My dear parishioners, Jesus compared the search for everlasting life to a narrow gate and a difficult road saying, “For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” [Mt 7:14] When Jesus spoke about a man “going down” to Jericho, he meant it literally. Jericho at 850 feet below sea level is the lowest inhabited place on earth. Jerusalem, however, sits 2,600 feet above sea level. Attacks by robbers and hoodlums were common on the 17 miles of tortuous desert road between Jerusalem and Jericho in the 1
st century.
Jesus' Jewish listeners might have assumed that the man, beaten, robbed, stripped of his clothing and left for dead, was Jewish. Very difficult for Jesus' listeners to accept was the quiet hero of his parable, a Samaritan whose people they reviled as mixed-race pagans. The encounter between Jesus and the man skilled in religious law is momentous. Hidden in the lawyer’s question "Who is my neighbor?" [Lk 10:29ff] is a poisonous stinger: There properly exists such a category as “non-neighbor”.
Instead of addressing the man's underlying prejudices, Jesus focuses on what it means to be a good neighbor, something vitally important for this fractious generation. A “gospel way” of life is impossible without correctly understanding what “neighbor” really means. The real meaning of neighbor is found in the expression
pro omnibus et singulis meaning
for the good of all and the good of one. Thus we are to step forward—sometimes courageously—to take on the suffering of another person and bring him relief.
Only the Samaritan in the parable chooses to act as neighbor to the gravely injured anonymous man. The Samaritan is not sure that the wounded man is alive. He wants to know, so he resolutely approaches the victim. He wants to help, so he touches him. By rescuing the stricken man from danger and prompting the inn-keeper to care for him, the Samaritan obtains for the man his
freedom. He is spared from calamity and delivered from death. In other words, he is restored to life!
This is why Jesus of Nazareth demands from his faithful followers the will to act in extraordinary ways in ordinary life. To be fully human means that one must be schooled in generosity. Behold the cross of Christ! Behold the suffering of Jesus of Nazareth whose blood and grime hid his divinity from those who mocked him!
It doesn’t take a parable for us to realize how vulnerable we are in this broken world. Before each of us winds a desolate stretch of road which must be traveled. Our lives are worth nothing to many persons. The noonday sun has no power to warm cold hearts. It cannot command the eyes of those who make themselves blind to the suffering of others. Many more will never stop to say
hello, open a door or even glance at us.
St. Augustine, recognizing in the Samaritan's actions a new expression of God's deliverance of Israel, saw in the wounded man the figure of fallen Adam, whose Hebrew name means “humankind”. In this sense, the wounded man in the parable is a figure for human beings who are afflicted by evil and in need of healing. We all need the crucified and risen Jesus to rescue us from the wounds of sin and the terrifying reality of eternal death. We all need the safe harbor of heaven.
God is doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? [Isa 43:19] Behold the passion and death of Jesus Christ in the faces of those who suffer. By your own generous heart and hands, lead them safely to the Lord’s glorious resurrection. This, then, is compassion.
For one, for all! Sincerely in the hearts of Jesus and Mary. Your pastor, Reverend Richard Barker.
My dear parishioners, Jesus compared the search for everlasting life to a narrow gate and a difficult road saying, “For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” [Mt 7:14] When Jesus spoke about a man “going down” to Jericho, he meant it literally. Jericho at 850 feet below sea level is the lowest inhabited place on earth. Jerusalem, however, sits 2,600 feet above sea level. Attacks by robbers and hoodlums were common on the 17 miles of tortuous desert road between Jerusalem and Jericho in the 1 st century.