In today's Gospel, the parable of the Good Samaritan, we see Our Lord describing for us a most important aspect of the Kingdom of God which is present in Jesus's person/ministry and will unfold throughout the centuries. The parable is prompted by a question from a legal scholar, "What must I do to inherit eternal life." The scholar answers Jesus correctly according to the written law. But then the scholar goes on to portray something of his soul which manifests to Our Lord a deep lacking, not of just this partuicular scholar but of corporate Israel herself. For we read that the man sought to "justify" himself in asking  "Who is my neighbor?" In other words, the scholar being a righteous Jew, knew very well that "neighbor" meant " a fellow Jew not in a state of ritual  impurity." Furthermore, as a Jew, he knew that "neighbor" did not include gentiles and Samaritans. The scholar sought to have Jesus endorse his narrow concept of neighbor,that is,to thereby justify the scholar's and Israel's viewpoint. But Our Lord, knowing all things, knew that the scholar and Israel held to a much too restricted concept of neighbor. This had to be massively changed, for the Kingdom of God is not like that at all.

For Our Lord came to reconcile all peoples to Himself and to each other, to make all neighbors of all. Isreal had all along struggled against the core meaning of her vocation and election which was to be a light to all nations, to fulfill the Abrahamic promises by bringing universal salvation through the Messiah. This universality would correct the prevailing view of neighbor and utterly redefine the meaning of " neighbor" forever. So what a shock and embarrassment to the scholar in hearing Our Lord's parable of the Kingdom by which He answers the scholar's original question of eternal life. In essence Our Lord is  saying: " This unacceptable outsider Samaritan who you do not regard as neighbor - not only is he 'good' despite being a 'bad' Samaritan, but he is also your neighbor! Furthermore, the two other 'good' Jews in my parable were, in fact, not good for they ignored the injured man who is also neighbor! Now as to your question of etrenal life, it comes to those who follow Me as dispenser of mercy to the world, that is, to neighbor!"  Under Jesus's prompting the scholar now answers his own original question : he enjoys eternal life who shows mercy in all its various forms to neighbor especially those outside your own circle!

Now, let's today ask who counts as neighbor for me? Who do I see in need of my binding up their wounds and being cared for? Do I harbor in my soul a too restricted view of neighbor? Do I have my own list of outsider Samaritans? Who among me do I know to be in need of Jesus's mercy being extended to them? What about those who have left the Church, detractors of the faith, atheists or secular humanists, homosexuals...yes, sinners, prostitutes, and tax collectors! Do they count as neighbor for me ? Our Lord tells us to be mercy and to be neighbor; the two are inextricably entwined! He says to us, " Go and do likewise."

These comments do strike a cord.  In a lot of ways. In one part of the scripture and in fact a recent mass reading Christ told the 72 if they were not welcomed or received in a town or home for them to shake the dust of their sandals.  So I can in a way see where pouliot is coming from.  But I keep hearing in my head the greatest commandment Christ gave us.  "Love one another".  And with that in mind we are all "neighbors".

A week ago this past Sunday I was part of a good example of that.  While at a theater to watch a movie with my family a gentleman in back of us had a heart attack.  About 4 of us alternated doing CPR until the medics came and then we helped carry him to the stretcher.  No one asked who he was, his race was not considered, where he lived was not given a thought, and we didn't even care what his relgion was.  All of us just wanted to give the man another shot at life. 

He was our neighbor.

Tarheel

Your neighbor is everyone.  Matthew 5, 6, 7.  Matthew 25:31 - 46

No one excluded. 

I recall a Divine Mercy prayer,

O Lord, behold here before You a soul who exists in this world in order to allow You to exercise Your admirable MERCY and manifest it before heaven and earth.

Others may glorify You through their faithfulness and perseverance, thus making evident the power of Your grace. How sweet and generous You are to those who are faithful to You!

Nevertheless, I will glorify You by acquainting others of Your goodness to sinners and by reminding them that
Your MERCY is above all malice, that nothing can exhaust it, and that no relapse, no matter how shameful or criminal, should allow the sinner to despair of forgiveness.

I have offended You grievously, O Beloved Redeemer, but it would be still worse if I were to offend You by thinking that You were lacking in goodness to forgive me. I would rather He deprive me of everything else than the TRUST I have in Your Mercy.

