Yesterday in Bible Class we studied the story of the Good Samaritan. One of the things I have become convinced of is that Jesus meant exactly what He said to the lawyer in the verses preceding that story. It was not just that our Lord was using the Law to crush the self-righteous pride out of the fellow (and us). He was doing that too. But there is more here. "Do this and you will live."
We mishear these words if hear our Lord saying: "Love like this and then you will be rewarded with eternal life." Love is not what you must do in order to GET eternal life. Rather, I believe our Lord is saying: love like this and that IS eternal life - that is the life of God Himself. "Do this, love like this, and you will live! You will share the life of God Himself." For surely our Lord IS the Good Samaritan in the parable, and He doesn't mean that "life" is something dangling out there after you get done loving, for you will never get done loving. Rather, life is precisely love itself.
"In Him was life and that life was the light of men." "God is love." They go hand in hand together. And that is why at the end of the story, our Lord invites that man and all of us: "Go and do likewise!" Not telling us how to earn the kingdom, for it is always and only gift. But telling us how to live the kingdom - that joyous "fervent love toward one another" that we pray for at the Eucharist.
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