A neighbor is the one who takes care of those in ordeal with mercy

October 5, 2015

Monday of the Twenty-seventh week in Ordinary Time 

Saints of the day : Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos,  Saint Mary Faustina Kowalska, Virgin (1905-1938),  Saint Placid, ,arty (6th century) 

Readings

Book of Jonah 1:1-16; hBook of Jonah 1;1-16; 2:1, 11 

¹This is the word of the LORD that came to Jonah, son of Amittai: ²"Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and preach against it; their wickedness has come up before me."

³But Jonah made ready to flee to Tarshish away from the LORD. He went down to Joppa, found a ship going to Tarshish, paid the fare, and went aboard to journey with them to Tarshish, away from the LORD.

⁴The LORD, however, hurled a violent wind upon the sea, and in the furious tempest that arose the ship was on the point of breaking up.

⁵Then the mariners became frightened and each one cried to his god. To lighten the ship for themselves, they threw its cargo into the sea. Meanwhile, Jonah had gone down into the hold of the ship, and lay there fast asleep.

⁶The captain came to him and said, "What are you doing asleep? Rise up, call upon your God! Perhaps God will be mindful of us so that we may not perish."

⁷Then they said to one another, "Come, let us cast lots to find out on whose account we have met with this misfortune." So they cast lots, and thus singled out Jonah.

⁸"Tell us," they said, "what is your business? Where do you come from? What is your country, and to what people do you belong?"

⁹"I am a Hebrew," Jonah answered them; "I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land."

¹⁰Now the men were seized with great fear and said to him, "How could you do such a thing!" - They knew that he was fleeing from the LORD, because he had told them. -

¹¹"What shall we do with you," they asked, "that the sea may quiet down for us?" For the sea was growing more and more turbulent.

¹²Jonah said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea, that it may quiet down for you; since I know it is because of me that this violent storm has come upon you."

¹³Still the men rowed hard to regain the land, but they could not, for the sea grew ever more turbulent.

¹⁴Then they cried to the LORD: "We beseech you, O LORD, let us not perish for taking this man's life; do not charge us with shedding innocent blood, for you, LORD, have done as you saw fit."

¹⁵Then they took Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea's raging abated.

¹⁶Struck with great fear of the LORD, the men offered sacrifice and made vows to him.

¹But the LORD sent a large fish, that swallowed Jonah; and he remained in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

¹¹Then the LORD commanded the fish to spew Jonah upon the shore. 

Book of Jona 2:2-5, 8 

²From the belly of the fish Jonah said this prayer to the LORD, his God: ³Out of my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me; From the midst of the nether world I cried for help, and you heard my voice.

⁴For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the sea, and the flood enveloped me; All your breakers and your billows passed over me.

⁵Then I said, "I am banished from your sight! yet would I again look upon your holy temple." ⁸When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD; My prayer reached you in your holy temple. 

  

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 10:25-37 

²⁵There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Him and said, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

²⁶Jesus said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read it?"

²⁷He said in reply, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself."

²⁸He replied to him, "You have answered correctly; do this and you will live."

²⁹But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

³⁰Jesus replied, "A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead.

³¹A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.

³²Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.

³³But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. ³⁴He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn and cared for him.

³⁵The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, 'Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.'

³⁶Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers' victim?" ³⁷He answered, "The one who treated him with mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

Notes on Readings:

A). Jonah 1:1 Jonah, son of Amittai: a prophet of this name lived at the time of Jeroboam II (786-746 B.C.). 

B). Jonah 1:3 Tarshish: identified by many with Tartessus, an ancient Phoenician colony in southwest Spain; exact recognition with any specific Phoenician center in the western Mediterranean is unsure. To the Hebrews it stood for the far west.

C). Jonah 1:14 Since it has delighted the Lord to chastise Jonah, the mariners ask that in liberating themselves of him they be not accused with the crime of murder. 

D). Jonah 2:4 Shall be destroyed: the Hebrew expression harks back the reader of the "overthrowing" of the impious cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, by a special act of God.

E). Luke 10:25-37  As a reaction to a question from a Jewish legal expert about inheriting eternal life, Jesus points out the supremacy of love over legalism through the Samaritan’s good story. The law of love pronounced in the "Sermon on the Plain" (Luke 6:27-36) is demonstrated by one whom the legal expert would have considered ritually contaminated (John 4:9). Moreover, the identity of the "neighbor" requested by the legal expert (Luke 10:29) turns out to be a Samaritan, the enemy of the Jew (You make make footnote on Luke 9:52). 

F). Luke 10:25 Scholar of the law: Mosaic law specialist, and possibly a member of the group elsewhere recognized as the scribes (Luke 5:21).

G). Luke 10:31-32 Priest . . . Levite: those religious representatives of Judaism who would have been anticipated to be models of "neighbor" to the victim paid no attention.

Reference:  The New American Bible