thoughts on the good samaritan

Dehumanizing rhetoric and shrinking understandings of what we owe each other contribute to what Pope Francis calls a “throwaway culture.” We disregard those we see as different, as other, as not belonging to us. God seems, as of yet, not to have deigned to grant me any great Grace for understanding Scripture. Thoughts on living the Jesus way. THe best scripture reading is done when we place ourselves in the story. Here are 10 things… The man has suggested that salvation is in his power to accomplish. issue here. Thus in the end the love of God and neighbor are expansive loves that go beyond the ability of the unaided flesh to do. As for the answer, the synoptics all record the summation of the law as love of God (Deut.6:5) and love of neighbour (Lev.19:18). You are free to rebut my postion with a different view but I would avoid saying there is “nothing” in my point of view. Through a veil of tears, I recall a kind hand reaching for me and helping me to my feet. The term “Good Samaritan” today refers to a person who helps others in a random act of kindness. Fantastic! Jesus will not accept the reductionist demands of the flesh and its legalism. . 4. Social fragmentation and fragility continues: by sex, gender, and sexual orientation; by class and creed; by ethnicity and race; by nationality and legal status; by age and ability, etc. But as is always the case with scripture, there is more at work here than the merely obvious interpretation. Notes on Luke 10:25-27 That is why we have to die to our self and allow Jesus Christ to live his life in us. All I ask is that you might might admit that there are other possible views. The Good Samaritan is a parable told by Jesus to an expert in the law, which was later recorded by Luke in his historical gospel account. 8 Trample my courts no more! Fratelli Tutti suggests that it might be time to set aside “the rational criteria elaborated in earlier centuries to speak of the possibility of a ‘just war’,” given that “its risks will probably always be greater than its supposed benefits” (258). Hence, I appraciate your additions and distinctions as I have often said since they complete the picture. If we call ourselves Christians, then we have to evaluate the depth of our commitment to “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:37). What I wrote is a sermon not an article in a scholarly journal. It just so happens that Matthew (22:34-40, another misfired sparring match) and Mark (12:28-34, a beautiful encounter) both have Our Lord saying it, whereas Luke has the scholar say it. God bless everyone and thank you again monsignor Pope. A Samaritan, from a race hated by the Jews, saw the hurt man and had compassion on him. 3. . Come now, let us set things right, says the LORD: Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow; Though they be crimson red, they may become white as wool. He went back to Samaria and minded his business, and never told anybody “I helped a poor Jew on the road.” Not he. Applied more broadly as a social vision, a Good Samaritan society emphasizes the vulnerability and incapacity of the poor; they are not wretches yearning to breathe free, but wounded wretches poor and simple. We are out of the hospital now but still looking and praying for the much needed medicine assistance to cure the congested lungs and possible heart failure. They receive a new heart and a new mind, the heart and mind of Christ. trans. Focus on Jesus Series And probably give herself heart failure from the shock.”, “Deep wounds are not easily healed. Yes, and my point is that we cannot keep the commandments (except in a perfunctory way) without grace. Bain you know I am not saying that there are never any rights and wrongs about biblical exegesis and that any and every point must have something in it. Each one of us can go and do likewise.”, “[In the story of the Good Samaritan,] everybody knows the robber is bad--but doesn't Jesus also imply an indictment on the priest and Levite? . Or the Good Samaritan? I’ll put money in the collection plate after I pay my mortgage, Sears bill, magazine subscriptions and see what is left over. You are just far too absolutist in your position at this point and I see no need to trash my whole interpretation based on what you have said. So God barely gets leftovers from most people and that includes many who describe themselves as religious. expectations merely reflects who we are, sinners in need of a Savior. in Jewish thinking entrance into the messianic kingdom was equated with How many times have you heard the phrase, “Good Samaritan”? We the truely devout may be few Father, but we need you and all the good men who have given so much to try to help us see the way to heaven. . (Titus 2:12; 2 Tim 2:15; Eph 3). Because he thinks that eternal life is somehow in his power to obtain it he looks more and more foolish as the interaction goes on. In the story, a Jew was robbed and left to die by his assailants. I remembered another comment around this story, which went something like this: “The Good Samaritan not only had good intentions, he also had the money to implement them”. . As we discussed in several previous bible studies such as at This_Link, God creates every person to be his provider assistant. It is important to note those formulations, but also to grasp the larger social vision that the pope proposes. .    church@highlandpc.com What keeps us from drawing near those we consider “other” or outside our network of belonging? That meant they believed We ought to be in Church every Sunday, financially support the word of God, pray and so one. I remember how badly it stung, the cold air hitting my bleeding wounds; I felt that I couldn’t stand up for the pain. The Priest on EWTN in his homily on the Good Samaritan said the good samaritan was God who though Jesus crossed the road, meaning He came to earth in the flesh, the half-dead man is mankind who through the sin of Adam was half dead in sin; the priest and Levite who pass the half dead man represented the old law, and old testament; the samaritan was technically a Jew, but of mixed blood, and not readily accepted by the Jews; Jesus picked up the man and took him to the inn which is the Church, and the inn keeper the Father of the Church; and the payment Jesus made was the actual payment He paid with His body and blood, then Jesus ends the parable with a promise to return. You started out OK saying I went too far and was too harsh. I’ll pray, if I have time left over at the end of my busy worldly day. The parable doesn’t address the legal definition of “neighbour” (the trap the scholar had set) but, very precisely, what is one to DO – what does the law of love entail? Reformed scholar William Hendrickson writes, "�If any human being would actually Excellent homily, Father. Dear Monsignor, thank you for discussing the matter with me in your gentle and generous way as always. Even through that people’s disobedience, God was purposefully fathering mankind. And we haven’t even considered loving our neighbor yet! When you come in to visit me, who asks these things of you? . She will be delivered by her rejected son, when he “. What, then, is wrong? Here are 10 things we too often miss in this story: With this story, Jesus issues a radical challenge to his followers: there are no non-neighbors. By depicting a Samaritan helping a Jew, Jesus could not have found a more forceful way to say that anyone at all in need - regardless of race, politics, class, and religion - is your neighbour. A society that seeks prosperity but turns its back on suffering” (65). But Pope Francis “chooses to start” after the crimes have already taken place, when the refugees need to be received. You read the phrase “he wished to justify himself” (Lk.10:29) as a denial of the need for grace, but the legal scholar wanted to vindicate himself dialectically, surely. To be truly good means being a good neighbor. Lk.7:35, 17:15) has nothing to do with the doctrine of justification by grace, but pertains, rather, to the dialectical setting: as where we might say “he wanted to show it was a justifiable question”. But it was God’s chosen ones that gave me hope and pointed me towards Jesus and his Church, where in time I was healed and made whole. You have freely presented another view and have articulated it well. . Neighbor cuts across national, ethnic, religious and political boundaries to encompass…..everyone. A Church-cum-NGO has given into a “demonic worldliness,” according to the Holy Father. nine in ten Americans saying the nation is more divided now than at any point in their lifetime, Only four percent of both parties think the other side is fair and even fewer describe them as thoughtful or kind, Christians are more than twice as likely as non-Christians to blame the poor for their financial struggles, Half of Catholics say the U.S. does not have a responsibility to welcome refugees. Your first response to my article was more inclusive and raised the thought that there was some more at work here than what I had set forth. The Samaritan replaces judgment with compassion, fear with courage, self-interest with generosity, and separation with solidarity.