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. They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead. A
priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by
on the opposite side. Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him,
he passed by on the opposite side. But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him
was moved with compassion at the sight. He approached the victim, poured oil
and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own
animal, took him to an inn, and cared for him. The next day he took out two
silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, ‘Take care of
him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way
back.’ Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’
victim?” He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.” Jesus said to him,
“Go and do likewise.”
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Reflection:
Do you want
to have eternal life?
We all desire eternal life with Jesus and we are given
by Him the keys toward it. The first key is to love Him and the second one is
to love our fellowmen as how we love ourselves. But how can we manifest our
love for God if we hardly have time for Him?
To love Jesus is to give our time to Him. He doesn’t
ask us all of our time He only ask us a little of our time. For example, how
many hours do we have for the entire week? Jesus only ask us to give Him one
hour of those many hours a week though our presence in the Holy Mass. Many of
us are not able to fulfill this one-hour meeting with Jesus for the reason that
we are very busy.
To Love Jesus is to share Him with our fellowmen.
How many of us are able to share Jesus through our words and actions? To love
Jesus is to read the bible even for only five minutes a day. How many of us are
able to read the bible daily for five minutes a day?
Finally, to love our fellowmen is to love them
without preconditions, to love them by not imposing our will upon them. And to
love them no matter who they are and no matter how sinful they may seem for we
are all sinful children of God. – Marino J. Dasmarinas
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