Read Reflect Respond

Feast Days |  Sundays |  Videos | Latest

(13th July 2025) Homily for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Read: (Deut 30:10-14; Col 1: 15-20; Lk 10: 25-37)

Reflect: Seek God in everything, surrender and save others by act of Mercy…

Dear friends, we are on the fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Everyone of us seeks something or the other in life; every one of us in one way or the other surrender at one point of time to God or to others; everyone of us makes efforts to save others. Indeed, this is the natural inclination of every person to seek, to surrender and save. However, at times we tend to overdo or ignore these good attitudes and approaches in life, because of our human limitations and weakness. But the readings of the day very powerfully touch us to seek and surrender to God at all times, engage in the acts of mercy and compassion in order that we may inherit eternal life that is in store for us by God. Therefore, based on the liturgy of the word, I would like to share with you three points of reflection;

1. Seek God in Everything:

‘To seek God in everything’ would mean that we see God in everything. We realize the presence of God; we look for his guidance and goodness for a purposeful life at all times. By seeking God and seeing God in everything we cultivate a deep personal relationship with God and respect for persons becomes part of life. Seeking God creates in us the thirst for God in trust and confidence, meaning in life, purpose of life. Something similar we find in the first reading from the book of Deuteronomy. God wants the people of Israel to seek him all the time and see him in everyone.

The first reading from the book of Deuteronomy manifests how much God loves the people of Israel. It is the final exhortation of Moses before his death. It gives emphasis on how God desires for a loving relationship with the people of Israel. Through Moses, God makes known that God is within their reach and understanding, provided the Israelites return to God, obeying his precepts and commandments. So we do not have a distant God who is far from our reach, rather God is with us and we would be able to realize it, if we obey his words and listen to his voice. It is perhaps a call for the renewal of the covenant, which requires interior conversion and total commitment from the people, Israel.

The phrase, ‘the word is near you’ perhaps refers to the assurance of God’s word and his presence, the incarnate Word Jesus, who is to come into the world, a mediator between God and his people. So today, what we need to learn or realize is that God is very near to us. We need not search for him here and there. God is very much present in his word through the Scriptures. He comes close to the open-hearted and good-hearted. God never condemns people, because he is ever ready to condone our faults and flaws; he is even ready to accept us with our own weaknesses, provided we return to God with a renewed and repentant heart. Returning to God, repenting for our sins are the deep expressions of faith in God. Therefore, faith in action is what we need to act on, which certifies our beliefs and practice of our faith authentically. Faith in action empowers us to be worthy children of God and the word of God becomes alive and active, when we live what we profess by faith. These are the results of seeking God and seeing God in everything. However, in our seeking for God, there are times we fall and fail but God never abandons us; God is close to those who try to seek him always.

That’s what Pope Leo would make a very meaningful assertion saying “God never gives up on us; he is always ready to accept us and give meaning and hope to our lives, however hopeless our situation may seem and however insignificant our merits may appear.” Yes, God never gives up on us, he always waits for us, provided we run to him, turn to him for mercy and return to him with great joy. Let this be our prayer to today to run, to turn away from sins and stains and return to God with a repentant heart for renewal of life. Let us seek God and see God in everything, for God loves those who seek him and grants blessings in abundance.

2. Surrender to Jesus

Surrendering to Jesus should be the first and foremost attitude of every Christian, because Jesus himself surrendered to his heavenly Father at every moment of his life. Jesus was with his heavenly Father as a pre-existing person; Jesus has his own supremacy, power and authority, but never claimed to be equal with God the Father; rather, every word that he spoke and every deed that he did manifested a total surrender to God. That something similar is the highlight of the second reading from St. Paul’s letter to Colossians.

