Luke 10:25-37

Galatians 1:6-12

Psalm 111:1b-2, 7-8, 9 and 10c

Luke 10:25-37

There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said,

“Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law?

How do you read it?”

He said in reply,

“You shall love the Lord, your God,

with all your heart,

with all your being,

with all your strength,

and with all your mind,

and your neighbor as yourself.”

He replied to him, “You have answered correctly;

do this and you will live.”

But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, 

“And who is my neighbor?”

Jesus replied, 

“A man fell victim to robbers

as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.

They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead.

A priest happened to be going down that road,

but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.

Likewise a Levite came to the place,

and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.

But a 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.

The next day he took out two silver coins

and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction,

‘Take care of him.

If you spend more than what I have given you,

I shall repay you on my way back.’

Which of these three, in your opinion,

was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?”

He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.”

Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

Opening Prayer: Lord God, you are the perfection of mercy, and I need to imitate your merciful love. Help me to see the needs of my brothers and sisters and to be generous with my time, talent, and treasure.

Encountering the Word of God

1. Loving Our Neighbor: The Scribes and the Pharisees often sought to put Jesus to the test. They hoped that he would contradict himself or teach something against the Law. They hoped that this would prove his doctrine to be false. The lawyer in today’s passage thought that he was an expert in the law but showed that he was only a novice. He did not realize that before him stood not a mere man but the Son of God. Saint Cyril of Alexandria writes that the Christ was depicted in many ways in the Old Testament, but that this was hidden to the lawyer: “In many ways Emmanuel is depicted to you by the shadowing of Moses. You saw him there sacrificed as a lamb, yet conquering the destroyer and abolishing death by his blood. You saw him in the arrangement of the ark, in which the divine law was deposited. In his holy flesh, he was as in an ark, being the Word of the Father, the Son that was begotten of him by nature. You saw him as the mercy seat in the holy tabernacle, around which stood the seraphim. He is our mercy seat for pardon of our sins” (Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke, Homily 68).

2. Jesus, the Good Samaritan: Jesus responded to the lawyer’s question by reaffirming that the Torah is the way to life and eternal life. The two commandments of love for God and love for neighbor are the heart of the law. The lawyer, however, wanted to justify himself and asked about who qualifies as his neighbor. Saint Jerome comments that every human being is our neighbor and that we should not harm anyone. As well, the one who shows pity acts as a neighbor. Neither the priest nor the Levite was the man’s neighbor. If we keep the commandments, then we are prepared to help everyone in need. Most of the Fathers of the Church read the parable in the light of Christ. They see that Jesus is the Good Samaritan, that the oil and the wine are the Sacraments of the Church, and that the inn is the Church itself. God’s mercy is found in the Sacraments. As well, Saint Ambrose saw that the “next day” is the day of the Lord’s Resurrection. The two coins are the Old and the New Testaments, which contain the revelation of our eternal King, by whose wounds we are healed. Christ’s blood redeemed us so that we may avoid the sores of final death (Ambrose, Exposition of the Gospel of Luke).

3. Paul Defends His Gospel in the Letter to the Galatians: Paul likely wrote the Letter to the Galatians to defend his gospel against opponents who suggested that Paul preached a false gospel and to respond to those who held circumcision and ceremonial laws of the Old Covenant as indispensable requirements for salvation. Although Paul’s opponents “professed to be Christians, they felt that Paul's gospel of ‘faith working through love’ (5:6) was incomplete without the ritual observances of the Mosaic Law. The success that these Judaizers enjoyed in Galatia forced Paul to respond with a vigorous defense of the gospel (1:11-20) and a sophisticated explanation of how the New Covenant inaugurated by Christ dispenses with the ceremonies of the Old (chaps. 3-4)” (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament, 329). In his letter, Paul was astonished at how quickly the Galatians turned from the true Gospel he preached to a false and different Gospel. Paul argued that he received the Gospel not from another man but through a revelation of Jesus Christ. His Gospel has a divine origin, and he lives to preach the Gospel and serve the Kingdom of God.

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you are the Good Samaritan. You came to your own people and were rejected by them. This did not deter you. You offered your life, gave without reserve, and died on the Cross for us. Bring me to share in your passion and suffering so that I may give myself in love to those in need.

Living the Word of God: Today, we learn many important lessons. From the Gospel of Luke, we are reminded that love is the way that leads to life. We are called to love not just our friends or relatives or countrymen but all men and women. When we fall, we can always trust in the mercy of God, communicated to us through the Sacraments. From the Letter to the Galatians, we learn to accept and welcome the Gospel as preached by the Apostles, a Gospel that teaches us the way of the true freedom of the children of God.