OT: Proverbs 4:10-12; 6:21; 7:15-17, 22, 26, 29; 2:1, 10-17, 19-22 Epistle: Hebrews 7:26-28; 8:1-2

Gospel: Luke 10:25-37 25On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 26"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?" 27He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 28"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live." 29But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" 30In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.' 36"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" 37The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him." Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."

A bishop noted once that “Christianity is mainly a Church.”  Today’s Gospel, the parable of the Good Samaritan (vss. 30-35), teaches us much about the relationship between practice of the Faith and the Church.  The Lord describes a traveler wounded by robbers and a compassionate Samaritan who rescues the half-dead assault victim, and invests his time, efforts, and resources to restore the injured man to life and health. 

In St. John Chrysostom’s analysis of this parable, the inn is a type of the Church-as-Hospital, and the Samaritan a type of Christ rescuing mankind.

St. John reframed the account of the Good Samaritan, enlarging the implications of the parable by changing it from an one-time act of kindness into an illustration of the redemptive acts of God the Word within our catastrophic spiritual state.  Mankind went down “from the heavenly state to the state of the devil’s deception, and fell among thieves, that is, the devil and the hostile powers.”  We are mortally wounded by sin.  As the Holy Prophet David says of his own sins, “My bruises are become noisome and corrupt in the face of my folly” (Ps. 37:5 LXX). 

Our sins leave us with “no health” in our flesh and “no peace” in our bones (Ps. 37:3 LXX).  Sin disturbs and disrupts our minds, our emotional life, our wills, and our bodies, debilitating them and leaving us gravely ill.  When we commit one sin, the chances of repeating the trespass are increased, for our thinking is “noisome” and filled with static, our emotions are aroused by wrong desires, and our wills are left weak and infirm.  Our ability to resist decreases as well as our capacity to choose the way of purity.  Thus we are alienated from the life of God. 

The Good Samaritan, as Christ our Lord, comes down from Heaven to earth specifically to heal us wounded men.  He finds us and pours in oil.  His oil, administered in Baptism, Chrismation, and Unction, heals through the mystical work of the Life-giving Spirit Who extends the healing of Christ, pours the Life of God into our bodies, souls, and spirits, and thereby heals our delusion, darkness and alienation.  St. John suggests that oil also is a way of speaking “of the comforting word...which brings concentration to the scattered mind.”

Next, the “Good Samaritan” pours in wine, offering us His pure blood for our battered souls.  As St. John says, “by mixing the Holy Spirit with His blood, He brought life to man.”  

Then Christ sets the man upon His own animal, or as John expands the thought: “Taking flesh upon His own divine shoulders, He lifted it toward the Father in Heaven.”  Then the Lord “brought him to an inn, and took care of him” (Lk. 10:34).  The Lord brings us poor travelers and pilgrims through this life, “into the wonderful and spacious inn, this universal Church.”

When considering the arrangement with the innkeeper for the man’s continuing care, St. John connects the innkeeper through the Apostle “Paul to the high priests and teachers and ministers of each church.”  And St. John understood the Blessed Apostle to be saying to the many ministers of the Church: “Take care of the people of the Gentiles whom I have given to you in the Church.  Since men are sick, wounded by sin, heal them, putting on them a stone plaster, that is, the Prophetic sayings and the Gospel teachings, making them whole through the admonitions and exhortations of the Old and New Testaments.” 

O Christ, Thou only Lover of mankind, purify us who are wounded on our journey through this world, and in Thy compassion, through the care of Thy Holy Church, pour in the oil and wine of Thy Holy Spirit, that we may receive eternal Life and healing for our souls.