Faith Without Action: Challenging Religious Hypocrisy with the Good Samaritan
Readings and Virtual Homily for July 13, 2025, Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time; Summertime...and the Livin' is Breezy
Readings for Mass this Sunday:
Deuteronomy 30:10-14
Psalm 69:14, 17, 30-37
OR
Psalm 19:8-11
Colossians 1:15-20
Luke 10:25-37
Dear Friends and Family,
The Gospel passage this Sunday is the parable of the Good Samaritan. Connections to either of the readings or either of the psalms (highly unusual that there is a choice of psalms this week) are fleeting and tenuous, but here goes.
The first reading assures us that God's will is not difficult to discern: "This command (of the Lord) is not too wondrous or remote for you...it is something very near to you...in your heart" (vss. 11, 14).
This assurance connects easily enough with the Gospel story, the general outlines of which, as of course you know, are that a man set upon by robbers on the road from Jericho to Jerusalem is left beaten and helpless there on the side of the road. Both a priest and a Levite (a Jewish religious leader) not only walk right past the injured man, they cross the road to avoid him.
Jesus, of course, uses religious leaders in this parable to show up their hypocrisy. They don't dare touch the bloodied victim for fear of ritual contamination. If they came into contact with his blood they would have to undergo a purification ritual in Jerusalem before being allowed into the Temple. Much more important to be able to get into the Temple without delays or nuisances, than to assist a vulnerable and very needy fellow human being.
It is the Samaritan, a member of a despised race and religion, who does the will of God, in helping the man who had fallen victim to the roadside bandits. And the will of God in this case would indeed appear to be quite obvious; staring any passer-by in the face. A beaten and badly injured man lying on the side of the road. The will of God is, as the first reading points out, very near to hand; it is written in our hearts.
Psalm 69 is one of the psalms of the Passion. Its imagery is striking -- and might be applied to the victim lying on the side of the road in the parable. "...here I am miserable and in pain; let your saving help protect me, O God" (vs. 30).
The verses from Psalm 19 might be related to the parable in terms of how the victim felt, recovering at the generous expense of the Samaritan, at the inn to which his rescuer had taken him. The victim had, Jesus leaves us to infer, been rescued from death itself by the Samaritan. Psalm 19 offers joyful praise for the "command" of the Lord, which the Samaritan, listening to his heart, has fulfilled. "The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul...the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart...the statutes of the Lord are...more desirable than gold" (vss. 8, 9, 11).
The passage from Colossians is one of my favorites in all the New Testament, never mind that it bears almost no relationship to the parable of the Good Samaritan. It is one of the "high Christology" proof texts that I use at the start of each semester with my sophomores at O'Dowd; one of the passages from the New Testament that attests to Christ's divinity in no uncertain terms. "He is the image of the invisible God...for in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible" (vss. 15-16).
The passage continues with this assessment of the reality of the divinity of Christ for several verses, but as I say, there appears to be little to no correlation to the rest of today's readings, so we will leave it there. (The second reading, as I have pointed out before, is selected according to the Principle of Continuous Reading; that is, the aim of the second reading is to take us through a particular book of the New Testament, never mind what the rest of the readings that Sunday are about. Once in a while we get a second reading that really does connect with the others, but more often, not.)
The parable itself I have examined at least a couple of times in these written homilies. I suppose it should be re-stated that Jesus constructed this parable very deliberately to at once condemn religious hypocrisy and to fight a blind and hateful prejudice -- the prejudice most Jews in first-century Israel felt toward the Samaritan people. For deep historical and cultural reasons, the Samaritans were viewed as heretics, half-breeds and invaders; their presence in the heart of the land God had promised the Jews was very deeply resented.
In making a Samaritan the hero of the story Jesus no doubt shocked many if not all of his hearers. That was no accident.
Well, speaking of shocks, I got over the disbelief and sadness of my abruptly canceled trip to Europe last week with a rapidity that impresses even me. I guess it was the prospect of ten unscheduled days stretching before me that did it. I cannot stress how unusual it is for me to have unscheduled time of any kind, let alone ten days of it.
I have been busy, of course, with the business of the summer, of the sabbatical, both writing and filming. I will be getting a new book done this month, thanks to the cancellation of my travel plans. We are developing several new You Tube programs at SGM this summer; I have a new Bay Area videographer and we started filming two of these new programs this week. The NorCal marketing team and I have been busy with the You Tube advertising campaign, filming several new promotional videos that are in themselves exercises in evangelization. (Check out the one on the Andromeda Galaxy, to get an idea; I am particularly proud of it!)
For all that, I have left myself free time, this past week and one-half. It's been great to stay in bed past nine on mornings when I have not had the parish Mass; great to be getting to the gym almost every day. Great, too, to kick back some evenings and just...watch the sunlight fade on our golden hills here in breezy Hayward. There are calves on the hills, this spring and summer. Four of them. We always have a small herd of cattle on the hills, late winter to September or so (not sure where they are pastured the other months of the year). But in my ten years here I have never seen calves on our slopes. They are a joy to watch -- at times they seem to be playing tag with each other.
In any event, as I move deep into the second month of the sabbatical, I am feeling at once charged up and relaxed, and that's a nice way to feel. London and Paris? I have re-booked for mid-October. All's well that ends well.
That'll do it for this one. Hope you are enjoying the summer. I am!
Take good care and God bless.
Love,
Fr. Brawn