The Good Samaritan

As we bring to an end the 26th week after Pentecost, our readings include a section from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians wherein he relates his impression that to be truly a Christian in this world we must put on Christian armor. He suggests that we should put on the “armor of God” if we “are to resist” the evil of the day.

For Paul, the enemies that Christians must face are not human and therefore they must gird themselves with a special armor. He then describes the armor that we should put on. For Paul truth is to be the belt around our waist; justice our breastplate; zeal our footgear; faith our shield; and the word of God our helmet and sword. Christians must face the “rulers of this world” which tend to be self-centeredness and selfishness. The Way of Jesus provides Christians with new and different weapons.

Our second reading, taken from Luke’s Gospel, presents the Parable of the Good Samaritan, probably one of the best known of the Jesus parables. It presents the conduct of a real disciple. It is the conduct of the wise and the prudent, not just of those learned in the law. The parable presents how a person must live and act if he desires to have “eternal life.”

The parable compares the failure of the ministers (i.e., priest and Levite) of God with the unselfishness of the hated Samaritan so that his hearers would then be able to measure the unlimited nature of the duty to love.

In the course of the parable, he who possesses the secret of eternal life turns out to be this stranger without the lawyer’s learning and concern for security and without the dignity and status of the priestly and Levitical condition.

The Samaritan’s love was spontaneous and did not have to inquire into the Law. It was kindly, disinterested, personal and very effective. Why? Because it was unconditional. The Samaritan placed no conditions on his love of neighbor. The others before him did. Jesus’ listeners were to get the point since all knew of the hatred that people directed toward the Samaritans.

What is the message of our two readings. Our values and attitudes of mind can bring us the “fullness of life” if they are unconditional. If we make truth, faith, justice and the word of God the standards by which we live, we will be able to summon the strength and courage to extend unconditional love, forgiveness and acceptance to all others, regardless of how they treat us or respond to us.

Jesus truly showed us how to live!