XIV — THE GOOD SAMARITAN

XII Sunday after Pentecost

Presence of God. — Lord, imprint in my heart the example and commandment of your charity.

Meditation

1 — “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among robbers, who stripped and wounded him and went away, leaving him half dead.” So says today’s Gospel. Each of us can see himself represented in that poor man. We too, on our way, have met robbers: the world, the devil, the passions that have despoiled and wounded us. Who can say he does not carry in his own soul some wound, more or less deep, consequence of temptations and sin? But we too on our path have met a good Samaritan, indeed the good Samaritan par excellence, Jesus, who, moved with compassion for our state, came to our aid. With infinite love He bent over our bleeding wounds, treating them with the oil and wine of his grace: the oil indicates its sweetness, and the wine its vigor. Then He took us in his arms and carried us to a safe refuge, that is, He entrusted us to the maternal care of the Church, to whom He delivered the price of our ransom, fruit of his death on the Cross.

Thus the parable of the good Samaritan foreshadows the history of our redemption, a history always in act and renewed each time we approach Jesus, showing Him with humility and repentance the wounds of our soul. This history is realized in a wholly particular way in Holy Mass, in which Jesus offers to the Father the price of our salvation, renewing his immolation for the benefit of our souls. We must go to Mass to meet Him, the good Samaritan, to invoke and receive upon us his healing and sanctifying action. The more, conscious of our misery, we feel alive the need of his redemption, the more Jesus will apply to us its fruits abundantly; and coming into us in Holy Communion, He will heal our wounds not only from outside but from within, penetrating them abundantly with the most sweet oil and vigorous wine of his grace.

See how Jesus treats us; see how Jesus treated humanity, which by sin was foreign to Him, indeed enemy, and had nothing to do with Him, the Holy One, the Son of God!

2 — Jesus, who by his redemptive work gave us first the example of a charity full of mercy and compassion, had every right to conclude the parable of the good Samaritan by saying: “Go, and do you likewise.” And He could have added, as He would say on the evening of the Last Supper to his Apostles: “I have given you an example that you also should do as I have done to you” (Jn. 13:15).

The scribes and Pharisees, by neighbor, understood only friends or, at most, Israelites, but never pagans, nor even Samaritans. And behold, the Savior, passing at once beyond this so narrow interpretation, proposes as concrete example of the charity commanded by the law precisely an act of charity toward an enemy: the good Samaritan, taking no account of the hatred that Jews nourished for his people, helps the poor Jew abandoned by priest and Levite, his compatriots. This universal charity will be the distinctive mark of the new religion established by Christ. “Religion pure and undefiled before God,” St. James will write, “is this: to visit orphans and widows in their tribulations” (1:27), that is, there is no true religion without charity toward neighbor, and especially toward suffering neighbor. The scribes, Pharisees, and their very priests, who had reduced religion to pure external formalism while neglecting with such ease the duties of charity, found in the parable of the good Samaritan their condemnation. But also among Christians, unfortunately, there is no lack of devout persons who scruple not to omit the least practice of piety, yet have no hesitation in abandoning sufferers to themselves. Such persons have not understood the soul of religion but have stopped at the shell. Religion gives us the profound sense of our relations with God: He our Father and we his children. But if we are children of one Father, how can we not feel ourselves brothers? This is what true piety consists in: having the sense of our divine sonship, having the sense of our fraternity with all men, none excluded. And one who truly feels himself a brother will never pass straight on before others’ needs and sufferings.

Colloquy

“O Lord, the more I understand the love You bear us, the more I shall willingly renounce every personal interest and satisfaction, in order to please only You, serving my neighbor. Then I will not worry at all about losses I may incur; I will have before me only my neighbor’s interest and nothing else. To better please You, my God, help me to forget myself for others, even to being ready, if necessary, to die for their good, as many martyrs did” (St. Teresa of Jesus, P. 7, 5).

“O charity, you are that sweet and holy bond that binds the soul with its Creator. You bind God in man and man in God. You held the Son of God fastened to the wood of the most holy Cross. You reconcile the discordant, unite the separated, enrich those poor in virtue because you give life to all virtues. You give peace and remove hatred and war. You give patience, fortitude, and long perseverance in every good and holy work. You never grow weary and never turn away from love of God and neighbor, neither through pain nor through torment, nor through mockery nor insult.

“O sweet Christ Jesus, grant me this holy charity, that I may be persevering in good and never be moved away from it, for whoever possesses charity is founded on You, living stone, and by following your examples learns from You to love his Creator and his neighbor. In You, O Christ, I read the rule and doctrine I must keep, for You are way, truth, and life; thus, reading in You, I shall know the straight way and shall attend only to God’s honor and neighbor’s salvation” (St. Catherine of Siena).