15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C) 07-15-07

Scripture Readings
First Deuteronomy 30:10-14
Second Colossians 1:15-20
Gospel Luke 10:25-37

Prepared by: Peter John Cameron, O.P.

1. Subject Matter
• Our experience of suffering reveals our intrinsic bond with others--that they are our neighbor.
• The Great Commandment is something very near to us, already in our hearts. The problem
with living the Commandment of love is not a lack of theology but rather a neglect of our own
humanity. The more attentive we are to our own humanity/heart, the more it becomes
patently self-evident “who our neighbor is.” The exchange is Christ’s way of inviting the
scholar of the law back to his own human “I.”
• Through Christ Jesus we have the reconciliation of all things, i.e, an Answer for all our
disintegration, deterioration, degeneration.

2. Exegetical Notes
• “Heed the voice of the Lord” = enjoined a dozen times in Deuteronomy: 4:23, 30; 11:1, 13;
12:28; 13:5; 15:5; 17:19; 28:1; 30:2, 8, 10.
• “This command is something very near to you….” – “The law is not esoteric knowledge
requiring that a chosen intermediary…communicate it…. God has put the disposition to obey
it in the heart” (JBC). This is a key fact of the Law that the “scholar of the law” opts to
overlook when he asks Christ his impertinent question; the parable reveals that the answer to
the scholar’s question was always “in his heart.”
• “Through him to reconcile all things for him” - “Reconciliation” means “a change from anger,
hostility, or alienation to love”…. “The initiative is with God, who through Christ brings it
about that human sinners are brought from a status of enmity to friendship” (Fitzmyer).
• The actions of the Good Samaritan:
1) “was moved with compassion” – the Greek expression for showing mercy is the same
used in Lk 1:78, “in the tender compassion of our God,” and in Lk 15:20 to describe the
compassion of the father when he sees his prodigal son returning (whom he later
describes as “dead but come back to life”…not unlike the “half-dead” victim).
 2) “he lifted him up” – the action of placing the victim on the Good Samaritan’s beast
mimics that of the disciples helping Jesus onto the back of the colt in Lk 19:35—the same
Greek verb is used.

3. References to the Catechism of the Catholic Church

• 1931: Respect for the human person proceeds by way of respect for the principle that
"everyone should look upon his neighbor (without any exception) as 'another self,' above all
bearing in mind his life and the means necessary for living it with dignity." No legislation
could by itself do away with the fears, prejudices, and attitudes of pride and selfishness
which obstruct the establishment of truly fraternal societies. Such behavior will cease only
through the charity that finds in every man a "neighbor," a brother.

• 1932: The duty of making oneself a neighbor to others and actively serving them becomes
even more urgent when it involves the disadvantaged, in whatever area this may be.

• 1465: When he celebrates the sacrament of Penance, the priest is fulfilling the ministry
of…the Good Samaritan who binds up wounds…. The priest is the sign and the instrument
of God's merciful love for the sinner.”

• 2212: Our relationships with our neighbors are recognized as personal in character. The
neighbor is not a ‘unit’ in the human collective; he is ‘someone who by his known origins
deserves particular attention and respect.

• 2444: The Church's love for the poor is a part of her constant tradition." This love is inspired
by the Gospel of the Beatitudes, of the poverty of Jesus, and of his concern for the poor.
Love for the poor is even one of the motives for the duty of working so as to "be able to give
to those in need." It extends not only to material poverty but also to the many forms of
cultural and religious poverty.

• 1397 The Eucharist commits us to the poor. To receive in truth the Body and Blood of Christ
given up for us, we must recognize Christ in the poorest, his brethren: You have tasted the
Blood of the Lord, yet you do not recognize your brother,. . . . You dishonor this table when
you do not judge worthy of sharing your food someone judged worthy to take part in this
meal. . . . God freed you from all your sins and invited you here, but you have not become
more merciful.

