Christ the Good Samaritan

In this fourth week of retreat, I would like to reflect with you about a
Gospel story that is very familiar to us. It is a passage that has spoken to
many people through the centuries about who Christ is, the character of his
relationship with us, and the mission he gives us. I believe that it is a
helpful text for us to turn to in this final week of retreat. It is, however, a
passage that we could easily gloss over because it is so familiar to us. We
could miss out on its power and impact. I invite you to reflect on this story as
if you were reading it for the first time.

Read Luke 10: 25-37.  (Online Bible Resource).

The setting for the famous parable of the Good Samaritan is introduced with a
question. It is a rather deep, penetrating question raised by a scholar of the
Law of Moses. We do not know exactly why he posed this question to Jesus. Was it
a theological query – an academic question on a disputed issue of legal
interpretation? Or was his question more personal and sincere, reflecting
something quite profound about this man’s search for God? Whatever his
motivation, he actually asks Jesus two very essential questions. These are
questions that get right to the heart of life. First of all, he asks, 
“Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” In other words, how do I need
to live to be in right relationship with God in this life and the next? This is
a question that each of us has asked many times, even if we have never
articulated it in these exact terms.

Second, this scholar of the Law asks, “And who is my neighbor?” Who are those
people who should be the recipients of my love, my compassion? Luke tells us
that the lawyer asked this second question because he wanted to justify himself.
He wanted to “get the whole thing straight.” Maybe he was one of those people
who cannot live with any loose ends. All of us know such people. They are unable
to live with any ambiguity. They need to have everything all tied up in a neat
package. Or perhaps, like us at times, this man just felt overwhelmed by the
needs of those around him and knew he could not respond to every need. So he
wanted his duties and obligations precisely specified. Sometimes we feel this
way when we receive multiple appeals for charitable aid and we have to make
difficult choices between worthy causes.

To answer his questions, Jesus tells him a story. Weaving
a powerful, arresting story was something Jesus loved to do. You and I have
heard this story countless times – the story of the Good Samaritan. The term
“good samaritan” has made its way into secular parlance, even for those who
don’t profess religious belief. Many think of this Gospel story as a “nice”
story. For Jesus’ hearers, however, this story would not
have sounded so nice. It would have been shocking
to them. It probably made many of his hearers very angry.

The scholar of the Law and the other listeners would most likely have been
thinking: “Jesus, how can you possibly tell us a story about love of neighbor
and have the hero be a Samaritan? Don’t you know what those people are like?
What they have done to us through the centuries? Jesus, don’t you have a clue?
They are heretics, traitors, our bitter, spiteful enemies. When our ancestors
were exiled to Assyria, they intermarried with foreign settlers and gave up our
heritage. They sold out. In later centuries, they opposed our efforts to rebuild
our country and renew our religious practice. Jesus, how can you possibly tells
us a story about love of neighbor that makes a priest and a Levite look so bad
and a Samaritan look so good?”

If Jesus’ hearers had sentiments like these, they would have been right. In
the minds of observant Jews, Samaritans had a very checkered history. And this
anonymous Samaritan character looks amazingly good in the story. In the first
place, he should not have been on this dangerous road between Jerusalem and
Jericho. It was a road famous for bandits and unsafe for Samaritans. And the
response of this hated heretic is filled with extraordinary compassion. He stops
for this bleeding victim of violence. He approaches him and tends to his wounds.
He cares for the wounds of a Jew who would have considered this Samaritan
“unclean” under normal circumstances and may well have been frightened of him.
He takes time with this wounded man. Healing takes time; it often takes a long
time for us. And this Samaritan takes the time to lift this bleeding man onto
his animal, take him to the inn and promise to visit again on his way back.

Another unusual, far-fetched story told by this unpredictable teacher,
Jesus!! It would be as if Jesus tried to illustrate the meaning of love of
neighbor by telling you and me a story about a militant atheist who stopped to
take care of an American Catholic businessman who had been mugged on a city
street.

Jesus is quite clever and creative in the stories that he
tells. He often seems to turn things on their head – upside down. He does that
with the question that the lawyer asks him. The lawyer asks, “And who is my
neighbor?” In that question, “neighbor” is a noun (remember your English
grammar!). He wants to know who fits into this category of neighbor, of those
whom I must love as myself. But through the story Jesus changes the word
“neighbor” from a noun almost to a verb. The Samaritan became neighbor
through his compassionate action. It is no longer a question of
identifying someone out there who is or who is not my neighbor. “Neighbor” is
something inside of us. It is an attitude, a way of being,
expressed in concrete actions
. Neighbor is someone you become by
doing.

