In today’s Gospel Jesus may be telling a true story, as he
doesn’t call it a parable. It is a beautiful story of kindness
and compassion. Even if this exhausted the meaning of the
story it would be enough, but there is a subtle, darker
meaning. A lawyer asks, “And who is my neighbour?”
Lawyers require statements to be precise and
unambiguous. It is fine for Jesus to say, “Love God with all
your heart… and your neighbour as yourself.” But, the
lawyer asks, precisely “who is my neighbour?” You can’t
love everyone, surely? Where does my responsibility begin
and end?
Jesus asks the lawyer, “Which of these three [the priest, the
Levite or the Samaritan], do you think, was a neighbour to
the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” The
Samaritan is defined as the neighbour, and this creates a
problem, for Jews and Samaritans were sworn enemies.
The lawyer cannot bring himself even to say the word
“Samaritan”. We can put it into the context of today’s world.
Think about the person that you most distrust; someone that
seems to oppose all that you cherish and believe in.
Imagine that you discover that person has put himself or
herself in danger to perform an act of purely selfless charity.
We are to recognise and cherish goodness wherever it is
found.
How do we overcome hatred, dislike and prejudice? How do
we manage to love the unlovable? How can we reach the
point of seeing all human beings, even our enemies, as
neighbours we can love? How do we become like Jesus
who prayed for his enemies, forgave those who crucified
him, and tells us to love our enemies, and pray for those
who persecute us? In St Paul’s words in the second
reading, Jesus reconciles “everything whether on earth or in
heaven … through the blood of his cross”.
St Augustine saw this story as one of redemption. For him,
the lawyer listening to the story, and the priest and Levite in
it, as well as the victim beaten up and robbed, are all equally
in need of help. They are all victims; we are all victims of our
sinfulness. Jesus comes from heaven to bind up our
wounds. Our part is to recognise our need of him, and let
him be our Good Samaritan, to heal us, so that we can love
everyone, through him and in him. He carries us to the inn,
which is the Church. He gives the innkeeper two denarii, the
sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist, to care for us. He
is, as today’s first reading tells us, “The Word [who] is very
near to you it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to
observe.”