July 10 – Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Every relationship I have encountered in my life has been broken and messy, even my own relationship with God.  I know this is due to my own faults. The most profound and absolute truth of our Catholic faith is that we are made for a relationship with God and with one another. We are made for communion.  However, the devil is cunning!  The spiritual battle is real and some have been convinced to give up relationships in order to avoid the brokenness and messiness of life.

In the Gospel today, Jesus tells the beautiful story of the Good Samaritan.  This story reveals real love, real mercy, and what our faith actually requires.  Even though the victim is ignored by others, specifically by the leadership of the faith, the true neighbor is one who sees what is happening and is moved with compassion to encounter the wounded and actually enter into their brokenness to bring healing.

This isn’t a nice narrative story that Jesus Christ gives to the man wanting to live his faith, but one Jesus Christ actually lives out by his very life.  What does Jesus do throughout the Scriptures?  Jesus enters the world, has compassion, takes on humanity’s brokenness and mess, and ultimately through his death and resurrection, brings peace and healing through the Holy Spirit.

Jesus continues to do the same thing for you and me today. He sees us in his love, has compassion, encounters and enters into our brokenness, and brings healing to us through our encounter with him. Every time we look at the cross we should be reminded of the beautiful relationship being freely offered to us and how we are called to live. So, do not be afraid of the brokenness and messiness of relationships, but without fear enter into a deep relationship with God, and as Christ did, into the lives of others!

Father Michael