A Reflection on the Good Samaritan

Christ gave us the powerful Parable of the Good Samaritan. Why is it powerful? Why are his words extraordinary? If we wish to understand the context of the Parable, we must take into consideration a few facts. Going to Luke 10, we read "And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, 'Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?' He said to him, 'What is written in the law? How do you read?'And he answered, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.' And he said to him, 'You have answered right; do this, and you will live' But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, 'And who is my neighbor?' Jesus replied, 'A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, `Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.'  'Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?' He said, 'The one who showed mercy on him." And Jesus said to him, 'Go and do likewise.'" (Luke 10: 25-37).

St. Augustine gave us an interpretation which you can read here. Augustine interpreted the parable allegorically in terms of the providential salvation plan in which the robbed man represents Adam and his offspring, the robbers represent Satan and his angels who wounded the man and left him half dead, Christ is the Samaritan who saves man from his fall and eternal death and the Church is the hotel that ministers to man in her teachings and the sacraments received from Christ thus opening the gates of heaven. Through Christ, the fear of hell was changed to the hope in heaven...

But why does Christ use a Samaritan as an example to teach the Jews? The Samaritans were for long considered enemies of the Jews since, according to Jewish tradition, the Samaritans accepted the Pagan deities after the Babylonian conquest of the Holy Land. Now we can appreciate the contrast intended by Christ.

Back to the parable, we note in the sacred text how the lawyer puts Christ to the test and the way of Christ answering a question with a question like the teachers of Israel. In an article in Al-Macarrat, December 2010, Mona Ebeid, PhD., speaks of Luke's three-dimensions structure of the above parable. For Jews, she writes, the Samaritan was considered a man who is: 1. stranger; 2.  heretic (not in the right faith); 3. harmful. This is why mentioning a Samaritan for a Jew was considered an insult. The parable starts with a three-pronged criminal act: 1. The robbers strip the man; 2. They beat him; 3. They leave him half-dead. The next section shows three persons who happen to see the mortally wounded man by coincidence: 1. A priest; 2. A Levite; 3. A Samaritan.  Yet, in a very strong reaction, the priest and levite both escape the man fearing that they would become impure if they touch him. They take the opposite road while when a travelling Samaritan "saw him  he had compassion." Luke explains in three steps how the Samaritan treated the wounded man with compassion:  Not knowing the identity of the wounded man, the Samaritan first of all: 1. went to him; 2. bound up his wounds; 3. poured oil and wine on his wounds as a medicine. Second: 1. set this patient on his own beast; 2. took him to an inn; 3. took care of the stranger patient staying over night with him. And third, on the next day, he  took out two denarii; 2. gave them to the innkeeper; 3. asked the innkeeper to take care of this patient until he comes back. The Samaritan promised to pay whatever more money the innkeeper would have to spend.

At the end, Jesus returns back the question, like a rabbi, with a deeper question to the lawyer who knows the Law! Which of these three proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?'And the lawyer ignores the word Samaritan again fearing for contradicting the rules of division of Jews against non-Jews. The lawyer only answers with the ambiguous words  'The one who showed mercy on him.' And Jesus respecting the lawyer's fear said to him, 'Go and do likewise' and did not condemn him.

Since we all are on a journey in this life, the entire parable is about risking myself to save another who is in need. The road from Jerusalem to Jericho is a "road of blood." I cannot travel it alone! I need the others and they also need me. I see people who risk their savings to win a lottery or invest in the stock market, but how many risk their savings to help build the lives of others or to help others who are addicted to sexual pleasure or those addicted to drugs? Building churches is secondary to building the community of families. Everyone in this world needs to reassess his priorities to contribute in saving people he knows. A good example is "Physicians without borders" - an international organization of doctors who volunteer to save people caught in tragic wars.  

I am of the opinion that Jesus reverses the entire priority of loving God first then loving your neighbor; for God is here in this neighbor. Second, it is clear that the Samaritan, the enemy, is closer to God than the practicing Jew of his time or any one who claims to be close to God. The teaching of Christ "Love your enemies" makes sense now; for true Christians have no enemy. A true Christian loves everyone as he loves himself. By loving himself in the proper way he goes out of himself (exit) and there he finds the other - every other whom he meets anywhere he happens to be. And he loves the other as much as he has loved himself. Only then he discovers God who loved all humans created in his image since the beginning. A true
Christian, unlike us or me, does not condemn anyone and does not judge anyone. A true Christian would not hate Muslims or Jews or Hindus or atheists. He only hates evil. In fact this is what I think the Second Vatican Council taught; for we always are in need of repentance and reconciliation; and the Church always needs reform from within. Christians need to love each other so that they may attain the full unity they seek and then they can testify to Christ as one body. This is what the master taught!

