The Good Samaritan and Me

This past Sunday at mass, we had the gospel reading of the Good Samaritan, from Luke 10:25-37. I've been thinking about it and working on this post ever since. I've got the first part of what I want to share written and up on the blog. Part II is a work in progress.

Anyway, on to the Good Samaritan.

Here's how it opens.

'"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 repiied 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?" '

To answer that question, Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan. We learn that our neighbor is not just the person like us, but any person. We are to love everyone as we love ourselves. But what about the other part of the law, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind?" The scholar doesn't ask how to do that part, and Jesus doesn't address it.

This passage in Luke's Gospel is not the only time we hear of this law. In Matthew 22:35-40 we find Jesus with the Pharisees and "one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 'Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?' He said to him, '"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.' " And so here we have what for Catholics is the Great Commandment.

Jesus tells us in the parable of the Good Samaritan who our neighbor is. We can look to the spiritual and corporal works of mercy to guide us in our dealings with our neighbor. But what of the first part of the greatest commandment? How do we love God with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, and all of all strength?

I don't know if Jesus answers that question anywhere in the Bible. I do know that I have been trying to answer it for myself for many many years. In fact, trying to answer it has been one of the driving forces in my spiritual life.

I am not a trained theologian. I am a Catholic woman, and wife, and mother. I experienced a great conversion to the faith I was born into while I was in my twenties. Up until that point, I had been a faithful Catholic. I believed in my faith and it meant a great deal to me. But I didn't think deeply about it, and I certainly didn't try and learn anything about it. In fact, I foolishly believed that because I went to all my CCD and confirmation classes (in the eighth grade!) and was subsequently confirmed I had been taught all there was to know about Catholicsm.

I knew, for example, that I was supposed to love God with my whole heart, mind and soul, and love my neighbor as myself. I just never knew how , exactly, I was supposed to do that. By going to mass and trying to do good and avoid sin, I figured. But was that loving God, really? Wasn't it just loving my neighbor? And, frankly, although I felt like I loved God, it wasn't taking up my whole mind or soul or heart. Moreover, it seemed like my experience of God was confined to weekly mass and saying my prayers. Most of life was taken up with, well, living. Taking classes, buying groceries, doing homework, I didn't see a place for God in my daily decisions and actions, beyond trying to live as a good person.

Somehow, though, I started to think, "Maybe I'm missing something. Maybe there is a way to love God with your whole heart and mind and soul, and I just don't know how. Maybe only people who have vocations to religious life know how." And since my vocation was to the married state, religious life was not to be in my future. I didn't know it then, but that little glimmer of a question, "how do I do this?", was pointing me in a new direction. In graduate school I was blessed with an experience that woke me up and sent me on my journey.

I had started attending daily mass and one day a visiting priest giving his homily mentioned St. Francis de Sales and his book Introduction to the Devout Life. Somehow, I knew I had to read it. Right after mass I went to the bookstore and bought it. I read it and was captivated. It was as if St. Francis de Sales reached his hand out to me across the centuries and said "I understand what you are looking for and can teach you how to find it".