August 9 – Unlimited Compassion (Luke 10:25-37)

“Who is my neighbor?”(Luke 10:29)

IN WORD:
The question was asked by an expert in the Law wanting to justify himself. It seems like a legitimate question on the surface, but behind it is a suspicious agenda. The lawyer wanted to narrow his responsibility in the eyes of the Lord. If only a few are really neighbors, then only a little is required when God says to love our neighbor. He was looking for a reduction in the requirement, an easier way out.
As much as we would like to hold the lawyer in contempt, we cannot. We ask exactly the same questions. God’s grace and love are huge, unlimited, able to cover every sin and every soul. His compassion has no bounds. If we are urged by Scripture to be like Him and to be conformed to His image, we know that such boundless love and grace are also required of us. We don’t quite know how to handle that. We want boundaries. We want God to define it for us: “Who is my neighbor?”
Think of all our attempts to minimize the expanse of God’s ways. “When it says to forgive others, that only means when they come and ask us to forgive them, right?” “When it says to love our enemies, that only means to stay out of their way, right?” “When Jesus tells us to go into all the world, that’s only for a select few, right?” The questions could go on. We want qualifications. We want God to define for us the limits of our love & compassion & mercy.

IN DEED:
God will not define limits for our love because His love has no limits. He does choose to judge people, of course, but, unlike ours, His judgements are righteous and untainted by sin. Only He knows the right time for them. The vastness of His compassion, however, is enough to cover every person on the planet, and He calls us to be like Him. That means loving in the extreme, forgiving in the extreme, and sacrificing in the extreme. Can we do that? No. But He can do that in us and through us. Let Him live in you without limits. Let Him open your eyes to a world of neighbors.

“He who is filled with love is filled with God Himself.”
-St. Augustine-