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Commentary on the Gospel for Monday, October 7, 2024
Dear friends,
I hope you’re having a lovely week! We’ve got some great reading ahead of us this week, as we’ll be looking at some key passages from St Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. Paul, bless him, is tackling a tricky issue today. It’s the confusion caused by people preaching a different gospel to the one Jesus taught. This is something that has been around for a very long time. This can happen when our preaching (or our criteria, or our point of view) is shaped more by our own unique understanding of God and living the faith, or by a psychological projection, than by the common sources of God’s revelation. It’s so easy to get caught up in wanting to impose ourselves on others, or to be accepted, or to justify our ideas, or to make ourselves feel better about our own mediocrity. And that’s often what we consider evangelical to be. We all do it! We get carried away with ourselves and start using phrases like: It’s so important to remember that the Gospel is clear on this point. We have to be careful not to get caught up in our own ideas and interpretations. The Gospel itself is what we should be focusing on. The Gospel can sometimes come across as quite demanding, but it is also, at its heart, a message of profound liberation. It speaks to people’s minds and also to their hearts, asking them to think and to choose. Jesus has all the power in the world to ‘impose’ the gospel by decree law, because he does. He is the one in charge, and yet he proceeds by way of seduction. We can see this in today’s Gospel, my friends. Let’s focus our attention on the questions that Jesus asks the Teacher of the Law, rather than on the parable of the Good Samaritan itself. What does the law say? What do you read in it, my friend? I’d love to know your thoughts on which of these three people behaved as a neighbour to the one who fell into the hands of the bandits. And I’d also like to make two suggestions: ‘Do this and you will have life’, ‘Go and do likewise’.
Jesus doesn’t tell this story to make the teacher of the law feel bad. He wants to connect with the best in this man and show him a wider horizon. He wants to share the good news with him, because he knows it will bring him life.
Just imagine how different the gospel would sound in us if it were to emerge in this way! Rather than being used as a weapon to serve our interests, however noble they may appear, it would be an instrument of liberation, a manifestation of the love of God who wants to reach the heart of each person. God wants ‘all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth’. And it would never be imposed or forced upon anyone. It would be presented as a gift, a wonderful gift of freedom and personal discovery.