1. Moses refers to commandments in this reading. If every person is created in the image and likeness of God, is love God and your neighbor written into every person’s very soul?

2. Do you find yourself relying on codes and guidelines more than on the underlying commandment? What if that “love” guideline were the basis for all created laws? Because we have free will, would there still be evil in the world, but might there be fewer things like wars and school shootings?

Second Reading
Colossians 1:15-20

1. He was “Christ Jesus, the one who is before all things, the firstborn of all creation.” With whom did he spend time? With whom do you want to spend time? Do you make an effort to give your time to God and the people you love, or are you always in a hurry to do more important things?

2. The reading says Christ reconciled all things, making peace by the blood of his cross. What still needs reconciling today? Can we help Christ with that?

Gospel
Luke 10:25-37

1. Think of the Good Samaritan story in terms of today’s world. What groups need the Samaritan? Ecojustice? The Trafficked? Gun control groups? Homeless and hungry? Jesus said “go and do the same.” Whether it is large or small, is there anything you can do to help any of these?

2. In his encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis says that “each day we have to decide whether to be Good Samaritans or indifferent bystanders.” Should we do the former in the abstract? Do it sometimes? Or every time we confront a stranger in need.

69. … And if we extend our gaze to the history of our own lives and that of the entire world, all of us are or have been like each of the characters in the parable. All of us have in ourselves something of the wounded person, something of the robber, something of the passers-by, and something of the Good Samaritan.

70. It is remarkable how the various characters in the story change, once confronted by the painful sight of the poor man on the roadside. The distinctions between Judean and Samaritan, priest and merchant, fade into insignificance. Now there are only two kinds of people: those who care for someone who is hurting and those who pass by; those who bend down to help and those who look the other way and hurry off. Here, all our distinctions, labels and masks fall away: it is the moment of truth …? Will we bend down and help another to get up? This is today’s challenge, and we should not be afraid to face it. In moments of crisis, decisions become urgent.

Fratelli Tutti
Encyclical Letter, On Fraternity and Social Friendship
Pope Francis, 2020