The second reading from St. Paul’s letter to Colossians gives us profound knowledge and insight about Jesus, who has power over the entire creation and how he reconciled us with God by offering himself for us. The supremacy of Jesus and his love is affirmed and listed in the first reading; the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation; all things created through him and for him, the head of the body, the Church; fullness of God was pleased and reconciliation through Jesus, peace to all by the blood of his cross. All these in Christ point out how Christ remains central to our faith we profess as Christians. All the more, the reading invites us to realize that the suffering, death of Christ were essential acts of Jesus in the divine plan of God for the salvation of the entire universe.

Although Jesus had power over everything and was pre-existent, yet he learned to surrender himself to God for the fulfillment of God’s divine plan and for the love of us. In every act of God, Jesus was part of. It only shows the unity of God with Jesus and Jesus with the entire Church. This unity calls us to unite ourselves with the Trinitarian God to make a self-surrender of our lives unto God. Today, we have surrendered ourselves to the human-made powers, rules and regulation, addictions and other evil ways and have succumbed severely and fallen into darkness. We need to rise above these faulty or folly surrenders that chains us to part of the evil and the devil. The only freedom from all the chains of folly surrender is to make self-surrender to God. When we surrender ourselves to God, God strengthens, saves and sends us angel-like people to guard, guide and gear up our lives to eternity. But many of us do not make a self-surrender, because our hearts delight in the world more than God.

Today we need to see Christ in everything and make him the center of life. When we realize that Jesus is the center of our life, there is a meaning and purpose for which we live. When we live with a purpose and make Jesus as the centre of life, we make reconciliation possible, even if it is an irreparable damage, due to our sins and temptations; when reconciliation becomes possible, we respect every creature on earth as created by God. Thus we become rooted or connected to the Church, to which Jesus is head and all in all for us Christians.

Pope Leo, very beautifully points out how we need to make a self-surrender to God and be open to his grace. So Pope Leo says, “To move aside, become small, so that He may be known. Abandon every desire for the spotlight, every worldly reliance on power, structures, money, or religious marketing strategies, and instead entrust oneself to the One who guides the Church, without whom, as He Himself said, we can do nothing. To surrender to the action of His grace, which always goes before us.” Yes, that’s what Jesus did. Jesus surrendered before God everything and believed in God’s grace and divine plan. Similar should be our approach. When we surrender ourselves to the action of God’s grace, he enables us to move far ahead in life; God helps us to be his children

3. Save others by act of mercy:

To save others by act of mercy and compassion is to help people turn away from harm and danger. In a special way, it needs to be looked into a spiritual connotation or meaning. To save others by act of mercy would mean that we deal with others in kindness, compassion and care. We don’t judge or ignore them, rather we make efforts to reach out to them in true and pure love. That’s what we find in the Gospel reading of the day, which presents to us the episode of the Good Samaritan.

The Gospel reading of the day from the Evangelist Luke calls for how we could inherit eternal life, a question clarified by a lawyer. As we all know that eternal life is a life forever, which is offered to us only by God, a life accompanied and assisted by God. Human efforts alone are insufficient to enjoy the heavenly privileges and pleasures, because we are all part of God and when God becomes part of us, we become a whole as persons created in the image and likeness of God. However, as the lawyer clarified his questions about eternal life, he himself gives answers to inherit eternal life, that is, to love God, others and oneself. But being a lawyer, he justifies his claims by asking who my neighbor is. Thus, Jesus shares with the lawyer the story of a Good Samaritan and his good acts.

We see here in this episode three different persons coming into contact with the man who was stripped, beaten and half-dead. They are priest, a Levite and a Samaritan. We all know from the history that priests as descendants of Aaron were involved in the sacrifices and maintenance of the temple, as well as in various purification rites, a priest could not defile himself by contact with the dead or those with blood stains. We also know that the Levite was a descendant of Levi who assisted the priests in various sacrificial duties and following the rules and regulations of the temple. But the Samaritan, a pagan, who was considered low in the society or has no much say, reaches out to the wounded man in compassion and mercy. The Samaritan who was looked down, because of their origin is now termed as Good Samaritan, because of his kindness and compassion. Thus, mercy, which arises out of pure love, becomes a mark of inheriting eternal life.