Why Information Technology is Important

I started recently giving courses in information systems. The development of information systems is a global phenomenon. Almost all publications in the Western world have now a virtual version that reaches out to researchers as well as to the average reader. The cost of publishing online has decreased in the past decade while publishing hard copies has become less popular. Amazon.com is a leading example of online marketing and sales of books, DVDs, computers, and other technology items.

Jesus of Nazareth - True God from True God!

Jesus was by far the most extraordinary man who lived on earth. He is the only one who claimed to be God, yet knelt before men and washed their feet. If his claim to divinity is true, then think again who is the God that you and I worship. This is not the God who thunders and curses men but the God who forgives and blesses his followers and enemies alike. If God really chose a manger to be born among us and announced his incarnation first to uneducated shepherds in the field, then this God must be different from the Sun that no one with his eyes can stare into.  Yet, strangely enough, he was somehow prefigured in the ancient civilizations that surely enough Persian astrologists sought him and Greek sages attempted imitating him. Nearly every other great religious or cultural leader attempted to imitate him or denigrate him, yet he survived all their attempts. Before his icon millions kneel every day, and in the Eucharist millions receive him unaware of his glory! But above all, Jesus opened the Jewish tradition to the entire world; for he himself healed the child of the Canaanite woman considered impure and unworthy in Israel. He providentially went to Samaria, and healed their people when he stayed there although his followers first suspected "How can a Jewish man talk to a Samaritan woman?" The parables uttered by Jesus are extraordinary in an ordinary form; for if we read the "Good Samaritan" we are filled with wonders and if we discern the great love of the father of the "Lost Son" we find joy in heaven that fills us with joy. The great news of the gospel are those of the Resurrection of Christ as he appeared to many and not only to few and therefore gave reassurance to his disciples to go in the known world and suffer as their teacher suffered and die as he died for the truth. This is only the beginning. We shall continue!

2013 - The Year of Faith?

In October 2012, Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed a Year of Faith commemorating the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Second Vatican Council.
What is more fitting to start the new year than with the beauty of Palestrina's "Kyrie" in the "Missa Papae Marcelli"? Listen to this extraordinary polyphonic music composition of Giovanni Palestrina of the 16th century Renaissance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIcrgNtyX0U

Listening to this sacred music lifts up the heart to God in praise and thanks for his creation. Beauty can never be hidden or eclipsed because it is the work of God. Humans express it in painting, architecture, videos, theater works, literature and above all in the "angelic" language: music. In abstract mathematical expressions too, there is, according to scientists, certain elegance that stimulates a feeling of satisfaction. For thousands of years, cosmologists have been watching the movement of great stars in the cosmos as a sign of wonder. Wonder is the cause not only of poetic expressions but also of scientific explorations. It seems that as scientists advance in understanding the complex relationships in living organisms and in physics they also advance in appreciating the beauty of the very small constituents of the universe. Quantum physics revealed certain communication between sub-atomic particles over large distances. The complexification of the living cell and its relationship to the growth of organisms is another finding in molecular biology that shows the development from the very small to the large. Much of scientific advances in space exploration, nuclear energy, manufacturing, and medicine,  has been made using computing systems which test the movement of objects through simulation and artificial intelligence machines.  Yet, the most significant advances today are taking place in communication networks that transform the entire global economy into one global village.

Why are we never settled in life? Why do we always wonder about finding more beauty in creation? What drives us to explore things? Probably because we search for the perfect beauty: The search for God.

In Genesis it is written "God looked at everything he had made, and found it very good" (Gen 1: 31). God's creation is good.  When we contemplate the beauty of his creation, we feel the hands of a loving God who cares and, according to our Christian belief, he died so that we can live with him. But we will never rest until we rest in God according to Augustine. The faith that moves mountains grows gradually as we contemplate the creation of God and his works; and in eternal life the elect will contemplate God himself in his limitless beauty. We give thanks to God as Palestrina did in his music even when there are troubles around. And God is still working in the world (John 5, 17). The drama of God is that he cannot rest until we rest in him. Let us thank him. This is the beginning of faith!

Pope Benedict XVI: 2012 Christmas Message

Dear brothers and sisters in Rome and throughout the world, a happy Christmas to you and your families!