4. Patristic Commentary and Other Authorities

• St. Gregory of Nyssa: “This is my beloved, who rose from Judah to become our brother, and
became neighbor to him who fell among robbers…. With his body he proceeded to the place
of man’s disaster, healed his wounds and set him upon his own beast. He created for him the
inn of his loving providence, in which all those who labor and are burdened can find rest.
And those who enter here receive within themselves that which receives them, as the Word
himself has said: ‘He abides in me, and I in him’ (Jn 6:57). Man, then, receives within himself
the Lord whom nothing can contain, in accordance with his capacity.”
• St. Cyril: “The lawyer breaks forth into pride thinking that he had no neighbor, as though
there was no one to be compared to him in righteousness.”
• St. Gregory the Great: “Lord Jesus, I pray that you may be moved to pity and come to me. I
have gone down from Jerusalem to Jericho, descended from the heights to the depths, from
health to sickness. I have fallen into the hands of the angels of darkness who have not only
stripped me of my garment of spiritual grace but have also wounded me and left me half-
dead. Bind up the wounds of my sins by making me believe that they can be healed, for if I
despair of healing they will become worse. Apply the oil of forgiveness to them and pour in
the wine of compunction.”
• St. Bede the Venerable: “No one is more a neighbor to us than he who shows us mercy.”
• St. Anselm: “What then is the strength and power of your salvation and where is it found?
Christ has brought you back to life. He is the good Samaritan who healed you. He is the good
friend who redeemed you and set you free by laying down his life for you. Christ did all this.
So the strength of your salvation is the strength of Christ.”
• St. Ambrose: “For relationship does not make a neighbor, but compassion, for compassion
is according to nature. For nothing is so natural as to assist one who shares our nature.”
• Pope John Paul II: “Everyone who stops beside the suffering of another person, whatever
form it may take, is a Good Samaritan. This stopping does not mean curiosity but availability.
It is like the opening of a certain interior disposition of the heart, which also has an emotional
expression of its own…. In a word a Good Samaritan is one who brings help in suffering,
whatever its nature may be…. We can say that he gives himself, his very ‘I’, opening this ‘I’
to the other person…. The eloquence of the parable of the Good Samaritan…is especially
this: every individual must feel as if called personally to bear witness to love in suffering….
Suffering is present in the world in order to release love, in order to give birth to works of love
towards neighbor, in order to transform the whole of human civilization into a ‘civilization of
love.’ In this love the salvific meaning of suffering is completely accomplished and reaches
its definitive dimension…. At one and the same time Christ has taught man to do good by his
suffering and to do good to those who suffer. In this double aspect he has completely
revealed the meaning of suffering.”
• Catherine de Hueck Doherty: “I lay upon the dust of a thousand roads, a bruised and broken
thing, of no account…. Men passed me by and laughed. Few stopped to see if life had left
me…. I cried and wept in the dark night; but only darkness, dust, and pain picked up my
endless, weak refrain. And then one day, that was not day at all but night again, one
stopped and stooped to the thing that was myself and said, ‘Arise and come with me, my
love.’ When I looked up, I saw one who was all beautiful, all light. I was ashamed of wounds
and dust, of grimy dirt, and of the signs of ugliness darkness had left upon the useless,
broken thing that was myself. Swift was his answer…. He bent to my nothingness and lifted
me into infinity…. Now I know that there is one who will come again, as swift as wind, as
clean as rain. And I shall know again, again, the fire and flame of his embrace.

• Sister Elvira Petrozzi: “The more I walk with Jesus every day in an eternal renewal of joy and
of life; I discover that to serve is to reign…. To be at the service of the paternal heart of God,
in order to serve mankind, is truly to experience the privilege of reigning…. I will reveal to
you a secret for reigning, for overcoming exhaustion, tiredness, depression, and fear: turn
your heart toward and give a hand to someone else who is suffering more than you. It is an
 enormous gift to have the poor among us. When I say poor, I am thinking of your father, your
husband, your wife, or your brother. In order to overcome our limitations, or cross the
threshold of our weariness, serving others is a source of joy.”

• Chiara Lubich: “ Interest yourself in the most wretched people, in the homeless, the destitute,
orphans, prisoners…. If you have not any clothing or food to give, beg for them from the
eternal Father. Tell him they are needed for Christ his Son, whom you want to serve in
everybody….. Load up with goods and search the streets….. Neglect no one. You can
make them generous promises, for you come in the name of the Omnipotent. While you
cheer the Lord in your neighbor, he will take care to fill you and your companions with
celestial gifts.”

• Jean Vanier: “We begin to sense that we need to be healed and to be transformed, because
God is calling us to something that we cannot possible do by ourselves. We cannot love an
enemy: we flee and wound him. We disregard little people. We’re frightened. When we begin
to sense all the security we have in our lives that prevents us opening ourselves to the Spirit,
when we sense how comfortable we are, how we seek comfort rather than compassion and
love—then we are preparing the road to transformation.”

