“Who was the neighbor to the man who fell in with the robbers?”
He who is everywhere – where is he not? … “The Lord is near. Dismiss all anxiety from your minds.” (Phil 4:6) This is a great mystery: he ascended above the heavens, and he is near to those who live on the earth. Who is far away and at the same time very near if not the one who came so close to us out of mercy?
For this man who was lying on the road, left there half dead by the robbers, whom the priest and the Levite neglected by turning away, and whom a Samaritan passing by approached in order to care for him and to help him – this man represents the whole human race… Our Lord wanted this Samaritan to represent him… Although he was righteous and immortal and thus far away from us who are mortal and sinners, God who was so far away, came down to us in order to be very near. “The Lord is near. Dismiss all anxiety from your minds.” …
“He does not deal with us according to our sins.” (Ps 103:10) We are his children. What proof do we have of this? He died for our sins, he who is the only Son, so as not to remain alone. He who died alone did not want to be alone. The only Son of God made many children of God. By his blood, he bought for himself brothers; he who had been rejected, adopted them; he who had been sold, bought them back; he who had been gravely offended, filled them with honor; he who had been put to death, gave them life… Thus you must rejoice: in every place and at all times, wherever you might be (Phil 4:4). “The Lord is near. Dismiss all anxiety from your minds.”