The most effective way to measure our progress in the spiritual life is to see how much charity we show towards our neighbour.
Newsroom(14/07/2025 19:32, Gaudium Press) In the 15th Sunday of Ordinary time liturgy, the readings as a whole converge on a line of thought that can be summed up in one word: charity! Faced with such a simple question: “Who is my neighbour?”, the Divine Master teaches not only that a neighbour can even be an enemy, but that the measure with which we love our neighbour is similar to that with which we love God.
The law of charity
“LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOuR AS YOURSELF” (LEV 19:18)
In the first reading, God expresses that his law is not above our strength to fulfill, but is within our reach and known to us. However, so that there would be no doubt about this commandment, Jesus, in the Gospel, thanks to the question of the lawyer, exemplifies it with a parable.
The Divine Master describes the attitude of three characters towards the man who fell into the hands of thieves: the priest, whose main function is to care for souls, who turned aside when he saw him – probably in order to avoid trouble – as well as the Levite, who acted in the same way. Finally, the Samaritan arrived, tended to his wounds and took him to an inn, promising to pay the sick man’s expenses.
Looking at this story, we can see that every detail is full of principles: the only one who was willing to help that man was a Samaritan. Now, we know that the Jews were the real enemies of the Samaritans, and Our Lord Jesus Christ presents the true law: the law of charity. That’s why, in the first reading, God says: “this word is close to you, […] in your heart” (Deut 30:14), because the heart is the symbol of love, the symbol of this law, which is engraved within us. But how different this law is from the concept of charity of certain humanitarian movements, which are often more concerned with the good of the body than with the salvation of the soul.
In other words, true love cannot restrain itself in the face of someone in need, even if they are an enemy – understood here in terms of matters related to mere personal selfishness, in which God’s glory is not taken into account – but needs to expand by sacrificing its own time and making an effort to help, because charity towards one’s neighbor is a reflection of love for God.
Spiritual life is reflected in charity
Another precious teaching that can be gleaned from this parable is that charity is a reflection of the inner life, because, as St. John teaches, whoever does not love his brother whom he sees cannot love God whom he does not see (cf. 1 John 4:20). Thus, the love of God of both the priest and the Levite was demonstrated in the attitude they took towards the needy man: running away. Perhaps the Savior wanted to make it clear to the teacher of the law that it is not enough to know the commandments, but one must also practice them.
And this means practicing all the commandments. Just look at how many times Our Lord publicly rebuked the Pharisees for using the law itself to abstain from fulfilling it (cf. Mt 23:13-36). In fact, the same Lord who decreed not to steal and not to kill also commanded not to lie, not to sin against chastity, not to desire one’s neighbor’s wife, etc. This means that if someone fulfills one part of the commandments, but despises the other, they cannot truly love God, because true charity leads the one who loves to desire the same things that the beloved desires, as well as to reject everything that the beloved rejects. In other words, whoever truly loves God also rejects all sin.
In this way, the liturgy invites us to make an examination of conscience to analyze our love, in the sense of conforming it to the love pointed out by St. Paul, in which “it pleased God to make all fullness dwell and through him to reconcile all creatures to himself, […] at the price of his own blood on the cross” (Col 1:19-20) and to reciprocate, to the extent that human nature is capable, this love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus for us.
By Vinícius Mendes
Compiled by Teresa Joseph
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