6 October 2025 – Monday of the 27th week of Ordinary Time, even-numbered year
Jonah 1:1–2:1, 11; Luke 10:25–37
H O M E L Y
This vivid account from the Gospel of Luke, which we have just read, began with an important question posed to Jesus by a teacher of the Law. It was a very good question, both personal and practical. In fact, he did not ask in an abstract way, “What is the greatest commandment?” but rather, ‘What must I do?’ Jesus said to him, ‘You are a teacher of the Law; you should know this. What do you read in your Law?’ And the man gave the right answer: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.’ Very well! said Jesus! Do this and you will have eternal life. The teacher found that the dialogue had ended a little too abruptly and asked another question: ‘But then... who is my neighbor?’
Jesus answers this second question with a parable. It is important to remember that the entire parable that follows is an answer to the question, ‘Who is my neighbor?’ For when he has finished telling the parable, Jesus returns precisely to this question: ‘Who, in your opinion, was the neighbor of the man who fell into the hands of robbers?’ With this question, Jesus forces the doctor to identify with the man who fell into the ditch and was beaten by robbers. (Let us remember that the technique of the parable as a form of teaching consisted in leading the listeners to identify with one of the characters in the story.)
Let us return to the structure of the story. The teacher had said, ‘Who is my neighbor?’ and Jesus rephrases the same question at the end: ‘Who was the neighbor to the man who fell under the blows?’ The teacher can only answer, ‘His neighbor was the one who showed him compassion.’ If we keep all this in mind, we will realize that when Jesus says, ‘Go and do likewise’, the immediate meaning is not ‘Go and be a good Samaritan yourself’ but rather: ‘Like the man who fell victim to robbers, accept that even a Samaritan can be your neighbor’.
Jesus asks us to transcend – through love – all the divisions we establish between ourselves. Transposed into today's world, the division between Samaritans and Jews would be the division between the poor and the rich, between developed and underdeveloped countries, between capitalists and communists, between advocates of globalization and its victims, between Blacks and Whites, between conservatives and progressives, between citizens and illegal residents, etc., etc.
For us, the person on the other side is usually the one who is wrong. Jesus invites us to recognize the compassion in such a person and to accept his/her help. The Samaritan in this parable is travelling. He and the priest and the Levite are at home and therefore have a lot to do. They do not have time to help. They also have everything they need. They are self-sufficient and do not recognize their neighbor. But the Samaritan is travelling. He is outside his normal environment. He has come to a foreign land in search of something. The road from Jerusalem to Jericho was very dangerous, especially for a Samaritan. He was poor, a person who knew contempt, danger and fear. He was therefore able to open himself to compassion.
If we transpose all this into today's world, who is the person who fell into the ditch, attacked by robbers? It is the one who left Jerusalem to go down to Jericho: the one who left the security of the holy city, with its comforts and certainties, to seek something else, in the direction of the unknown, like Abraham. It is, for example, the person who seeks other models of social, political, economic or religious life. It is the person who has left the system or been expelled by the system. Having left the beaten track trodden by the crowds, such a person is vulnerable, more exposed than others to making mistakes, even serious ones. Such people can easily find themselves in the gutter – which may, incidentally, be their salvation. Such people are found everywhere, especially in prisons or in disreputable places. Wherever they are, they will be easily ignored by the Levites and priests, except to receive lessons in good behavior from them. Let us hope that one day they will meet a Samaritan.
The Samaritans of today's world are the persons who has abandoned the security and comfort of their little world and want to learn new ways of thinking and living from others. Being themselves in a constant state of insecurity – chosen or at least accepted – they can have compassion for those who have fallen. Only if we embark on such a journey, as Christ did, will we be able to help our brothers and sisters, not for the sake of observing a law, or to earn merit in heaven, or for the pleasure of being good and generous, but simply because we will be ‘moved with compassion’.
As a practical conclusion: it would be too easy to resolve to be good Samaritans to those around us. Let us rather listen to the first lesson of Jesus' parable. Let us accept the obvious fact that we have all, in various ways, fallen into the ditch. Our first challenge is to accept that our neighbor, the one who will help us, will be the one we tend to consider unworthy – those for whose conversion we usually pray.
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And today we also remember the hermit Saint Bruno, founder of the Carthusian Order.
Armand VEILLEUX