Each of them had their own duties and functions, rules and regulations to follow. The first two, priest and Levite were particular about laws, probably in not touching the wounded or the man with a blood. They were worried about their purity, because while coming into contact with blood one could become impure, as they have laws about purity. Although, the bible passage of the day from the gospel of Luke does not mention that because of the laws and legislation of the Jewish society, yet could be the possible or probable reasons. But Jesus has a reason to introduce the character of a Samaritan. The presence of the Samaritan among the priest and Levite in the parable of the Good Samaritan shows that Jesus was asserting emphatically that neither the wise and understanding  nor the proud and ruling  practiced being loving neighbors except the Samaritan, who was considered as outsider, enemy of the Jews and a stranger. The mutual hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans would prove how the Jews looked down on the Samaritans. However, the stranger, outsider, the most hated person (Samaritan) becomes the hero of the episode, by transcending everything in reaching out to the needy, the wounded.

Interestingly, we learn that the lawyer was very well aware of the laws and instructions but failed to realize the implications of practicing the laws of love. Probably he took pride in the knowledge about laws and instruction of the Jewish society, but he did not pay much attention to realize that it was not enough to know the law of love rather to practice the love of love. The lawyer, who was able to orally say about the laws of love of God, others and oneself asks Jesus a question, ‘who is my neighbor?’ The reason of his question regarding who was his neighbor could be arrogance and ignorance; arrogance because he could have thought that he knows the laws well; ignorance, because the one who shared about the law of love did not know that law of love comes to perfection, when it is in practice of love, that is, to show kindness and compassion to the needy, the wounded and the helpless.

Today, we also have similar mannerisms, by which we could drift ourselves away from our focus to inherit eternal life that God offers us freely. It is a universal call to charity, wherein we love our neighbors and others without limits and boundaries. We don’t look down on others based on race, nationality, religious identity, color, status quo of the people. We need to look at others with one intention and identity, that is, we are God’s children. That becomes possible when we consider mercy as a path to eternal life. Perhaps, the parable of the Good Samaritan resembles and reminds of Jesus’ good nature as Good Samaritan, who came to heal the broken-hearted, who came to call sinners, who came to sow the seeds of God’s eternal love and above all giving his own life, so that we all can live in God. Therefore, we have a moral responsibility as followers of Christ to reach out to people in compassion and kindness. We need to avoid complacency and legalistic mindset of priest and Levite in the Gospel reading of the day and switch to be a Good Samaritan, ready to spend time with the needy, the wounded, going extra-miles to ensure safety and security, recognizing the well-being of the other and above all wishing good health and manifesting generous heart.

Today, we need to ask who our neighbors are. Our neighbor today is whoever is in need of us, the needy in society. It could be enemies, strangers but we need to show Christian attitude of love without any prejudice, indifference and favoritism. It is always good to care for the person in pain than avoiding, letting others go through mental trauma or torture in life. Just like the Samaritan who did not pity but emptied himself to manifest fuller love, so also we must show fuller love to people around us or in need of us. We need to go out of our comfort zones and realize that mercy is the measure of love. Let us remind ourselves of the quote of Pope Francis, “Mercy is another name for God.” Let the mercy of God reflect in ourselves and make the world see God in us by acts of kindness and compassion.

Respond:

Do we seek God in everything to return with a repentant heart or seek our own selves and go away from God’s love?

Do we surrender ourselves to Jesus, who offered himself for us on the cross or do we render ourselves to the whims and fancies of the world?

Do we make efforts to save others by acts of mercy which is the measure of love or do we hold on to grudges, hold on to laws and forget the good attitude and virtue of love, where God exists?

Let us seek and return to God, surrender our lives and use mercy the measure of love that obtains life-eternal. Amen.

God bless us all! Live Jesus!