15th Sunday Year C - Good Samaritan

In the Gospel parable today, a man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, who was robbed, attacked and left half dead. None of his fellow Jews stopped to help him. Because it seemed like nobody cared about him, he could be tempted to lose confidence in humanity. It’s a horrible feeling, to feel unloved and no one is willing to help you.

However, a non-Jew, a Samaritan, helped the victim by taking him on his mule to an inn. He was moved by compassion and poured oil and wine on his wounds and bandaged them. He not only brought healing to his wounds, but even more importantly the Good Samaritan poured love on the injured man’s psychological and emotional wound, and that love would be just as important and even more for healing than the bandages, oil and wine.

The Samaritans were people who lived in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Samaria was located between Galilee in the north and Judea in the south. The Samaritans were a racially mixed society with Jewish and pagan ancestry. Because of their imperfect adherence to Judaism and their partly pagan ancestry, the Samaritans were despised by ordinary Jews. Rather than contaminate themselves by passing through Samaritan territory, Jews traveling from Judea to Galilee or vice versa would cross over the river Jordan, bypass Samaria by going through Transjordan, and cross over the river again as they neared their destination.

The Samaritans harbored a deep dislike toward the Jews. When Jesus used this parable, He wanted to point out the failure of Jews to help fellow Jews. Our Lord also wanted to show the Jews, that non-Jews, Samaritans, could do something very loving and compassionate, while at the same time showing Jews, they are failing to love others as they ought. Jesus wanted to change the Jewish attitude toward Samaritans and to discontinue passing them through a different region to avoid them.

The Lord Jesus wante everyone to treat their neighbor, as they would want to be treated (Jews and non-Jews including Samaritans), who they despised and avoided.

This parable is given to all people in every day and time to show us we are to love God with all our heart, all our being, all our strength and all our mind, and love our neighbor as oneself.

When the scholar asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?”, Jesus gave the parable to include those from a different culture, race and faith, so as to consider everyone as neighbor. When we fail to love our neighbor, we are really failing to love God as we ought.

Today, when we use the phrase, "Good Samaritan", we refer to someone who selflessly helps others, especially strangers in need.

When anyone is in need, strangers can cause others to want to love and care for others like they do.

When I was living in Alabama, there was an elderly lady, who daily attended Mass at the monastery of nuns. Unfortunately, the woman was racist. On occasion she made negative comments about black people.

One day, she was in a car accident and became unconscious due to her hitting her head on the windshield. When she woke up, there was an African American who helped her out of her car and because she was a small woman, he held her in his arms and was rocking her, telling her, “Everything is going to be alright.” She said the next thing she knew, she was in an ambulance. Before departing for the hospital, she told the EMTs, she wanted to thank that black man for being so kind to her. But the ambulance crew said there was no one there. But the woman insisted that there was. She said saw him, and he was a black man. She later called the man her angel. After her experience, she was no longer racist.

When I was in high school, I was working at our farm and accidentally tore a gash on my arm from a barbwire fence and it was bleeding much. As I was walking back to the farm, along the highway, I was holding pressure on the injury to prevent it from bleeding, a semi truck drove by and the driver saw that I was injured. The man pulled off the road and came up to me and asked if he could take me to the hospital, but I refused. After the man left, I realized how kind it was that he stopped to help.

I’m sure some of you experienced a good Samaritan when a stranger changed their flat tire or you were the good Samaritan and helped someone change their tire.

I was in Walmart a few years ago, looking at eyeglasses in their optometry department. I noticed a woman came to pick up her eyeglasses and she barely had enough money to pay for them. A stranger walked up to her and said, “Sweetheart, let me pay for your eyeglasses.” The kind gentlemen wrote out a check for $300 paying for the woman’s glasses. In tears the woman profusely thanked him.

My friends, don’t be afraid to help a stranger in need. The best medicine of all is love. If we don’t love those who need help, they remain wounded and hurt. Good Samaritans give the medicine of love that heals broken and battered hearts.

I encourage you to be a Good Samaritan, to be the stranger, and seek out those who need help, for by doing so, you are loving God with all our heart, all your mind, all your soul and all your strength and loving your neighbor as yourself. May the Virgin Mary pray for us, and help us love God and our neighbor as She did most perfectly.