From: Luke 10:25-37
Parable of the Good Samaritan
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[25] And behold, a lawyer stood up to put Him (Jesus) to the test, saying, “Tea-
cher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” [26] He said to him, “What is written
in the law? How do you read?” [27] And he answered, “You shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength,
and with all your mind: and your neighbor as yourself.” [28] And He said to him,
“You have answered right; do this, and you will live.” [29] But he, desiring to jus-
tify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
[30] Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he
fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him
half dead. [31] Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he
saw him he passed by on the other side. [32] So likewise a Levite, when he
came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. [33] But a Sama-
ritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had
compassion, [34] and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and
wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care
of him. [35] And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the inn-
keeper, saying, “Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay
you when I come back.’ [36] Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor
to the man who fell among the robbers?” [37] He said, “The one who showed
mercy on him.” And Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
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Commentary:
25-28. Our Lord’s teaching is that the way to attain eternal life is through faithful
fulfillment of the Law of God. The Ten Commandments, which God gave Moses
on Mount Sinai (Exodus 20:1-17), express the natural law in a clear and con-
crete way. It is part of Christian teaching that the natural law exists, that it is a
participation by rational creatures in the Eternal Law and that it is impressed on
the conscience of every man when he is created by God (cf. Leo XIII, “Libertas
Praestantissimum”). Obviously, therefore, the natural law, expressed in the Ten
Commandments, cannot change or become outdated, for it is not dependent on
man’s will or on changing circumstances.
In this passage, Jesus praises and accepts the summary of the Law given by
the Jewish scribe. This reply, taken from Deuteronomy (6:4ff), was a prayer which
the Jews used to say frequently. Our Lord gives the very same reply when He is
asked which is the principal commandment of the Law and concludes His answer
by saying, “On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets”
(Matthew 22:40; cf. also Romans 13:8-9; Galatians 5:14).
There is a hierarchy and order in these two commandments constituting the dou-
ble precept of charity: before everything and above everything comes loving God
in Himself; in the second place, and as a consequence of the first commandment,
comes loving one’s neighbor, for God explicitly requires us to do so (1 John 4:21;
cf. notes on Matthew 22:34-40 and 22:37-38).
This passage of the Gospel also included another basic doctrine: the Law of
God is not something negative—”Do not do this”—but something completely posi-
tive — love. Holiness, to which all baptized people are called, does not consist in
not sinning, but in loving, in doing positive things, in bearing fruit in the form of
love of God. When our Lord describes for us the Last Judgment He stresses this
positive aspect of the Law of God (Matthew 25:31-46). The reward of eternal life
will be given to those who do good.
27. “Yes, our only occupation here on earth is that of loving God—that is, to start
doing what we will be doing for all eternity. Why must we love God? Well, be-
cause our happiness consists in love of God; it can consist in nothing else. So,
if we do not love God, we will always be unhappy; and if we wish to enjoy any
consolation and relief in our pains, we will attain it only by recourse to love of
God. If you want to be convinced of this, go and find the happiest man according
to the world; if he does not love God, you will find that in fact he is an unhappy
man. And, on the contrary, if you discover the man most unhappy in the eyes of
the world, you will see that because he loves God he is happy in every way. Oh
my God!, open the eyes of our souls, and we will seek our happiness where we
truly can find it” (St. John Mary Vianney, “Selected Sermons”, 22nd Sunday af-
ter Pentecost).
29-37. In this moving parable, which only St. Luke gives us, our Lord explains ve-
ry graphically who our neighbor is and how we should show charity towards him,
even if he is our enemy.
Following other Fathers, St. Augustine (”De Verbis Domini Sermones”, 37) iden-
tifies the Good Samaritan with our Lord, and the waylaid man with Adam, the
source and symbol of all fallen mankind. Moved by compassion and piety, He
comes down to earth to cure man’s wounds, making them His own (Isaiah 53:4;
Matthew 8:17; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 3:5). In fact, we often see Jesus being moved
by man’s suffering (cf. Matthew 9:36; Mark 1:41; Luke 7:13). And St. John says:
“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only
Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we
loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the expiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:9-11).
This parable leaves no doubt about who our neighbor is—anyone (without distinc-
tion of race or relationship) who needs our help; nor about how we should love
him — by taking pity on him, being compassionate towards his spiritual and cor-
poral needs; and it is not just a matter of having the right feelings towards him;
we must do something, we must generously serve him.
Christians, who are disciples of Christ, should share His love and compassion,
never distancing themselves from others’ needs. One way to express love for
one’s neighbor is perform the “works of mercy”, which get their name from the
fact that they are not duties in justice. There are fourteen such works, seven
spiritual and seven corporal. The spiritual are: To convert the sinner; To instruct
the ignorant; To counsel the doubtful; To comfort the sorrowful; To bear wrongs
patiently; To forgive injuries; To pray for the living and the dead. The corporal
works are: To feed the hungry; To give drink to the thirsty; To clothe the naked;
To shelter the homeless; To visit the sick; To visit the imprisoned; To bury the
dead.
