Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (C) [Lk 10:25-37]
10.07.2022
The
Parable of the Good Samaritan
1. Theme in brief
Love in action
2. Focus Statement
In order to attain eternal life, we must prove our love for God by doing deeds
of mercy to our neighbour, who could be anyone in need or suffering
irrespective of race, nationality or creed.
3. Explanation of the text
In today’s gospel text, the well-known
Parable of the Good Samaritan is told by Jesus in the context of a question
asked by a lawyer to test him about his knowledge of the Law (10:25). His question was what he must do to inherit eternal
life (10:25). Jesus answered his question with a counter-question
about what was written in the Law of Moses about it and how he understood the
Scripture (10:26). Probably, the lawyer knew about the combination of the two scattered
texts of the OT done by Jesus on previous occasions as the essence of the Law:
first one from Deuteronomy 6:5 about loving God with one’s whole heart, soul, strength
and mind; and the second from Leviticus 19:18 about loving one’s neighbour as oneself
(10:27). Hence, he himself answered his question by citing this textual combination
that Jesus might have done on previous occasions. Jesus approved his answer and
told him that he would “live” (that is, inherit eternal life) precisely
by “doing” what
is written in the Law; that is, putting into practice the law of loving God and
loving one’s neighbour as oneself (10:28).
But he had a
further problem. As a lawyer, whose job was to define laws and traditions, he
wanted to know from Jesus the exact definition of the term ‘neighbour’ as Jesus understood it
(10:29). Therefore, he asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbour” in order “to justify
himself” (10:29). It means, he wanted to show himself righteous and blameless before God
because he felt he had kept the Law by loving his fellow-Israelites in his
neighbourhood, and probably wanted Jesus also to vindicate him. It had never
occurred to him that the Gentiles and the hated Samaritans could also become
his neighbours if he could minister to them in their need. He was curious to
know exactly how many people could be counted as our neighbours – only
fellow-Israelites, or friends, wayfarers, strangers and foreigners also? Were the
hated Samaritans, Gentiles and one’s personal enemies also included in the
circle of love? Where to draw the boundary line? Strict Jews like the Pharisees,
never considered the Samaritans and the Gentiles as their neighbours. Instead
of answering the lawyer’s question with a clear-cut definition of the term “neighbour,”
Jesus told the famous story of the Good Samaritan. After listening to the story
the lawyer would be asked to answer his question by himself (10:36).
In this story, all
the three characters (priest, Levite and Samaritan) saw the same thing – a man
stripped, beaten, and left half-dead on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho
(10:30). The priest and the Levite passed by him on the other side (10:31-32).
They failed to act or show mercy for fear of getting involved or defiled – as
per Jewish law – if the wounded man were already dead. By describing the
response of the Samaritan towards that man in distress, Jesus makes it clear
what he means by love: feeling “moved with pity” (10:33) at the sight of
suffering; translating that feeling of pity into concrete deeds of mercy (10:37), such as going
to him, bandaging his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them, putting him on his own animal, bringing him to an inn, taking
care of him, giving two denarii to the
innkeeper for the treatment requesting the innkeeper to take
care of him and if needed promising
him to pay further expenses on his return (10:34-35). All the verbs in italics point to concrete
deeds of mercy performed by the Samaritan. Thus, what Jesus meant by love was
not merely feeling pity or sorry for the afflicted person, but acting in practical
and
concrete terms to meet his needs.
That love of neighbour is not a matter to be debated or argued about, but to be practiced, is made clear by telling the lawyer to "Go and do likewise" (10: 37) – that is, do the same type of deeds of mercy done by the Samaritan to the suffering man. By doing what the Samaritan did, the lawyer could become a neighbour to him and inherit eternal life. Jesus purposely presented the Samaritan, hated and despised by the Jews, as the hero of the story, and a model of charity. The Samaritan proved that he loved God with all his heart, soul and strength by his deeds of compassion to the suffering man. Thus Jesus challenged the challenger (lawyer) to answer who became the neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers (10:36). In his answer, instead of saying that the Samaritan man became a neighbour, he gave a roundabout description: “the one who showed him mercy” (10:37). This answer makes it clear that race, caste, nationality or creed is not the criteria to consider somebody as our neighbour. He/she is anyone in need, and doing deeds of mercy to such a person is the way to put into practice one’s love for God and to attain eternal life.
4. Application to life
As I see it, today’s famous parable of the Good Samaritan is a subtle attack on the following attitudes and way of life within the Christian community and the Church: (1) showing indifference and don’t-care attitude towards the pain, suffering and misery of others and living an unconcerned and individualistic life without thinking that this type of life goes against the love of God that we profess in prayer and worship; (2) taking shelter under the shadow of well organized and well established institutional Church that is cut off from the life-issues and miseries of ordinary people. Yes, this parable is about the sin of non-involvement in the miseries, struggles, pain and sorrow of people around us.
This parable tells us that our charity or deeds of mercy should be done to anybody in need or distress going beyond the boundaries of nation, race, religion or kinship (relatives) circle. The lawyer in today’s gospel wanted to justify himself or wanted to show himself blameless before God by thinking that he had kept the Law. Like him, we too sometimes justify ourselves by saying that we are blameless before God because of our regular attendance in the church and faithfulness to his commandments. Just as Jesus proved the lawyer wrong in those days, he proves us also wrong today. He teaches that care and mercy should be shown both to friends and foes when they are in need or in distress. According to Jesus, both the terms ‘love’ and ‘neighbour’ are not a matter of academic debate. To answer the question who is our neighbour, we need to bother neither about the definition of the term nor its limits. Anyone whom we meet by chance on the road of life and is in need or suffering is our neighbour. We become true neighbours when we, after getting moved with pity for the needy and the suffering like the Samaritan, reach out to them with service and care, by crossing all the boundaries.
