Reflecting on the parable of the Good Shepherd (Luke 10:25-37), I talked about seeing, knowing and helping at the 4:00 p.m. Mass at the St. Francis Chapel in the Prudential Center in Boston on Sunday, July 13, 2025.

Text of the homily

Many times, like this scholar of the law in today’s Gospel, we already know the answers to the big questions.

For example, how do we receive eternal life? Love God and love neighbor. Who is my neighbor? Everyone.

Although Jesus acknowledges these correct answers, He gives the scholar and us a simple command twice: “Do this and you will live”; “Go and do likewise.”

With this commands, Jesus reminds us that we are made in the image of God. What does God do?

God not only knows but also acts. The Trinity — Father, Son and Holy Spirit — knows our sinfulness and our sorrows. The Son was sent to live and experience our hardships in all things but sin.

The Apostle Paul writes, “For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things for him, making peace by the blood of his cross through him, whether those on earth or those in heaven.”

The divine love, the Holy Spirit, poured out from the heart of Jesus on the Cross, encounters everyone estranged from God to bring healing and reconciliation.

Just as Jesus reconciled all things, we too share in that work with any person we meet. Many times, you and I will fail in this task. But Jesus always forgives us in Confession. Furthermore, this Mass reminds us of this reconciliation and empowers us to carry it out in two ways.

First, we hear the Scriptures that  recount God’s love throughout salvation history and encourage us to do the same as in the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Second, the Eucharist in the one bread and the one chalice encapsulates the truth of this reconciliation and the task to spread to everyone.

For example, wheat and water are combined with heat in an oven to become bread. Jesus assembles us together in the fire of the Holy Spirit to be His Mystical Body, the Church, His presence in the world.

When we receive Communion, we are given the strength and capacity to live out the demand of divine love, as Moses told the Israelites, “No, it is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out.”

Therefore, we are not spectators in the drama and troubles in this world; rather, we are participants, advocates and neighbors to all we meet. We know the law of love and we carry it out.

Through the Scriptures, the Eucharist and the ordinary events of life, Jesus tells us, “Look up from your smartphones and your computer monitors. Get to know your neighbor and help your neighbor. See, know and help.”