbed by bandits.
Whereas his fellow Jews – a priest and a Levite who were presumably having duties at the Temple, and therefore loving God with all their heart, soul, strength and mind – divorced their love for God from their love for their fellowmen in need. In contrast, the Samaritan not only loved his enemy but cared for him. So the Lord asked, “Which of these three, do you think, proved himself a neighbour to the man who fell into the brigands’ hands?’ ‘The one who took pity on him’ he replied. Jesus said to him, ‘Go, and do the same yourself.'”
Even up to this point, the scribe was not able to say explicitly that it was the Samaritan who proved himself to be a neighbour to the man. For this reason, in spite of all the good works he did, he still could not attain eternal life because his love for God and man is not perfect. There is a dichotomy between his love for God and for his fellowmen even if he were a Jew. Secondly, he could not accept that his enemy could be more loving than he was. This precisely was the point of Jesus’ teaching that we are called to love our enemy as well.
But Jesus did not simply teach us to witness to God’s presence in us through love of our enemies; He Himself shows us the way to love our neighbour and our enemies. Jesus is our model of love of God and our neighbours. To Him, we turn for inspiration and direction. This explains why in the Scripture readings, Jesus is presented by St Paul as “the image of the unseen God and the first-born of all creation, for in him were created all things in heaven and on earth” and the “first to be born from the dead, so that he should be first in every way; because God wanted all perfection to be found in him and all things to be reconciled through him and for him, everything in heaven and everything on earth, when he made peace by his death on the cross.” Therefore, in St Paul’s understanding Jesus is the visible image of God on earth, and by His passion and death on the cross, He has taught us to forgive and love our enemies even unto death, for this is the gateway to perfection in love and the power of reconciling our enemies with God. Jesus, therefore, is the fulfilment of the Law. He is the perfect revelation of the Father. Hence, He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Whilst the Old Testament understands the law as the revelation of God’s will and His being, for us Christians, Jesus is truly the fullness of the revelation of the glory of God. As St Paul says, He is “for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” (1 Cor 1:30)
Today, we are challenged to be perfect in love, like our Heavenly Father. Not that we can be perfect in all virtues, but at least we can be perfect in loving our neighbours, which includes our enemies. This we can do with His grace, of course. So, we are called to look upon Jesus who is our leader in love for His enemies. He continued to reach out to those who rejected Him, including Judas and those who betrayed Him. On the cross, He lived out what He taught by praying for His enemies and excusing them. The summit of Christian love is to love our enemies, and not just our brothers and sisters. Our neighbours include everyone, regardless of race, language, or religion. So long as we cannot transcend social, religious, racial, and cultural barriers, we have not yet loved like Jesus. Truly, the measure of our love for God is when we truly love our neighbours, especially those in need, even our enemies at war.
Best Practices for Using the Daily Scripture Reflections
- Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart.
- Daily reflections when archived will lead many to accumulate all the reflections of the week and pray in one sitting. This will compromise your capacity to enter deeply into the Word of God, as the tendency is to read for knowledge rather than a prayerful reading of the Word for the purpose of developing a personal and affective relationship with the Lord.
- It is more important to pray deeply, not read widely. The current reflections of the day would be more than sufficient for anyone who wants to pray deeply and be led into an intimacy with the Lord.
Note: You may share this reflection with someone. However, please note that reflections are not archived online nor will they be available via email request.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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