According to the lawyer’s understanding, the priest and the Levite were his neighbours because they belonged to his own ethnic community and religion. But in this parable the heretical Samaritan who is not considered a neighbour by the Jews turned out to be the real neighbour by showing his concern and care for the suffering person. Today, who is our neighbour? Our neighbour could be the one whom we know and has lost a child; one who cannot repair the roof of his/her house before the rains come; one who has no helping hands to do agricultural activities; one who is weak in studies in our classroom; one who is absent in the class for many days; one who is sick and nobody to take care of; one who has gone astray from God or the Church; etc. Loving such people does not mean mere pity, words of sympathy or a few tears. It means meeting their concrete needs by rolling up our sleeves and dirtying our fingers. Actually speaking, there is no end or limit to the list of neighbours for those who have love in their hearts and have eyes to see. Instead of asking as the lawyer asked, who the object of my love is, we must ask how we can be the subject of love towards the needy by doing what the Samaritan did. In fact, Jesus demolished all the boundaries and circles established by Jewish exponents of the Law to determine who one’s neighbour is.
Normally we consider our neighbours as good neighbours if they do not trouble anybody or do not get involved in our or in somebody else’s affairs. When there is a tragedy or accident, they may help. Otherwise they may not go out of themselves in sharing and caring. However, according to Jesus, neighbours are those who get involved in the troubles or concerns of others. Naturally, when we reach out to those in distress, it will cost us a bit of our time, energy, money, conveniences, comforts, and demand sacrifice of these things. A lot of people try to escape from the discomforts of these sacrifices by making excuses. But those who have genuine love for God in their hearts do not consider this as a loss or waste of time or these sacrifices too costly. Thank God; we have people who are willing to render selfless service in our society and in our own parishes. But as our society gets more and more modernized and secularized, we are given the impression that latest things in the market like iPod or iPhone must be loved and people must be used (even abused) for our purpose. When we begin to love things and use people, we become much worse than the priest and the Levite in today’s gospel; we bypass not only human needs but humanity itself.
Like the three characters in this parable, we too journey through ‘Jericho Roads’ of our daily life. In this journey, we meet by chance people left on the roadsides of misery. Today, Jesus invites us to have a heart of compassion for such needy people if we really love God with our whole heart, soul, strength and mind as the lawyer quoted from the Scriptures. To show compassion is to suffer with those who suffer and share their pain and agony. Compassion does not leave us indifferent or insensitive to another’s pain but calls for solidarity with the suffering. Compassion means to go out of ourselves and reach out to those who are in need. The Good Samaritan is an example par excellence of what compassion really means. He also could have closed his eyes at the suffering and misery of that waylaid traveller and passed by on the other side just like the priest and the Levite. A ‘neighbour’ in his heart was born when he stopped and stooped down out of love to help the stranger when he saw him in distress. Everyone who stops at the suffering of another person and renders any form of help with love in his/her heart is a Good Samaritan. Notice the series of concrete actions or deeds of mercy done by him to the suffering man, in the explanation of the text given above. Jesus tells us to do similar acts of mercy.
We cannot serve God in the Church if we fail to serve him first on the road of life. Like the priest and the Levite, sometimes we pass by people who lie on the road of life. We are indifferent and insensitive to the needs, pain, suffering and misery of others. Indifference means just ignoring a person in need as if he/she did not exist. Like these two persons who bypassed the suffering man, in modern times we too pass by the needy and the suffering by making excuses not to help: fear of getting involved, facing troubles, getting implicated, and considerations such as lack of time, urgency of other works, etc. Instead of thinking what will happen to me if I get involved, we should think what will happen to the person lying half-dead on the road, if I don’t help. The question each one of us needs to ask is whether I am willing to be a Good Samaritan to such people in such situations.
Today, the Lord invites all of us to repent for the times we have passed by somebody who needed our help, support, understanding and consolation. He also invites us to regret for the times we failed to show that we love God with all our heart, soul and strength by concrete deeds of compassion to the suffering, or for the times our love was limited to sentiments of pity without doing anything to alleviate pain and misery. Let us be sorry for failing to reach out in compassionate service and care to those who are in pain, misery and helplessness.
5. Response to God's Word
This parable poses quite a few probing questions: Do we show compassion at the sight of pain, grief and misery? Does it remain purely at the level of sentiments and sympathy, or does it lead us to render concrete deeds of service? Who are our ‘neighbours’ today who are lying on the ‘roadside’ and are in need of our help now? How are we going to become good Samaritans to them by reaching out to them in a spirit of sharing and caring? If a despised Samaritan can become a model of charity towards his enemy (a Jew), why can’t we do the same to those who are not our friends or relatives?
6. A Prayer
Jesus, you became a Good Samaritan for us by stooping down to render humble and sacrificial service for us unto death. As your disciples we have quite often bypassed the needy and the suffering by making excuses. We have failed to reach out to them with compassionate service and care. In our service and care we quite often fail to cross the boundaries of race, caste, tribe and religion. Give us the grace to deepen and strengthen our Christian commitment. Amen.
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