"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 your neighbor as yourself."
The scholar who questions Jesus in today’s Gospel story desires to “inherit eternal life.” He already knows and follows the commandments to love God and neighbor, but wanting to justify himself, he probes further, asking, “Who is my neighbor?” And as He often does, Jesus answers with a parable; the parable of the Good Samaritan. This title has become such a part of our lexicon that, to our modern ears, it seems quite natural that the term “good” should precede “Samaritan,” but in Jesus’s time, the Samaritans were not considered good at all. In fact, they were rejected and hated by the Jews. Yet, of all those who passed by the wounded man lying in the road, only the Samaritan took the time and the risk to stop, bathe his wounds with oil and wine, and bring him to safety. All this was given generously and freely to help a natural enemy. That is the Gospel standard to which we are called.
In his 2013 homily for the World Day of the Sick, Pope Benedict XVI spoke about this parable, saying:
“The Gospel parable… is part of a series of scenes and events taken from daily life by which Jesus helps us to understand the deep love of God for every human being, especially those afflicted by sickness or pain. With the concluding words… “Go and do likewise” the Lord also indicates the attitude that each of his disciples should have towards others…. We need to draw from the infinite love of God, through an intense relationship with him in prayer, the strength to live day by day with concrete concern… for those suffering in body and spirit… whether or not we know them and however poor they may be. This is true… for everyone, even for the sick themselves, who can experience this condition from a perspective of faith: “It is not by sidestepping or fleeing from suffering that we are healed, but rather by our capacity for accepting it, maturing through it and finding meaning through union with Christ, who suffered with infinite love” (Spe Salvi, 37).
Various Fathers of the Church saw Jesus himself in the Good Samaritan; and in the man who fell among thieves they saw Adam, our very humanity wounded and disoriented on account of its sins… Jesus… makes present the Father’s love, a love which is faithful, eternal and without boundaries. Jesus… sheds the garment of his divinity… drawing near to human suffering, even to the point of descending into hell… to bring hope and light… filled with compassion, he looks into the abyss of human suffering so as to pour out the oil of consolation and the wine of hope.
… Each one of us can be a good Samaritan for others, for those close to us… In the Gospel the Blessed Virgin Mary… does not lose hope in God’s victory over evil, pain and death… Her steadfast trust in the power of God was illuminated by Christ’s resurrection, which offers hope to the suffering and renews the certainty of the Lord’s closeness and consolation… May she assist all… so that they may become good Samaritans to their brothers and sisters afflicted by illness and suffering."
… Each one of us can be a good Samaritan for others, for those close to us… In the Gospel the Blessed Virgin Mary… does not lose hope in God’s victory over evil, pain and death… Her steadfast trust in the power of God was illuminated by Christ’s resurrection, which offers hope to the suffering and renews the certainty of the Lord’s closeness and consolation… May she assist all… so that they may become good Samaritans to their brothers and sisters afflicted by illness and suffering."
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