We need to look at this gospel carefully to fully understand its message for us today.

First, we need to understand that  the parable of the Good Samaritan is the answer to a question: Who is my neighbor?

However, that question was posed in answer to another question: What must I do to attain eternal life?

The answer was Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself.

So in a world where people were focused on the first of the two commandments and less so on the second, the question was necessary. However, today, the situation is in reverse.

The question is what must I do to attain eternal life and the answer is not only to love your neighbor as does the Samaritan but to also love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Both are required, so if we are not doing both, then we are at risk for losing eternal life.

This is why it is so wrong to assume as long as we are good to people, we get to Heaven. Jesus clearly says, we must love God and neighbor.

We can see it better in the first reading where God, through Moses, makes it clear that the only way for Israel to thrive is for the people to follow the command to love God, if they don’t then, as we know what did happen, they will lose their country.

It is this first reality that is our greatest risk as a nation. Indeed, we have an active movement in this country to eliminate God from any part of our existence. I told you that this is destructive to the fabric of our nation. But it is also destructive to any nation. You cannot survive as we are doing now rejecting God, because we humans are not built to live without a relationship with God. It is like building a house of cards, it will stand for a time, but the slightest wind will knock it over. The same can be said for our Church. If we as Catholics are focused on loving neighbor but not on loving God, then we will fail and our Church will fall except if God intervenes, which He may be doing now.

We as parish, as families in the parish, as individuals in and out of families must put Christ at the center of our lives.

What is the greatest problem facing our parish? Is it money? No! Is it anti-Catholicism? No! Is it media bias against Catholics? No! Is it other religions? No! It is Catholics not living both of those commandments. The many Catholics who reject the first of the two by not attending mass are our greatest problem and that is model that God designed. The more people in the community live both commandments, the more alive the community is, the less, the less alive the community.

God calls each person to live those commandments and we rely on one another to live according to the commandments just as we rely on one another for mutual respect and love.

We as a community must work to find a solution on how we can assist Catholics understand those commandments and to live them.

How many of our confirmation students still attend mass, what can we do to get those who do not, to to attend mass? What about our first communion students? It is common in both cases for these students to believe that mass is only required until they receive the sacrament. Jesus clearly states that this is wrong, the sacrament when one is seven, sixteen then marriage is not the way to eternal life. Living both commandments daily is  the way to a strong community, a strong family and a strong way of life and is the path to eternal life. We live the commandments creatively.

Many will give their reasons for not attending mass, some will be valid and some will  not, but none of those reasons is valid if the question is Are you living both commandments. However, it goes deeper, we as a community who attend mass must work together to ensure that we as a community are living both commandments especially the first by ensuring that we support one another in living the commandments and helping those who cannot.

For example, if you have a member of your family who refuses to attend mass, you can encourage him or her to speak with me about their concerns. Maybe we can put together a meeting for those who don’t attend mass or feel alienated from the Church to discuss why and see if the concerns may be addressed.

I would love it if someone could put together a meeting at some time in the week where people can address their dislikes and their likes of what I have said in a homily. It is almost impossible to address them in the few seconds as people are leaving mass.

We as a community need to come together and build up a place where people can live both commandments, not just one, but as we can see, Christ calls us to live both of them and makes it clear living both of  them is a prerequisite for eternal life.

We seek newer ways to love God and neighbor and to present our lives to God for His service to our neighbors.

Remember, the question is what must I do to attain eternal life? The answer is not just found in the parable of the Good Samaritan, the answer is also found in the words Love the Lord  Your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

God Bless you,

Fr. Robert J Carr

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