First reading: Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm: Ps 85:9-14
Epistle: 1 John 4:17-21
Gospel: Luke 10:25-37

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, —And who is my neighbor?—

And there lies a problem we all face. We having nagging doubts about love, especially in our interaction with others. At first it might seem like the lawyer was being haughty, but I think he really wanted to know. He wanted Jesus to verify whether he was right or wrong. Like the young lawyer we want to know the things that we must do. How do we love properly? Is our love living up to God’s love?

Brothers and sisters,

The young lawyer, might have been like many of today’s young lawyers, working all kinds of cases, and usually the worst kinds of cases. He may have seen too much. He probably saw too much strife, too many problems, the depths of human conflict, and people’s inability to even remotely approach righteousness. While he was probably thought of as being a very good young man, fulfilling the precepts of the Law as understood and taught in his day, his experiences likely increased his nagging doubts – the same sorts of doubts that we have.

Then comes Jesus. Talk about upsetting the apple cart. Jesus was speaking in ways that defied the teachers of the time. He told people that it takes more than the Law to find one’s way to God and to His heavenly kingdom. So the lawyer wants to find out if his nagging doubts, the questions stirring in his conscience, the question Jesus has pushed out into the open, can be answered. He wants to get the reassurance he longs for. Am I loving as God would have me love?

My friends,

Our young lawyer likely studied scripture, and knowing what he knew, he had to wonder why, with such a loving God, he saw far more of those Jesus described at the beginning of the parable of the Good Samaritan:

—A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that 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, passed by on the other side.

Why didn’t he see the people described in today’s passage from Jeremiah:

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Where were the people with God’s love written into their hearts? Where were the people who love as God would have them love? Why was he only seeing the characters Jesus described. He was seeing the worst of the worst; the brigands, the uncaring rubberneckers, those that were unwilling to stop and love, stop and care.

So our young lawyer might have left Jesus still wondering. We still wonder. How do we love properly? Is our love living up to God’s love?

Brothers and sisters,

The answer Jesus gives us is that our love must be like God’s love — unconditional.

St. John speaks of that when he says:

We love because he first loved 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.

Our neighbors, all we know or may come to know, even the brigands and rubberneckers are not constrained by geography, culture, race, religion, or looks. They exist. They live and by that very life they are our neighbor, people worthy of our Christian love. There is nothing that makes another person a former neighbor. We mustn’t allow anything to separate us from our neighbor, to stop us from loving them.

The aspect of being Neighbor is unconditional, and there is the key to salvation, to justification. Being neighbor and seeing neighbor in others is built right into us. It is part of God’s way — much different from the world’s way. We are called to choose love according to God’s way. God’s love, His salvation, His work, His shedding of blood is unconditional. God’s love is limitless and we as His children are to receive and give unconditional love.

That is the kind of lawyers, doctors, co-workers, family members, community members, citizens, priests, deacons, and bishops we are to be — the unconditional kind. Like the Good Samaritan we are stop, to act, to look past the cost of time and treasure, to look past fear and apartness, and to be limitless and unconditional in our loving. St. John tells us that perfect love, God’s love, casts out all fear.

Our trust must be focused on this alone; to live out God’s love through the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His way of love is unconditional. The seed of that love is within us and we are to nurture that seed, right here in the safe confines of the Holy Church, and throughout the world.

In abiding in God’s love, in bearing God’s love, our ability to be limitless, to be unconditional, will increase. We will no longer be apart. We will be joined, one-to-another, in a bond of love. When the love of God joins us we will truly be members of the kingdom. May Your kingdom come Lord Jesus! Amen.