July 13, 2025

Don’t you hate it when someone says something innocently, not knowing it feels like a slap in the face? I don’t know of many people who can hear today’s Gospel and say, “Oh, I’ve got that one covered.” The story of the Good Samaritan is a many-layered story that puts a mirror before us — in a way we may not like. Jesus tells the story because a scholar of the law wants to “justify himself,” meaning he’s looking for a loophole in the law to love his neighbor.

So Jesus tells the story. He makes a Samaritan, the object of Jewish hatred, the hero. Oh, one of them! A priest of the synagogue and a Levite avoid the robbers’ victim. He might be dead and they have responsibilities in the synagogue, so they can’t touch a dead body. It will render them ritually impure. The niceties of ritual trump care for a suffering human. But then this hated Samaritan comes by and does what his humanity calls him to do — to follow the law, not “up in the sky….or across the sea…but already in your hearts and in your mouths” as the first reading tells us today. In other words, God has put the knowledge of goodness in our hearts. We must pay attention.

These are challenging times for us Christians. Our country is faced with issues that are very complex. The recent signing of the president’s agenda will have vast impact on Americans, on us and generations to come. According to TIME magazine (7/2/2005), The ICE budget has gone from $10 billion to $100 billion — $45 billion for detention facilities, $46 billion for border wall operations and $14 billion for deportations.  Protection of our borders is reasonable. Arresting people showing up for immigration hearings, fulfilling their responsibility under our laws, is not. Removing taxes from overtime is good if you have a job. Taking taxes off tips is good, especially if you work at an expensive restaurant. Wanting to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse is a very good goal. It should probably start with the top 1% who just got a huge tax cut.

I have been to our southern border. I have heard stories that would make anyone with a heart weep. It has been stated that as many as seven percent of those who come to our country have criminal records. They need to go. But we need to watch what’s going on in Florida where the president recently toured “Alligator Alcatraz.” It is feared that the jokes and laughter are a prelude to misery and injustice. Jesus is holding up a mirror before us. We cannot allow our national conscience to be chipped away. Or we can join the scribe and look for ways to justify ourselves. It won’t work.

For further reading see the US Bishops’ statement: U.S. Bishops’ President Reacts to Passage of One Big Beautiful Bill Act | USCCB