Fr. Eugene Lobo S.J. –
Fifteenth Sunday of the Year July 10, 2022
Deuteronomy 30:10-14; Colossians 1:15-20; Luke 10:25-37
We are living in a world that is growing daily further and further away from God. People aim to get the maximum for themselves and ignore or forget their purpose in life. The sacred scriptures constantly remind us of the loving unbroken care of God towards human persons. He created everything for man and for his well-being. His concern for human persons is incomparable. He sent his messengers constantly to look after his people. He is given to us as our Father, caretaker, and protector. The image of God as the shepherd of his people has a long tradition in the history of God’s people. Today’s gospel reminds us that we are the instruments of God and we ought to help those in need even though they are unlike us and even if we dislike them. Jesus’ choice of the Samaritan as the hero of his story may have made his audience wince. Even the Lawyer in the story does not use his name in his response but he only says the one who showed mercy. Jesus teaches us through the parable of the Good Samaritan that God’s grace comes to us in all forms and through all kinds of people.
The first reading taken from the Book of Deuteronomy is one of the most consoling and joyful words given to people. It was time for Moses to take leave of his people as he could not reach the Promised Land. It simply says that God is our life and that our lives can reveal God. It recounts an important moment in our understanding of humanity and God. Through their special bond with God, the people have committed themselves to observe all that God commands them. The second reading selected from Letter of Paul to the Colossians is one of the most significant texts in the whole New Testament. It tells us about the divinity of Jesus and that Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. All creation was in him, through him, and for him. Christ through his incarnation has made God visible to man. Man’s sonship with God indeed existed even before creation began. Since all is created in and through him, Christ is the centre of unity.
The Gospel of today presents us a beautiful story of the Good Samaritan, the man who goes out of his way to help a person in need. The purpose of this parable is to teach the disciples and the community the meaning of neighbourliness. The setting revolves around a lawyer attempting to test Jesus in a verbal battle regarding his teaching on inheriting eternal life. Jesus counters him with his knowledge of the law regarding salvation and discovers that the man is well versed in his knowledge of scriptures. He tells him that it contains in his love of God and Neighbour. With this, he is eligible to have eternal life. Jesus gives him the story, the parable that explains the concept of neighbour in our real life. For the Jews, the concept of a neighbour did not go beyond a fellow Jew. The basic teaching Luke draws from the parable is that any time a person is found in need is a neighbour regardless to which group he belongs. The example of the Samaritan is presented as a model to be followed by every person.
Just before answering the lawyer’s question, Jesus had clearly said: “I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to the little ones… No one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” (Luke. 10:21-22) The knowledge of God has been reserved for the little ones. The little ones are they who obey the Law and the commandments of God. They lovingly observe the precepts of the Lord: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with your entire mind (Deut. 6:5); and your neighbour as yourself (Lev. 19:18).
This Gospel passage presents us with the way of life for a Christian and how he ought to behave in his search for eternal life. It is one of the most famous stories told by Jesus elaborating his teaching. There are four persons in this story. There is a priest, who is naturally a Jew and, besides, a man of deep religious convictions. There is a Levite, also a Jew, and also a religious person, and a member of the priestly community. There is a Samaritan, whom we only know as some kind of a merchant. We know nothing about his religious convictions but it seems that his religious faith is irrelevant to the story. Finally, there is a fourth person lying severely injured on the roadside. The identity of the person and his profession is uncertain. We can safely presuppose that he was a Jew, who perhaps was a merchant or a traveller attacked by the robbers and now is in serious physical trouble.
Jesus tells his audience to forget about the religious obligations at the moment. The priest and the Levite on the way to the Temple in Jerusalem and could not risk coming in physical contact with the injured man if, as was most likely, he was bleeding. Contact with blood would have rendered them “unclean” and prevented them from carrying out their Temple obligations. Jesus tells them to forget about the moral condition of the person to be helped, namely how the injured man got into this situation. He may have been quite stupid to be travelling alone along a road that was notorious for robberies and hijackings. He might even have been a highwayman who had been pretending to have been beaten up by those to rob others. But only one of the three responded to the injured man’s immediate and urgent need. The Samaritan was the one who broke his journey took care of him and paid also his expenses.
Jesus told this story to shock the hearers into rethinking how God’s grace works and the kind of people through whom that grace may come. The situation can take place at any time. Each of the person involved may have sufficient reason to keep away from helping the person in need and he can justify himself for reasons religious or otherwise. Jesus depicts the Samaritan as extremely gracious and caring as he comes to the aid of the injured Jew. In a normal life situation, no Jew would have permitted a Samaritan to help him out. What Jesus tells them is that no one can control the avenues of God’s grace. The keyword that Jesus uses in this story is “compassion” or “mercy”.
Today’s story has very practical implications. Here we must remind ourselves that Jesus is not giving “religious” teaching to an elite minority. He is telling all of us how to be truly human. It is the way all people are called to behave towards each other. The Gospel reminds us that we must help those in need even if they are unlike us, even if we dislike them. It reminds us that we ought to recognize that we in constant need of the help of others, particularly of our God, of whom we have so often made ourselves enemies. It tells us that God’s grace comes in all forms and through all kinds of people. In fact, the Good Samaritan listened to his conscience. He acted righteously and it is this that established him on the path of eternal Life.
There is a story told about a small town in Germany that was severely blasted during the last war. Some years later, the buildings were restored and one was the town’s cathedral. When the renovation was complete, a large figure of Christ the King, which stood in front of the cathedral, remained unrepaired, where both the hands had been blown off in the explosion. When there was no sign of it being repaired, some people went to the parish priest to inquire about it. He surprised them all by saying that he was going to leave the statue exactly as it was. He told them that he had prepared a plaque to be place: “I have no hands; will you be my hand.”
Once a man had gone for his weekly market fair and was returning home happy with the purchases. It was pretty dark and the path was very narrow. My mistake he slipped and fell in the pond filled with muck and it was extremely cold. However much he tried to come out he could not and worse still he went on sinking in the muck. He kept on shouting for help. To his good fortune, a man was passing that way in a horse cart and when he heard the cries he stopped. He threw a rope to the man and tied it to his horse and with difficulty he pulled him out. Then he took the nearly unconscious man to his home, washed him clean, and wrapped him in the blanket. The man recovered in a couple of days and wanted to return to his village. He thanked his benefactor for the favour done and asked what his name was. The benefactor refused. When the person still insisted the good man asked him a question, asking if he knew the story of the Good Samaritan. The man responded positively. Then he said if he could tell him the name of the Good Samaritan and he would reveal his name. The man thought a while and said it is not recorded in the Bible. Nor will I tell you mine. Kindly go and be a Good Samaritan.