Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe, 13 July 2025
Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C
Deuteronomy 30:10-14 ><}}}*> Colossians 1:15-20 ><}}}*> Luke 10:25-37

Jesus continues his journey to Jerusalem with his disciples, teaching us with some important things “to do” following the questions of some people along the way.

Last Sunday Jesus taught us the five do’s and five don’ts of discipleship; today, he teaches us what we must do to inherit eternal life with the parable of the good Samaritan.

There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” He replied to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.” (Luke 10:25-30)

First thing we notice is our similarity with the scholar of the law who already knew the answer to the question “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” We know deep in our hearts the answer and like in the gospel, we have felt Jesus affirming us many times like the lawyer. But, Jesus wants us to revisit his parable of the Good Samaritan this Sunday to realize its meaning as we continue to imitate the lawyer with the same question “who is my neighbor?”

But because he wished to justify himself, 
he said to Jesus, 
"And who is my neighbor?"

The Filipino translation gives us a better picture of the lawyer justifying himself, “Sa hangad ng eskriba na huwag siyang lumabas na kahiya-hiya, tinanong niya uli si Jesus, ‘Sino naman ang aking kapwa?'”

See how Jesus did not give a straightforward answer but situated the lawyer including us today into something very concrete so that we stop thinking more and start feeling more. That was the problem with the scholar of the law and with us today: we analyze everything that we have become “over thinkers” but not necessarily “critical thinkers”. We know so many things about our faith but, we still ask for more clarifications because we think more than feel more.

As a chaplain giving recollections and talks to our students, I have seen many young people today are over thinkers but not critical thinkers. I always remind them that critical thinking is about comprehension and analysis of data and information gathered. Over thinking is different. It is not of the mind but of the heart because overthinking is lack of trust. It is a vice when we worry a lot – over think – because we lack trust with others and with ourselves. And ultimately with God!

The scholar of the law was overthinking when he asked “who is my neighbor?” because for them at that time, their neighbors were just their fellow Jews. Sad to say, until now our society remains stratified into categories of people like ice cream – the old rich and famous as “all-time favorites”, the recent rich and popular as “flavor of the month” and the ordinary folks as “dirty ice cream” or sorbetes cheaply sold in carts pushed usually by old men.

Of course we know everyone is our neighbor or whoever needs us. But the problem with this all-encompassing view is that it leads us to casuistic argumentation, a kind of over thinking like when we start citing exceptions and excuses or alibis. That is why Jesus used the characters of a priest and Levite who were examples of holiness vis-a-vis a Samaritan who was an enemy of the Jews at that time.

The priest and the Levite passed by the victim of robbery to maintain the Jewish purity law of not touching a corpse to perform their tasks and duties in the temple, both were “overthinking” of their rites and rituals than the dying person. Holiness for Jesus is beyond names and titles but more of the heart seeing and feeling the other person like the Samaritan who alone acted out of his good naturedness as a person, even beyond giving first aid to the robbery victim.

Many times we are like the priest and Levite when we come up with many arguments like “do I not have any other obligation” or “does it really fall on me personally” and so on and so forth when confronted in real life with some people so badly injured or in need of attention.

We overthink with what would happen if we personally get involved with somebody in trouble that people these days are more quick in pulling out cellphones to record an accident and mishap instead of doing something to help.

We over think like the lawyer in the gospel, forgetting to feel more of the other person. That is why in answering his question, Jesus threw it back to him him in another form that is more personal and experiential, “Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?”

St. Therese of the Child Jesus wrote in her journal more than a hundred years ago, “I have understood that true greatness is found not in the name but in the soul.”

Beautiful! If we would just look more into our heart, into our soul, we find Jesus, we find our true self, and we find everyone our neighbor to be loved and respected, cared and understood. This is what Moses is telling us in the first reading that the Lord and his commandment are right there in our hearts.

That is exactly what the scholar of the law felt after hearing the story of the good Samaritan that he forgot all labels and categories, answering Jesus’ question with, “The one who treated him with mercy.” There is no need to justify ourselves, of who we are, or even ask who is our neighbor. Everyone is our neighbor because everyone is a brother and sister in Christ; hence, no need to ask that question at all!

But, there is still something deeper to this. When Jesus ended their conversation with the instruction to “Go and do likewise”, the Lord is telling us this Sunday that whenever we encounter a person in need of help, regardless of who she/he is, let us put ourself in that person’s place for it is them – not us – who shall recognize us whether we acted as neighbor to them, or saw them as neighbor!

Recall those moments we were down when those dearest to us abandoned us and of all people, the least we expected were the ones who acted as neighbor to us. It is when we are down and low when we come to recognize our neighbor, not when we are up and able, when we feel proud asking what must I do to gain eternal life.

Stop all these over thinking. Simply remember and find Jesus in every person who is the “image of the invisible God” who “reconciled all things for him”(Col.1:15, 20) for he alone is our truest neighbor always present when needed most. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead, everyone! Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City (lordmychef@gmail.com).