The Good Samaritan

It all started with a question a lawyer asked, to catch Jesus, to see how wise he was. He wasn’t sincerely interested in the answer. As a good lawyer he wanted to score a point. But it was a good question, maybe the most important question in our lives: What do I have to do to go to heaven? Or in a more personal way: God, are you happy with me? Jesus took advantage of this pretentious lawyer to remind us of the law inscribed in our hearts: we are created to love God and our neighbor. This is the way for us to be happy and to make it to heaven. If we are not happy, it means that we are not loving God enough. The more we love God, the happier we are. We don’t normally look at things in this way. This should have been the question the lawyer asked: What can I do to love God more? The media tries to convince us that to follow a religion means a list of negative things. But the summary of the law of God is a positive thing: to love God and other people. The do’s and don’t’s spring from this great reality. We should avoid anything that goes against our love for God, whatever can offend him.

Then the lawyer asked a second question, not happy with the result of his first one: Who is my neighbour? It was a debatable question among the doctors of the law. It had become a bit legalistic, sometimes trying to get away from true charity. It was a question of who was really my neighbour: my relatives, or my friends too, or even anybody? The more people become my neighbour, the more people I have to love. It is a good question for us too, one that we need to ask ourselves from time to time. Who is my neighbour? Who are the people God has placed close to me? We normally try to exclude some people, especially the people we don’t like.

Thanks to this question Jesus gave us a great parable, very much part of our Christian make up. Only Jesus can bring something beautiful from a silly lawyer. This is the heart of the Gospel, where we are recognised as true Christians. The expression “Good Samaritan” is part of our language, somebody who does something for others without expecting anything back in return. Are we truly a Good Samaritan? We are normally very utilitarian, constantly thinking about what people can do for us. What can I get from this situation? We need to change our outlook. Instead, we need to ask ourselves, What can I do for others without getting anything back?

We criticise the priest and the Levite who pass by to the other side of the road. But, what would happen to us if one night we find someone lying on the road. Would we stop? We will have plenty of excuses to keep going. It could be a set up to robb us, he must be drunk, I am in a hurry, I have enough problems of my own. Recently I was talking with a parishioner who had an accident at night and nobody was stopping to help her. She had to stand in the middle of the road to stop a car.

Who is the real Samaritan for us? It is Jesus. We are robbed of our dignity and left half dead when we sin. We fall down and our soul half dies. Jesus comes with oil and wine, with the Sacraments, and heals our wounds. We need first to recognise what it is that is robbing us of our heavenly treasures, and secondly how we can let Jesus heal us, to bring us back to the eternal inn.

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