In this Year of Faith, I express my Christmas greetings and good wishes in these words taken from one of the Psalms: "Truth has sprung out of the earth". Actually, in the text of the Psalm, these words are in the future: "Kindness and truth shall meet; / justice and peace shall kiss. / Truth shall spring out of the earth, /and justice shall look down from heaven. / The Lord himself will give his benefits; / our land shall yield its increase. / Justice shall walk before him, / and salvation, along the way of his steps" (Ps 85:11-14).

Today these prophetic words have been fulfilled! In Jesus, born in Bethlehem of the Virgin Mary, kindness and truth do indeed meet; justice and peace have kissed; truth has sprung out of the earth and justice has looked down from heaven. Saint Augustine explains with admirable brevity: "What is truth? The Son of God. What is the earth? The flesh. Ask whence Christ has been born, and you will see that truth has sprung out of the earth . truth has been born of the Virgin Mary" (En. in Ps. 84:13). And in a Christmas sermon he says that "in this yearly feast we celebrate that day when the prophecy was fulfilled: 'truth shall spring out of the earth, and justice shall look down from heaven'. The Truth, which is in the bosom of the Father has sprung out of the earth, to be in the womb of a mother too. The Truth which rules the whole world has sprung out of the earth, to be held in the arms of a woman ... The Truth which heaven cannot contain has sprung out of the earth, to be laid in a manger. For whose benefit did so lofty a God become so lowly? Certainly not for his own, but for our great benefit, if we believe" (Sermones, 185, 1).

"If we believe". Here we see the power of faith! God has done everything; he has done the impossible: he was made flesh. His all-powerful love has accomplished something which surpasses all human understanding: the Infinite has become a child, has entered the human family. And yet, this same God cannot enter my heart unless I open the door to him. Porta fidei! The door of faith! We could be frightened by this, our inverse omnipotence. This human ability to be closed to God can make us fearful. But see the reality which chases away this gloomy thought, the hope that conquers fear: truth has sprung up! God is born! "The earth has yielded its fruits" (Ps 67:7). Yes, there is a good earth, a healthy earth, an earth freed of all selfishness and all lack of openness. In this world there is a good soil which God has prepared, that he might come to dwell among us. A dwelling place for his presence in the world. This good earth exists, and today too, in 2012, from this earth truth has sprung up! Consequently, there is hope in the world, a hope in which we can trust, even at the most difficult times and in the most difficult situations. Truth has sprung up, bringing kindness, justice and peace.

Yes, may peace spring up for the people of Syria, deeply wounded and divided by a conflict which does not spare even the defenceless and reaps innocent victims. Once again I appeal for an end to the bloodshed, easier access for the relief of refugees and the displaced, and dialogue in the pursuit of a political solution to the conflict.

May peace spring up in the Land where the Redeemer was born, and may he grant Israelis and Palestinians courage to end to long years of conflict and division, and to embark resolutely on the path of negotiation.

In the countries of North Africa, which are experiencing a major transition in pursuit of a new future - and especially the beloved land of Egypt, blessed by the childhood of Jesus - may citizens work together to build societies founded on justice and respect for the freedom and dignity of every person.

May peace spring up on the vast continent of Asia. May the Child Jesus look graciously on the many peoples who dwell in those lands and, in a special way, upon all those who believe in him. May the King of Peace turn his gaze to the new leaders of the People's Republic of China for the high task which awaits them. I express my hope that, in fulfilling this task, they will esteem the contribution of the religions, in respect for each, in such a way that they can help to build a fraternal society for the benefit of that noble People and of the whole world.

May the Birth of Christ favour the return of peace in Mali and that of concord in Nigeria, where savage acts of terrorism continue to reap victims, particularly among Christians. May the Redeemer bring help and comfort to the refugees from the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and grant peace to Kenya, where brutal attacks have struck the civilian population and places of worship.

May the Child Jesus bless the great numbers of the faithful who celebrate him in Latin America. May he increase their human and Christian virtues, sustain all those forced to leave behind their families and their land, and confirm government leaders in their commitment to development and fighting crime.

Dear brothers and sisters! Kindness and truth, justice and peace have met; they have become incarnate in the child born of Mary in Bethlehem. That child is the Son of God; he is God appearing in history. His birth is a flowering of new life for all humanity. May every land become a good earth which receives and brings forth kindness and truth, justice and peace. Happy Christmas to all of you!

------

Copyright Vatican Publishing House