What should we do with this story? How should we wrestle
with it today, especially as we make this retreat together? In the early Church,
many famous teachers loved this story. In re-telling it, they gave a name to
this fictional character. They put a face on this Good Samaritan. And they loved
to gaze on that face and to help others do so. They took a long, loving look at
this face. The name they gave the Good Samaritan was Jesus Christ
. It was the face of their
crucified and risen Lord, the Lord who is risen with his wounds. For many
theologians and spiritual writers of the early Church, it was Jesus himself who
was the first and the preeminent Good Samaritan.

Listen to the way in which an influential third century theologian reflected
on this parable. Origen of Alexandria (Egypt) was a brilliant biblical scholar
and theologian who wrote a famous homily on this parable. He cites a tradition
that likens the man wounded and left half-dead to Adam. Adam, the first human
being, was wounded by sin and vice. The man left half-dead by the roadside
actually represents a wounded humanity. The priest who does not stop to help
represents the Law. The Levite symbolizes the prophets. Something, someone,
greater than the Law and the Prophets is needed to save this humanity so sorely
wounded. The Samaritan, the one who stops and draws near, is Christ the Son of
God who became incarnate for our sake. He drew near to us in order to become our
neighbor. Origen says that Christ, our Good Samaritan, bears our sins and
grieves for us. He comes to the wounded man and brings him to the inn, which
Origen believed represented the Church. The Church is meant to be the place of
refuge where everyone is accepted and help is denied to no one. Origen proceeds
to exhort his hearers to imitate Christ the Good Samaritan and to show
compassion for those who have “fallen among thieves.” Christians are called to
draw near to these people, to bind their wounds, put them on our own beasts, and
bear their burdens.

In our own personal lives of faith, it is important for us to recognize that
Christ the Good Samaritan stops for us. Each of us has had our own personal
moments when we have been “lying by the roadside”: moments of anxiety and
confusion; times when were in need of Christ’s forgiveness; experiences of
facing illness and dealing with the loss of loved ones. Usually through other
people, Christ has stopped for us to be a source of healing. It is through our
awareness of his being Good Samaritan for us that you and I are empowered to
stop for others by the roadside.

One more story. This is a true story about someone who influenced my life
when I was studying to be a priest. He was a Passionist priest who died of a
brain tumor not long after I was ordained. Flavian Dougherty, CP, had been the
Provincial Superior of the Passionist community when I first entered it as a
college student. “Flav” was one of those larger-than-life people we sometimes
meet. Robust, talented, enthusiastic, he was a born leader who could light up a
room with a story or joke and just by his presence. He had been an all-city high
school quarterback in Philadelphia who could have played big-time college
football but chose to enter the seminary after high school. He remained a great
competitor all through his life. I remember playing tennis with him when I was a
student. The match resembled something like trench warfare, with neither of us
willing to give an inch!

After Flavian finished his terms as Provincial Superior he moved to Chicago,
where I was studying theology. In his new ministry, he became actively involved
with the community of disabled persons. He met with them regularly, listened to
their concerns about life, society and the Church, and worked diligently with
them. He learned a great deal from these people with physical and mental
disabilities. Flavian often spoke about how much he learned from these people,
how much he learned even about God and his Christian faith. Along the way, he
became an advocate for their well-being and rights. He petitioned the Chicago
Transit Authority to provide more adequate bus service for persons in
wheelchairs. He was instrumental in securing funding for an apartment complex to
be built that was specially designed for persons with disabilities. He persuaded
pastors that it was okay for a person in a wheelchair or with braces to be a
lector at the eucharist. He even began a pilgrimage to the Holy Land for persons
with disabilities. Flavian never seemed to see these activities as a burdensome
chore. Rather, he received new life and enthusiasm from his interaction with
these people. All his life, Flavian remained the “quarterback” leading his
“team” down the field. This time, however, his “team” was comprised of persons
with disabilities.

