Ukrainian Catholic ChurchAustralia, New Zealand and Oceania
Homily by Fr. Iurii Tychenok on the Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost
November 9, 2024
Love cannot be hidden deep in our hearts, souls, or thoughts; it must be manifested by actions in our families, in the neighbourhood, in the workplace, in our parish. All of us together create this great family of God; together we form a single and indivisible “Mystical Body of Christ” in which all members are important and valuable.
We divide everything in our life into different categories. We divide the world into visible and invisible, bodies into living and non-living, nature into the plant and animal world, food into a nutritious, tasty, well-balanced diet, and objects into convenient, beautiful, strong, necessary items. We even divide people into smart, strong, intelligent, relatives, neighbours, and co-workers. You can’t just divide human feelings. We either love or we don’t. There is no love that is bad, dead or alive, convenient or inconvenient; there is just love. We cannot love only with our heart, or soul, or strength, or thought. We love as a whole. That is why the Jewish law says to love the Lord God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind. Do we have such a feeling?
In today’s parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus Christ highlights several categories of people: the half-dead, beaten Israelite; robbers who had no feeling of love, because they robbed and beat an Israelite; a priest who was afraid to violate the prescriptions of the law (not to touch the deceased); a Levite who was in a hurry or was afraid and therefore passed by; and the Samaritan, who, without regard to any precepts or laws, nor to his own fear or duty, nor to the enmity between the Israelites and the Samaritans; approached, devoted his time to him, provided the necessary assistance, took him to a safe place, stayed with him for the night, and the next day he paid the master 2 dinars to take care of the beaten Israelite, and promised to return whatever the master spent on him.
There are also different categories of people in our lives. There are those who want to use us and are even ready to hurt us, if only it would be good for them. There are people who don’t care about us; they often look for a reason or excuse for not making it difficult for themselves. And finally, there are people who truly love us. A person who truly loves us will never count the time, effort, or money spent. This kind of feeling is called love, and the Lord requires such love and mercy from each of us.
Love cannot be hidden deep in our hearts, souls, or thoughts; it must be manifested by actions in our families, in the neighbourhood, in the workplace, in our parish. All of us together create this great family of God; together we form a single and indivisible “Mystical Body of Christ” in which all members are important and valuable. The Lord God envelops each of us with His love and wants us to feel that love so that we can also love. Amen!