• Bl. Teresa of Calcutta: That sick person, that alcoholic, that thief, are my brothers and
sisters. It is possible that they find themselves abandoned in the street because no one gave
them love and understanding. You and I could be in their place if we had not received love
and understanding from other human beings. I will never forget the alcoholic man who told
me his story. He was a man who had surrendered to alcohol to forget the fact that no one
loved him. Before we judge the poor, we have the duty to look inside ourselves.

5. Examples from the Saints and Other Exemplars

• A legend told by St. Gregory the Great: In a monastery in the territory of Lycaonia there was
a monk of very holy life named Martyrius. One day he was making his way from his own
monastery to another, in order to visit the spiritual father there. As he was proceeding along
the road he came upon a leper, whose limbs were covered with the sores caused by
elephantiasis. The leper said that he wanted to return to the place he was staying, but was
too exhausted to do so. He indicated that this place was on the road along which Martyrius
was hurrying. The man of God pitied the leper’s exhaustion, and immediately spread out the
cloak he was wearing on the ground. He laid the leper on the cloak and wrapped him in it,
raised him upon his shoulders, and bore him along with him. As Martyrius was approaching
the monastery gates, the spiritual father of the monastery began to cry out in a loud voice:
“Hurry, open the monastery gates quickly! Brother Martyrius is coming, carrying the Lord!” As
soon as Martyrius reached the gates, the one he thought was a leper leapt down from his
shoulders and revealed himself as Jesus. As Martyrius looked on, he returned to heaven and
said as he was ascending: “Martyrius, you did not feel shame for me upon earth. I will not
feel shame for you in heaven.” As soon as the holy man entered the monastery, the abbot
said to him, “Martyrius, where is the one you were carrying?” Martyrius answered him, “If I
had known who he was, I would have held on to his feet.” Then he said that when he was
carrying him he had not felt any weight at all. Are you surprised at this? How could he feel
the weight of one who was bearing his bearer?
6. Quotations from Pope Benedict XVI
• “If in my life I fail completely to heed others, solely out of a desire to be ‘devout’ and to
perform my ‘religious duties’, then my relationship with God will also grow arid. It becomes
merely ‘proper’, but loveless. Only my readiness to encounter my neighbor and to show him
love makes me sensitive to God as well. Only if I serve my neighbor can my eyes be opened
to what God does for me and how much he loves me.”
• “It is this power of compassion, springing from the power of love, which is able to make good
the past and create justice. Christ is risen: this means that there is a power that is able to
create justice and that is actively creating it.”
• “Christ, the firstborn from the dead, takes death upon himself and, by his Resurrection,
shatters death’s power. Death no longer has the last word. The love of the Son proves to be
stronger than death because it unites man with God’s love, which is God’s very being.”

7. Other Considerations
Why did the Good Samaritan stop? Maybe he himself had been brutalized by robbers on an
earlier occasion as he traveled down this treacherous road. We can relate best to those whose
suffering is like our own. Perhaps it was experience that prompted the Good Samaritan not to
take at face value what looked “half-dead.” Something moved the Good Samaritan to look
beyond the appearance of death, to take a risk, to give of himself. Maybe the experience of
being saved from certain death was something very near to the Good Samaritan, something
firmly implanted in his heart. Perhaps it was the memory of it that propelled him to the dying
man’s side where he applied all he had to keep the man alive. It was not some extrinsic
commandment that moved the Good Samaritan to act in such a virtuous way; it was the fact that
he lived his humanity on a profound level, with all his heart and his soul. “Who is my neighbor?”
the scholar of the law asks. His attempt at self-justification turns into an act of self-indictment,
for anyone who lives his or her humanity at the deep level of his/her “I” (as Pope John Paul II
asserts) knows the answer to this question. And when we live from the memory of what we
have been rescued from, we cannot help but be compassionate. In the mercy we show others,
we feel again the hands of the One who ministered to us in our trauma, lifting us up out of what
would have been our grave. We hear His voice encouraging us not to give up. With His healing
water and wine in our wounds, we are filled with reasons to keep on living. We encounter Him
again. Then—eagerly, joyously—we go back out onto that road that once threatened to be our
tomb. We go looking for other victims. For, as long as we are “going down that road,” today is
not their day to be left half-dead.

Recommended Resources
POPE JOHN PAUL II. Salvifici Doloris. Nos. 28-30.