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Luke 10:25-37
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

Continue scrolling to read reflection.

By: The Rev. Dan Kinkead

Being “ProLife” is to be “Pro all Life”

“Love God and Love your neighbor, on these two commandments hang the law and the prophets,” Jesus tells us this in St. Mathew’s Gospel. And here, in today’s readings from St. Luke’s Gospel, Jesus answers a lawyer, one who has come to test him, in a similar way. But the reading does not end with these laws, to love. Jesus goes on to tell us who our neighbor is. You see, it’s far too easy for us to pick and choose who we deem “worthy” of being our neighbor. We are okay with the neighbor who lives near us, who holds similar Christian values, and who lives a life that we “understand” and with which we are comfortable.

But when our neighbor is one considering an abortion or the one we meet on the street begging for money or the girl who sadly makes her living selling herself on the corner or the man down the block who self identifies as a woman or the lesbian couple we meet who are new to our block—it becomes far too easy to lose our sense of community and not see these dear people as our neighbors.

Being “prolife” does not end at the gates of the local abortion clinic. We are called to love. This is the highest calling of our faith and a calling that is not so expressly codified in the opposing faiths and other religions of the World. We do not have the option to pick and choose which life around us is worthy of us being “prolife” toward. Love is the Christian way to live, and it is our hope and foundation for shining God’s light in the Gospel of Jesus to all with whom we come in contact. Christ, in His mercy, gives us forgiveness for when our attitudes and our actions are not so loving. But we must take these opportunities to learn and to grow.

On the “path of sanctification” with our Lord, we repent of our sins, and He is faithful to forgive us. We then learn from our mistakes, and we are then better neighbors to those around us. In this, God is calling us to expand our idea of “neighbor” as being “Pro ALL Life”,
so we too can “Walk in love as Christ loved us