ISB ~ Luke 10 v30 - 37

The parable of the Good Samaritan presents both a moral and a theological lesson. Morally, Jesus teaches that love for our neighbor must accompany our love for God. These together, and not one without the other, are indispensable for living in God’s friendship. Theologically, Jesus illustrates that holiness as defined by the Old Covenant is now surpassed by the holiness of the New. The priest and the Levite adhere to Israel’s purity laws, which forbade them from touching the corpses of anyone other than family members (Lev 21:1-3). They therefore chose to preserve their legal purity and so passed by the half dead victim. The Samaritan exemplifies this new standard of holiness, where God no longer requires his people to separate from others, but calls them to extend mercy to everyone in need and exclude no one on the grounds of prejudice, dislike, or even legal uncleanness as defined by the Torah (CCC 1825, 2447). See note on Lk 6:36.

• The parable recalls a similar story in 2 Chron 28:8-15, where the people of Judah were ravaged and captured by a northern Israelite army. Instead of taking them as prisoners, four men of Samaria had compassion on the Jews. Among their works of mercy, they “anointed” them, put them upon their “donkeys”, and took them peacefully to “Jericho”.

• Allegorically (St. Augustine, De Quaest. Evang. 2, 19):the parable signifies Christ’s restoration of mankind. Adam is the man attacked by Satan and his legions; he is stripped of his immortality and left dead in sin. The priest and the Levite represent the Old Covenant and its inability to restore man to new life. Jesus Christ comes as the Good Samaritan to rescue man from death and brings him to the inn of the Church for refreshment and healing through the sacraments.