“The Samaritan did not pass the poor man by but
stopped.”
A Parable about
Not Stopping and Stopping
Alleluia,
alleluia.
A reading
from the holy Gospel according to Luke
Glory to you, Lord.
Who is my
neighbor?
A
certain teacher of the Law came up to Jesus and tried to trap Him. “Teacher,”
he said,” what must I do to receive eternal life?” Jesus answered him, “What is
written in the Law? How do you read it?” The man replied: “You shall love the
Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your
strength, and with all your mind; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Jesus said to the teacher: “You have answered correctly. Do this and you will
live. ”But the teacher of the Law wanted to put himself in the right, so he
asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?”
Jesus
replied with a parable: “There was a man
who was going down from Jerusalem to
Jericho, when robbers attacked him, stripped him, and beat him up, leaving him
half-dead beside the road. A priest who happened to be going down that road saw
the poor man, crossed to the other side, and passed him by. Along came a Levite
who also saw the victim, crossed to the other side and passed him by. But then
along came a despised Samaritan who saw the poor man and was filled with
compassion. He did not pass the poor man by but stopped to pour oil and wine
over his wounds and bandaged them. Then the Samaritan lifted him onto his
donkey and took him to the nearest inn, where he provided for his care and
cure. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins with the
instruction, `Take care of him. And if the bill runs higher than that, I’ll
make up the difference on my way back.’”
And
Jesus concluded, “In your opinion which one of these proved himself to be a
neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The teacher of the Law
answered, “The one who stopped and treated the poor man with mercy.” Jesus said
to him, “Go, then, and do likewise.” (Lk. 10:25-37)
The
Gospel of the Lord.
Praise
to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Introduction
The Mother of All Parables
In
Luke only are found the two most cherished of Jesus’ parables. In Luke is found
the Parable of the Prodigal Son who
takes his share of the inheritance, squanders it on loose living in a foreign
land and then returns repentantly to the house of his father who receives him
back with open arms. (Lk.15:11-32) In
Luke is found also that `mother of all parables’ - the Parable of the Good Samaritan who stops to pour the oil of compassion upon a poor
man waylaid by robbers on the road to Jericho, while a priest and a Levite (a
Temple assistant) do not stop but pass right by. (Lk. l0: 25-37) What Jesus says
about the first and the greatest of all the commandments, can also be said
about
the Parable of the Good Samaritan: “Upon it rest the whole Law and the Prophets.”
(Mt. 22:40)
A parable that
rehabilitates Samaritans
Jews regarded
Samaritans as half-breeds and heretics who worshipped on Mount Gerizim instead
of in the Temple in Jerusalem. (Jn. 4:20) In Jesus’ time, `Samaritan’ was a
dirty name which a Jew, when angry, would call another Jew. During
a heated conversation
one day, some fellow Jews blurted out at
Jesus: “You’re a dirty Samaritan, and you're possessed by a demon!” (Jn. 8:48)
Jesus, on the other hand, chooses to swim against the current; He crafts a
parable which portrays two Jews (a priest and Levite) as bad guys, and a
Samaritan as a good guy. His parable does such an excellent job of
rehabilitating Samaritans that down through ages `Samaritan’ has come to mean a
compassionate person who stops for someone in need; the only kind of Samaritan that there is, is
a good one!
Jesus crafted the
Parable of the Good Samaritan because He remembered the time when on his way to
Jerusalem He cured ten lepers, and only one returned to fall on his knees and
give Him heartfelt thanks. Scripture says, “That man was a Samaritan.” (Lk.
17:16) Jesus never forgot that. Neither
did He forget the good experience He had with the Samaritan woman at the well
of Jacob. (Jn .4:1-42) The grateful Samaritan leper and the good Samaritan
woman at the well melted away whatever Jewish prejudice Jesus had about
Samaritans.
The priest and Levite do not stop.
