While many were the precepts commanded under the Law, in the
Gospel the Saviour has imposed on us only those, and in a summary form,
which lead those who obey them to eternal life. And it is to this that
this question of the lawyer here refers, when he says: Master, what
must I do, to possess eternal life? And this is the lesson, from the
Gospel according to Luke, that has been read to you today. And the Lord
answered him in this way: What is written in the Law? How readest thou?
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and with thy whole
soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour
as thyself. And He said to him: Thou hast answered right. This do; and
thou shalt live.
There is no doubt that if you do this, concerning which the lawyer had
questioned the Lord, you shall receive eternal life. At the same time we
are clearly taught in this commandment of the Law that we are to love God.
In the Book of Deuteronomy it is written: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our
God is one Lord, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart,
and with thy whole soul, and the rest; and Thou shalt love thy neighbour
as thyself (Deut. vi. 4, 5; Lev. xix. 18). And the Saviour has given
testimony concerning these commandments, saying: On these two commandments
dependeth the whole law and the prophets (Mt. xxii. 40).
But the Doctor of the Law wishing to justify himself, and to show that
no one was his neighbour, saying; Who is my neighbour? the Lord
took occasion from this to speak a parable, which begins: A certain
man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and so on. And He teaches
us that no one was a neighbour to the man who was going down save he who
had chosen to keep the commandments, and to prepare himself, that he might
be a neighbour to any man who needed help. For this is what He laid down
on concluding the parable: Which of these three, in thy opinion, was
neighbour to him that fell among robbers? For neither the Priest nor
the Levite were his neighbours; but, as the lawyer himself had answered,
only he that shewed mercy, only he was a neighbour to him. And accordingly
the Saviour says to him: Go; and do thou in like manner.
A certain one of the Elders, interpreting the parable, said that the
man who went down is Adam; that Jerusalem means Paradise; Jericho,
the world; the robbers, the enemy powers; the Priest stood
for the Law; the Levite for the Prophets; the Samaritan for
Christ. The wounds stand for our disobedience. The beast,
the Body of the Lord. The common house (Pandochium), that is, the
inn, which receives all who wish to enter it, is interpreted as the
Church. Furthermore, the two denarii are understood to mean the
Father and the Son: the innkeeper, the Head of the Church, to whom
the plan of the redemption and its means has been entrusted. And concerning
that which the Samaritan promises at his return, this was a figure of the
Second Corning of the Saviour.
Though these things are reasonably and beautifully said, we must not
however believe they relate to every man. For not every man has gone down
from Jerusalem to Jericho, nor do all who dwell in this present world;
save He Who was sent, Who came for the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
The man therefore who came down from Jerusalem to Jericho, because He willed
to come, fell therefore among robbers. And the robbers are none other than
those of whom the Saviour says: All others who came before me, were
thieves and robbers (Jn. x. 8). But it was not among thieves he fell,
but among robbers, much worse than thieves, who, when the man on his way
down from Jerusalem fell among them, stripped him and wounded him. What
are those wounds? What are the injuries by which man was wounded? Vices
and sins. Then because the robbers who had stripped and wounded him did
nothing for the naked man, but wounding him again they left him, and so
the Scripture says: stripping him, and wounding him, they went away,
leaving him, not dead, but half dead.
And it chanced that first a priest, then a Levite, went down the same
way, who perhaps had done some good to other men, but not however to this
man, who had been on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho. For the priest
who saw him, let us say, the Law saw him. The Levite, I would say, stood
for prophecy. And seeing him they left him, and passed by. Providence was
keeping the half dead man for One Who was stronger than the Law and the
Prophets; for the Samaritan, which means, a guardian. This
is He Who guarding Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps (Ps. cxx. 4). This
Samaritan set out on his journey because of the half-dead man; not from
Jerusalem to Jericho, as the priest and the Levite descended; or if He
did go down, He went down for the reason that he might save and guard the
man who was about to die. To this Man the Jews had said: Thou art a
Samaritan and hast a devil (Jn. viii. 48). And though He denied He
had a devil, He did not deny He was a Samaritan. For He knew Himself to
be a Guardian.
And so when He came nigh to the half-dead man, and saw him lying in
his blood, moved by compassion He came near to him; to be a neighbour
to him. He bound up his wounds; He poured oil into them, mixed with wine;
nor did He say what we read in the Prophet: There is no salve to apply
to them, nor oil, nor binding (Is. i. 6, Sept.). This is the Samaritan,
Whose help and healing all need who are sick. And he above all needed this
Samaritan’s help, who going down from Jerusalem to Jericho had fallen among
robbers, and, wounded by them, had been abandoned half dead. But that you
may know that this Samaritan descended in accordance with God’s Providence,
to heal the one who had fallen among robbers, you shall be taught this
clearly from the fact that He had brought with him bandages, that He had
brought oil, that He had brought wine. And I believe that the Samaritan
carried these things with him, not solely for this one half-dead man, but
for others also who, for various reasons had been wounded, and would need
to have their wounds bound up, and would need both oil and wine. He had
with Him the oil of which it was written: That he may make the face
cheerful with oil (Ps. ciii. 15). And there is no doubt that He Who
had taken care of him, would also soothe with oil the swellings of his
wounds.
And, adding something pungent, He cleans the wounds with wine, and places
the man who had been wounded upon His own beast, that is, upon His own
Body, Which as Man He had deigned to assume. This Samaritan bears our sins,
and suffers for us, and lifts up the half-dead man, and brings him to an
inn, that is into the Church, which receives all men, and denies its help
to no one, and to which Jesus calls all men, saying: Come to me, all
you that labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you (Mt. xi. 28).
And after He brought him there, He did not at once disappear, but remains
at the inn for a day with the half-dead man, and takes care of his wounds
not only by day, but also by night; giving him every care and attention.
And when in the morning He was setting out, He takes from His own honest
silver, from His own honest money, two denarii, and pays the innkeeper;
no doubt the Angel of the Church; to whom He gives the command to care
for him diligently, and bring back to health this man whom He also, because
of the urgency of his need, had cared for. The two denarii seem
to me to be the knowledge of the Father and the Son, and the knowledge
of the mystery of how the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father,
which are given as a reward to the Angel, that he may take loving care
of the man entrusted to him. And He promises him that whatever of his own
he shall spend in healing of the half—slain man, shall there be repaid
him.
Truly was this Guardian of souls, Who had shown compassion to him who
fell among robbers, closer to him than the Law and the Prophets; showing
Himself a neighbour not only in name but in deed. From the words of Christ
that now follow it is possible therefore for us to imitate Christ, to have
compassion on those who have fallen among robbers, to draw near them, to
bind their wounds, pouring in oil and wine, to place them upon our own
beast, and bear their burthens. And so the Son of God, exhorting us to
like good works, says, not so much to the lawyer as to us also; Go;
and do thou in like manner. And if we do in like manner, we
shall come to the possession of eternal life in Christ Jesus, to Whom be
glory and honour for ever and ever. Amen.