31-32. Very probably one reason why our Lord used this parable was to correct
one of the excesses of false piety common among His contemporaries. Accor-
ding to the Law of Moses, contact with dead bodies involved legal impurity, from
which one was cleansed by various ablutions (cf. Numbers 19:11-22; Leviticus
21:1-4, 11-12). These regulations were not meant to prevent people from helping
the injured; they were designed for reasons of hygiene and respect for the dead.
The aberration of the priest and the Levite in this parable consisted in this: they
did not know for sure whether the man who had been assaulted was dead or not,
and they preferred to apply a wrong interpretation of a secondary, ritualistic pre-
cept of the Law rather than obey the more important commandment of loving
one’s neighbor and giving him whatever help one can.
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
|
First reading |
Deuteronomy 30:10-14 © |
Moses said to the people: ‘Obey the voice of the Lord your God, keeping those commandments and laws of his that are written in the Book of this Law, and you shall return to the Lord your God with all your heart and soul.
‘For this Law that I enjoin on you today is not beyond your strength or beyond your reach. It is not in heaven, so that you need to wonder, “Who will go up to heaven for us and bring it down to us, so that we may hear it and keep it?” Nor is it beyond the seas, so that you need to wonder, “Who will cross the seas for us and bring it back to us, so that we may hear it and keep it?” No, the Word is very near to you, it is in your mouth and in your heart for your observance.’
EITHER:
|
Psalm |
Psalm 68:14,17,30-31,33-34,36-37 © |
Seek the Lord, you who are poor, and your hearts will revive
This is my prayer to you,
my prayer for your favour.
In your great love, answer me, O God,
with your help that never fails:
Lord, answer, for your love is kind;
in your compassion, turn towards me.
Seek the Lord, you who are poor, and your hearts will revive
As for me in my poverty and pain
let your help, O God, lift me up.
I will praise God’s name with a song;
I will glorify him with thanksgiving.
Seek the Lord, you who are poor, and your hearts will revive
The poor when they see it will be glad
and God-seeking hearts will revive;
for the Lord listens to the needy
and does not spurn his servants in their chains.
Seek the Lord, you who are poor, and your hearts will revive
For God will bring help to Zion
and rebuild the cities of Judah
and men shall dwell there in possession.
The sons of his servants shall inherit it;
those who love his name shall dwell there.
Seek the Lord, you who are poor, and your hearts will revive
OR:
|
Psalm |
Psalm 18:8-11 © |
The precepts of the Lord gladden the heart.
The law of the Lord is perfect,
it revives the soul.
The rule of the Lord is to be trusted,
it gives wisdom to the simple.
The precepts of the Lord gladden the heart.
The precepts of the Lord are right,
they gladden the heart.
The command of the Lord is clear,
it gives light to the eyes.
The precepts of the Lord gladden the heart.
The fear of the Lord is holy,
abiding for ever.
The decrees of the Lord are truth
and all of them just.
The precepts of the Lord gladden the heart.
They are more to be desired than gold,
than the purest of gold
and sweeter are they than honey,
than honey from the comb.
The precepts of the Lord gladden the heart.
|
Second reading |
Colossians 1:15-20 © |
Christ Jesus is the image of the unseen God
and the first-born of all creation,
for in him were created
all things in heaven and on earth:
everything visible and everything invisible,
Thrones, Dominations, Sovereignties, Powers –
all things were created through him and for him.
Before anything was created, he existed,
and he holds all things in unity.
Now the Church is his body,
he is its head.
As he is the Beginning,
he was first to be born from the dead,
so that he should be first in every way;
because God wanted all perfection
to be found in him
and all things to be reconciled through him and for him,
everything in heaven and everything on earth,
when he made peace
by his death on the cross.
|
Gospel Acclamation |
Jn10:27 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice,
says the Lord,
I know them and they follow me.
Alleluia!
|
Or |
cf.Jn6:63,68 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life;
you have the message of eternal life.
Alleluia!
|
Gospel |
Luke 10:25-37 © |
There was a lawyer who, to disconcert Jesus, stood up and said to him, ‘Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the Law? What do you read there?’ He replied, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.’ ‘You have answered right,’ said Jesus ‘do this and life is yours.’
But the man was anxious to justify himself and said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?’ Jesus replied, ‘A man was once on his way down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of brigands; they took all he had, beat him and then made off, leaving him half dead. Now a priest happened to be travelling down the same road, but when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. In the same way a Levite who came to the place saw him, and passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan traveller who came upon him was moved with compassion when he saw him. He went up and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. He then lifted him on to his own mount, carried him to the inn and looked after him. Next day, he took out two denarii and handed them to the innkeeper. “Look after him,” he said “and on my way back I will make good any extra expense you have.” Which of these three, do you think, proved himself a neighbour to the man who fell into the brigands‘ hands?’ ‘The one who took pity on him’ he replied. Jesus said to him, ‘Go, and do the same yourself.