An age-old tendency
situates the heart of morality or immorality quite totally in the area of sex. Such
morality is always busy pursuing politicians and other people who have had sex
affairs. On the other hand, the New Testament in general, and the Parable of
the Good Samaritan in particular, situate the heart of morality not in the area
of sex but in charity and compassion. Jesus crafts a parable about a Jewish
priest and a Levite who commit a gross act of immorality right out there on the
road from Jerusalem to Jericho: these two `religious’ fellows do not stop but walk
right by a man who has been waylaid by bandits and been left half-dead. How
much more immoral than that can you get!
The
Samaritan stops.
Then along comes a Samaritan from
Jerusalem. Samaritans are half-breeds and heretics in Jewish estimation. The
Samaritan is in a hurry, but when he sees the half-dead man lying by the side
of the road, he slams on the brakes of his busyness and stops to pour the oil
of compassion upon the poor man. After treating his wounds, the Samaritan hoists
the wounded man onto his donkey and hurries him off to the nearest inn. There he
digs deep into his pocket to pay for the man’s care and cure. And he promises the
inn-keeper that if the bill runs higher than what he has paid, he’ll make up
the difference on his way back home. How much more moral than that can you get!
(Lk. 10:25-37)
A pope who stops for a paralytic
On his first Easter Sunday Pope Francis was moving through an
enthusiastic crowd of more than 250,000 people in St. Peter's Square following Mass. In
a very poignant moment, Francis stopped the `pope mobile’ in order to cradle
and kiss a paralytic boy passed to him from the crowd. The child worked hard to
hug the Pope. When he succeeded, a great smile of satisfaction suffused the
little boy’s face. The boy’s name is Dominic Gondreau. He is eight
years old and has cerebral palsy. He is the son of Christiana and Dr. Paul
Gondreau. That poignant moment of Pope Francis stopping the `the pope mobile’
to kiss little Dominic waylaid with cerebral palsy went viral: many of the major television news outlets in America showed the video
images in their news reports.
A pope who stops for a hungry Swiss Guard
Pope
Francis stops not only for one waylaid by cerebral palsy, he also stops for a
hungry Swiss Guard. One evening Francis felt sorry for the poor Swiss Guard who
stood at attention every night until dawn at the door of his simple and very
`unpapal' apartment in the Casa Santa Marta. So he went and got
the poor man a chair, and told him: “At
least sit down and rest." The guard rolled his eyes and answered: “Santo
Padre, forgive me, but I may not sit down! The regulations don’t allow
that." The Pope smiled, "Oh, really? Well, I'm the Pope and I tell
you to sit down." Then Francis went back to his apartment, and minutes
later returned to the Swiss Guard who was still obediently seated in the chair.
Francis was carrying a `panino con marmallata’ (a little Italian bread roll
spread with jam) which the Pope had prepared for the hungry guard. Before the guard could say anything, the Holy
Father, exhibiting his Argentinean smile, wished the Swiss Guard "Buon
appetito."
The priest’s and Levite’s blah feeling
The
Jewish priest, the Levite and the Samaritan all returned home toJerusalem that night. In Jericho the priest had delivered the main address at the dedication of a new synagogue there. The speech had gone very well, and everyone praised it. But at the end of the day, the priest had a blah feeling in his heart. It was the uneasy feeling of one who has not stopped for someone half-dead, but has hurried off to seek praise. The Levite, too, had done well in Jericho that day; he got all his important errands accomplished. But he, too, at the end of the day had a blah feeling in his heart. It was the uneasy feeling of one who has not stopped for someone half-dead, but has hurried off to `more important’ errands.
Conclusion
A song singing in the Samaritan’s
heart
Because
he had stopped to pour the oil of compassion on someone half-dead and had taken
the time and effort to get him to the nearest inn, the Samaritan arrived in
Jericho late for an important business meeting which didn’t go well at all. When,
however, he got home late that night, though exhausted by the encounter with
the man waylaid by bandits and disappointed with the meeting which hadn’t gone
well, there was a song singing deep in his heart. Just as there must have been
a song singing in Pope Francis’ heart for stopping to kiss little Dominic with
cerebral palsy, and for stopping to prepare a `panino con
marmallata’ for the Swiss Guardguarding Pope Francis’
`unpapal' apartment in the Casa Santa Marta.
