Daily Catholic Lectio. Mon, 6 October ’25. Becoming a True Neighbour

Daily Catholic Lectio

Mon, 6 Oct ‘25

Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time, Monday

Jonah 1:1–17. Luke 10:25–37

Becoming a True Neighbour

“Go and do likewise.” With these simple yet piercing words, Jesus ends today’s Gospel. They are not just a conclusion to a story — they are a command for every disciple who wishes to live eternal life here and now.

Today’s Gospel unfolds in two movements. First, a scholar of the Law comes to test Jesus with a question: “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus brings him back to what he already knows — love of God and love of neighbour. Then comes the second movement, the heart of the passage: the parable of the Good Samaritan. To explain who our neighbour is, Jesus gives a story that overturns legal thinking and social boundaries.

(a) From knowledge to action. The scholar of the Law knows the commandments. But Jesus leads him one step further: from knowing the Law to doing the Law.. Religion becomes real only when it is lived out. Jesus’ final words — “Go and do likewise” — are crucial. Eternal life is not about having the right answers but living the right relationships. Our faith is not tested in classrooms or churches, but on the dusty roads of life — where someone lies wounded, waiting for mercy.

(b) The movement from stranger to neighbour. Three people meet the wounded man: a priest, a Levite, and a Samaritan. All three see him. Only one stops. The priest and Levite represent religion without compassion — eyes that see but hearts that stay cold. The Samaritan, on the other hand, does something revolutionary. He breaks social barriers. Samaritans were hated by Jews, yet this “outsider” becomes the true neighbour.

To be a neighbour is not to belong to a certain group, but to act with compassion. The Samaritan moves — from stranger to neighbour, from observer to healer, from indifference to involvement.

That movement costs him something: he stops his journey, he gives his time, oil, and money, he risks being misunderstood, and he promises to return. To become a neighbour always means to let our plans be interrupted by love.

(c) Going beyond the law. The priest and the Levite were bound by the Law. Touching blood would make them ritually impure. The Samaritan was not bound by those religious restrictions. But that is not what makes him great. What makes him great is that he chose compassion over correctness. Law tells us what is permitted; love tells us what is possible. Law asks, “What must I not do?” Love asks, “What more can I do?” When compassion guides us, we begin to act like God Himself, who crosses every boundary to come close to us in Jesus.

(d) Jonah’s contrast: running from responsibility

The first reading from the Book of Jonah gives us the opposite image. God sends Jonah to the great city of Nineveh — the heart of the Assyrian Empire, Israel’s former enemy. Jonah refuses and runs the other way. Why? Because Jonah cannot accept that God’s mercy could extend to those he hates. He boards a ship in the opposite direction, falls asleep while others struggle, and even prefers death to seeing his enemies forgiven. The sailors — pagans and outsiders — end up praying to God more sincerely than Jonah himself. Jonah becomes a prophet who runs away from compassion, while the Samaritan becomes a foreigner who embodies compassion.

Jonah sees difference and withdraws. The Samaritan sees suffering and draws near. Jonah avoids responsibility. The Samaritan takes it up. Both stories reveal two ways of being religious: one that hides behind law, and one that lives by love.

(e) Becoming good neighbours today

The parable and the prophet both call us to the same conversion — to become people who take responsibility for others. When we hear of war or violence, do we stop to pray and act for peace, or do we simply scroll past the suffering?

When we see poverty around us, do we justify our inaction with excuses, or do we allow compassion to disturb our comfort? When we encounter people we dislike, do we withdraw like Jonah, or approach them like the Samaritan? True discipleship is to live beyond the narrowness of rule-keeping and to step into the wide mercy of God.

(f) Three steps toward Samaritan compassion

(i) Pause and see: Allow your heart to be touched by what you see. Compassion begins with awareness.

(ii) Cross the boundary: Risk moving beyond convenience, prejudice, or fear.

(iii) Take responsibility: Love not only feels — it acts, pays, heals, and returns.

Every act of compassion becomes a small echo of Christ, the Divine Samaritan, who stopped on the road of human suffering, poured out His life for us, and promised to return.

The priest and the Levite had religion; the Samaritan had love. Jonah had a calling; he lacked compassion. We too are called — not to quote the law, but to live love; not to identify neighbours, but to become one. Jesus looks at us today and says again, “Go, and do likewise.”

Fr. Yesu Karunanidhi

Archdiocese of Madurai

Missionary of Mercy