After years of ministerial assignments in other cities, I returned to live
and minister in Chicago in 2004. I often walk down the street and pass by the
apartment complex for persons with disabilities that Flavian was instrumental in
having built. It is still filled to capacity. It makes me think of him and of
what he taught me. I can picture this healthy, energetic man sitting at the
dinner table next to a person with the most severe disability.  A person
who on the surface looked so entirely different from Flavian. I can picture
Flavian taking time with this person, listening to her, learning from her.
Flavian was never able to bind up the wounds of these people and send them on
their way. He knew well that he could not fix their disabilities. But he knew he
could stop for them, listen to them, learn from them. He allowed himself to be
moved to compassion and in that he became an instrument of healing. Flavian
became neighbor to these persons with disabilities. In so doing, he discovered
hope and renewal in his own life. Flavian taught me a great deal about the
meaning of the parable of the Good Samaritan. He taught me about gazing on the
face of Christ the Good Samaritan and seeking to imitate Christ in my own
life.

During times of retreat, we often come into closer touch with some of the
wounds in our own lives. That is a very common experience for people on retreat.
We encounter some of the marks of the crucifixion that we bear in our minds,
bodies and spirits. That may have happened for you if you participated actively
in this online retreat. The healing that Christ offers us is not magical. It is
not like “divine plastic surgery” that makes the wounds we bear simply
disappear. Many of the wounds and burdens that we bear are things with which we
struggle all our lives. And the scars of those wounds may remain with us. The
healing that Christ offers us is the hope and the energy that allows us to move
forward in life. He empowers us to move on with the trust that he walks with us
all along the way. We can be confident that he continues to stop for us and to
look on us with compassion. Because of the presence and grace of Christ in our
lives, we do not have to remain stuck, imprisoned, in the past. We do not have
to remain fixated on the negative. Because of the presence of Christ the Good
Samaritan, we can move forward in freedom.

Christ also commissions each of us to become mediators of his compassion to a
good but wounded world. Ours is a world that is holy but that is also in need of
the healing, life and redemption that Christ alone can offer. Christ sends us to
our homes and our neighborhoods where it is all too easy to cultivate prejudice
toward those who are different from us, toward the “Samaritans” in our own
society. We are sent to a society in which human life is threatened in all its
stages, from conception until death. The society in which we live is one in
which people seem to find it increasingly inconvenient to reverence the gift of
human life. There is certainly a great deal of beauty in the world in which we
live. There is much that is good and life-giving in our culture. As Christians
we need to recognize and to prize that goodness. At the same time, the world in
which we live is in need of Christ the Good Samaritan. And the hands of Christ
the Good Samaritan are your hands and my hands. The compassionate gaze of Christ
is offered to people today through your eyes and my eyes. Christ takes our hands
and uses them to tend to the wounds of those who lie by the roadside in our
world. Christ the Good Samaritan acts through you and me, as we learn what it
means to be neighbor to those around us.

“The Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved
with compassion at the sight. He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over
his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him
to an inn and cared for him.”
Lord Jesus, risen with the marks of your crucifixion, you have
been Good Samaritan to us, you have been neighbor to me. Show me how to become
neighbor to those to whom you send me this day. Remind me to stop and not to
rush on in haste. Give me your eyes to look with compassion on those in need.
Give me your hands to tend to the wounds of those who need to see you in seeing
me. For I want to be a friend to you, and a neighbor to them. Renew in me the
grace of your friendship that will enable me to be neighbor to those around
me.

Reflection during the week (Online Bible Resource)

Tuesday – Read the parable of the Good Samaritan again. Think about the
moments in your own life in which you have been the person in need and Christ
has stopped for you. How has that happened for you? Express your thanks to
Christ for being the Good Samaritan in your life.

Wednesday – Read Matthew 25: 31-46. This famous scene of the Last
Judgment in Matthew bears similarities to the parable of the Good Samaritan in
Luke. Christ explicitly identifies himself with those who suffer from hunger,
thirst, homelessness, imprisonment, etc. In responding to them we are responding
to Christ. In your prayer, think about one or two people in your own life who
need you to be neighbor to them at the present moment. Pray for these people and
ask Christ for the grace to know how to be Good Samaritan to them.

Thursday --  Read Matthew 28: 16-20.  This is the scene of the
“great commissioning” in which the Risen Jesus sends out his disciples to
continue his work in the world, promising to be with them always in that work.
As you draw this retreat to a close, ask the Lord for deeper insight into your
own participation in his mission. How is Christ calling you to share the grace
of this retreat with others to whom he sends you?

Friday – Read Ephesians 3: 14-21. We reflected on this Scripture passage
during the first week of retreat. How has this experience of retreat enabled you
to come to a deeper appreciation of the love of Christ that surpasses all
knowledge? What have the graces of this retreat experience been for you? Give
thanks to God for those graces. Renew your commitment to friendship with Christ
and to service in his name.