St. Mary's Catholic Church of Tomahawk, WI

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

We are in the fifteenth week of the ordinary season. The first reading tells us about how to attain a good life, is it possible to live a good life? Many ancient myths, stories and legends portray heroes scaling great heights to obtain rare knowledge from the realm of the gods or traversing a sea of death to achieve immortal wisdom. According to these traditions, attaining a good life was nearly impossible. According to Deuteronomy, the good life is readily attainable by following and practicing the commandments of God and building intimate relationships with him.

The second reading is a hymn rooted in biblical poetry and ancient wisdom traditions. The result is a constellation of rich theological claims about Christ. In this passage we see that the cosmos consists of God on the one hand and all of creation on the other. At the nexus of the two is Christ Jesus through whom all things came into existence, hold together and remain in existence. Is our relationship with the cosmos and both our spiritual and material life centered around Christ Jesus our Lord?

The Gospel presents the parable of the Good Samaritan and the question of attaining eternal life. First-century Judaism helped people to understand the truth of Torah, the law, whose golden rule is love of God and love of neighbor. While the first is obvious, the scholar was in a dilemma about who could be his neighbor. Through the parable the Lord makes it clear to him to go above and beyond the spiritual and cultural expectations to help the needy, who is our neighbor. Do we understand, accept and practice to help our neighbor?

Fr. Aloysius Royan Anthony