The Good Samaritan

October 05,
2015Monday
27th Week
in Ordinary Time
1st reading:
Jonah 1.1 – 2.1, 10
Gospel: Luke 10:25-37
A teacher of the Law came and began putting Jesus to the test. And he said, “Master, what shall I do to receive eternal life?” Jesus replied, “What is written in the Scripture? How do you understand it?” The man answered, “It is written: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus replied, “What a good answer! Do this and you shall live.” The man wanted to keep up appearances, so he replied, “Who is my neighbor?”Jesus then said, “There was a man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him and went off leaving him half-dead.“It happened that a priest was going along that road and saw the man, but passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite saw the man and passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, too, was going that way, and when he came upon the man, he was moved with compassion. He went over to him and treated his wounds with oil and wine and wrapped them with bandages. Then he put him on his own mount and brought him to an inn where he took care of him. The next day he had to set off, but he gave two silver coins to the innkeeper and told him: ‘Take care of him and whatever you spend on him, I will repay when I come back.’”Jesus then asked, “Which of these three, do you think, made himself neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The teacher of the Law answered, “The one who had mercy on him.” And Jesus said, “Go then and do the same.”

D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in theAssimilated Life Experience)
The Jews thought that discipleship was exclusive to them. The Parable Jesus told them challenged this exclusivity by assigning the role of hero in the story to a non-Jew (a Samaritan). If you look closely at the two other characters in the story (the priest and the Levite), you might excuse them for not helping the victim. After all they were only observing the law. The law on ritual purity prohibited physical contact with the dead. They were in fact observing the law to perfection by not touching the victim even though he was only apparently dead. But this is not the point of the story. The parable was not meant to refute the validity of the law on ritual purity but to create a contrast. It was a non-Jew that came to the rescue of the victim. The contrast served to enshrine the law of charity to a plane higher than the Jewish law on ritual purity. – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.

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