Dear Parishioners and Visitors,

If you go to dictionary.com and type in the phrase “good Samaritan,” it will give you the definition “one who is compassionate and helpful to a person in distress.”  For some reason, I get a big kick out of it when a word or phrase from the Bible has become so widely used that it ends up in a dictionary of the English language.  It makes me happy when I see that such expressions have become part of our everyday speech, to be used by believers and unbelievers alike.  Other examples include “doubting Thomas,” “writing on the wall,” “an eye for an eye,” and “salt of the earth.”

Going back to “good Samaritan,” dictionary.com cites the Gospel of this Sunday as the source of the expression.  As we hear this Sunday, Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan to answer the question of a scholar of the law.  The scholar identifies the Second Great Commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and then asks Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?”

By telling this parable, in which a Samaritan is the “good guy,” Jesus must have surprised the scholar whom he was speaking with.  The people in that part of the world didn’t think much of Samaritans.  It would have made more sense to them if the priest or the Levite in Jesus’ story turned out to be the helpful, compassionate person.  By making the Samaritan an example of mercy and compassion, Jesus teaches that anyone can be our neighbor, and we should act like neighbors to everyone.  And since we are all neighbors, the commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself” is a call to universal love.

It’s no secret that some folks are easier to love than others.  Jesus addresses this in the Sermon on the Mount: “If you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same?  And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same?”  (Mt. 5:46-47) Jesus calls us to love everyone, including those who do not treat us well.  And in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, he calls our attention especially to those who are in distress, those whose need is particularly serious.

Such people are all around us.  Their distress takes different forms.  Let’s be compassionate towards all of them.  Let’s be helpful to all of them.  Let’s love them the way we would want others to love us.

Blessings,

Fr. Philip