Knowing the right thing to do

In today’s Gospel (Luke 10:25-37), a scholar of the Mosaic Law plays a little game of pop quiz volleyball with our Lord: the scholar asks a question, our Lord knocks it back to him, and so forth.

The scholar was very familiar with all of the intricacies of the Mosaic Law as well as all the writings of Scripture and the accumulated wisdom of the centuries. All of this could be quite overwhelming and even confusing, but our Lord helps the scholar not just to come quickly to the key truths but also to put it into practice in his life.

Likewise in our own lives, we can be overwhelmed not only by the voluminous wisdom of the Judeo-Christian tradition but even more so by the smorgasbord of opinions in today’s world, not to mention the totalitarianism of political correctness.

Today’s readings give us a path to follow amid the turbulence of this world. First (as the second reading tells us – Colossians 1:15-20) that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the beginning and the center and the purpose of this world, as complex as it may appear.

He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.
For in him were created
all things in heaven and on earth,
the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers;
all things were created through him
and for him.
He is before all things,
and in him all things hold together.
He is the head of the body, the church.
He is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things
he himself might be preeminent.
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.

Second, that we should follow the example implied in today’s first reading (Deuteronomy 30:10-14) and made explicit by the scholar in today’s Gospel, with the help of that same Lord: to learn well what God has taught and simply do it.