＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

Galatians 1:6-12

 I am surprised at how quickly

You have abandoned God who called you according to the grace of Christ, and have gone to another gospel. Indeed, there is no other gospel, but some people who are sowing confusion among you want to turn the Gospel of Christ upside down.

 But even if we ourselves were giving you another gospel different from the one we preached to you, or if it were an angel from heaven, I would say: let God’s curse be on him! As I have said I now say again: if any­one preaches the Gospel in a way other than you received it, fire that one. Are we to please humans or obey God?

Do you think that I try to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. Let me remind you, broth­ers and sisters, that the Gospel we preached to you is not a human mes­sage, nor did I receive it from anyone, I was not taught of it but it came to me as a revelation from Christ Jesus.

 

Ps 111:1b-2, 7-8, 9 & 10c

The Lord will remember his covenant to forever.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

Luke 10:25-37

Then a teacher of the Law came and began putting Jesus to the test. And he said, “Master, what shall I do to receive eternal life?” Jesus replied, “What is written in the Scripture?

How do you understand it?” The man answered, “It is written: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus replied, “What a good answer! Do this and you shall live.” 

The man wanted to keep up appearances, so he replied, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus then said, “There was a man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him and went off leaving him half-dead.

 It happened that a priest was going along that road and saw the man, but passed by on the other side. Like­wise a Levite saw the man and passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, too, was going that way, and when he came upon the man, he was moved with compassion.

He went over to him and treated his wounds with oil and wine and wrap­ped them with bandages. Then he put him on his own mount and brought him to an inn where he took care of him. 

The next day he had to set off, but he gave two silver coins to the innkeeper and told him: ‘Take care of him and whatever you spend on him, I will repay when I come back.’”

Jesus then asked, “Which of these three, do you think, made himself neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The teacher of the Law answered, “the one who had mercy on him.” And Jesus said, “Go then and do the same.”

 

Gospel Reflection：

The teacher of the law who came to interview Jesus wanted to test the wisdom of the carpenter from Nazareth and so asked a burning question of their day- the question of entering into eternal life.

The answer? Utter simplicity – Love of God and love of neighbor! But he had to asked “who is my neighbor?” We are all familiar with the story. Jesus lets the teacher of the law give the punch line of the story when Jesus asked who was neighbor to the victim.

The teacher of the law had to answer “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus led the “opposition” to accept the heart of the Gospel –MERCY! This is the Gospel that St. Paul had to remind the Galatians in the first reading.

There is no other Gospel save the Gospel of Mercy! All the 4 canonical Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) proclaim only one Gospel: that our God is a God of love and mercy, and we who belong to the kingdom live by the gospel witnessed by the Good Samaritan.