Should I fall a hundred times or should my crimes be a hundred times worse that they actually are, I would
continue to trust in Your MERCY. Amen

RE: "Is there any relevance in your comment pertaining to my post or to the parable ? etc."

relevance?

Yes.  Your post made an absolute statement. As such it requires only a single counter-example to undermine it.

...anyone in the parable...?

No.  It seemed to me that you were generalizing the parable to fit your own agenda.

...there are those who may not count...

Certainly.  My mind is not so open to any form of behavior that everything in it falls out...

Our Lord's parable is a clarion call for us to enlarge our concept of who is neighbor?

To me it appears your understanding of the parable is clouded by overinterpretation.

Are you willing to say there are those who you are willing to write off as "swine" and adamant sinners;

Absolutely.  I have but one life.  If I spend all of it with those who refuse to be open to the Gospel, I will likely miss a necessary conversation with someone else who is open.  In writing some off, I only follow the counsel given to the 70 who went out at Jesus' command but who were told to consider their reception accordingly.  It is always risky to take into our consideration only one part of the New Testament to the exclusion of other parts.

...do not deserve to have the mercy of the Gospel presented and re-presented to them even in the face of a stubborn recalcitrance?

No, but not by me.  God will address the matter as always, but I would not presume to be the vehicle for that.  St. Francis of Assisi went to the Muslims and tried to convince them of Chirst.  He came away with his life and with permission for pilgrims to visit the Holy Sites.  I am not qualified to follow in his footsteps and I have yet to see anyone who wants to.  Muslims are an extreme example perhaps, but the same tends to apply in cases where I have tried to explain the Way and have been met by stony silence.  I have learned to move away & let them think on matters before I expend any more time or energies.  "When the student is ready, a Master will appear."  Try to teach before the student is ready, and you can do more harm than good.

This is percisely why He came...for swine and sinners.

Yes, He came.  My role is first, simply to remind people of that.  If they want to know more, I will gladly spend as much time with them as they wish.  If they turn away, then I must move on.

The parable is not concerned with exclusion but with inclusion

On the immediate level, the parable is directed at the questioner who wanted to justify himself afer answering the return question Jesus had used in reply to his original question.  Understand that first. 

Any wider meaning of that parable for us, must be informed by the entire gospel, God has provided to us.

I say that your calling is not my calling.  My calling is not your calling.  Your calling is for you.  If you believe you are called to interpret this parable for others, then you must do this in a way consistent with the Church's explanation, and you cannot formulate your own.  Now, perhaps you have been called to a personal role by events in your life or by people you have met and the net effect of these encounters is your belief that everyone must be treated as neighbor by you yourself, and by everyone else who is trying to follow Christ.  But, if this is something that resonates with your circumstances, don't look for justification in the NT.

Go for it, based on God's call to you.

Regards,

Old Sigma (Cradle Catholic & generally inveterate amateur)

Pouliot,

I would like to open a discussion with you about casting pearls  before swine.  To get all we can out of it.

Here's what I gathered so far:

To be cautious and to be able to read vipers and wolves who like to take precious stones for the sake of robbing.  Another words, the enemy Satana likes to take jewels away from us.  Christ lived in poverty another word for this is that he had no possessions which made it easy for him to not be snared by material things which causes much grief and attachments which have no real value only if you believe that the next life will be perfect in every way.  The connection I've been getting little by little is that this life we live in has imperfections on purpose a place of trial and error, to say ah next time I will get it perfect.  Each time stepping closer and closer but will never get it perfect, because it's not meant to.  In the next life we do not die, and perfection has been achieved, yet knowing God we will not be sitting idly by, so on to the next theory, the material things of that life will be perfect.  Whatever we set out to do will have perfection in thought and word and the product will have perfection, not like here.   Only the perfect can handle perfection.

Peace 

mkochan: The prompting question in the Parable, " Who is my neighbor" is a pregnant question. It is the "point of the parable. For it's answer and especially the manner in which it is answered are ultimately directed at proclaiming the imminent arrival Kingdom of God in Jesus's person though a proleptic arrival at this point in His ministry. 

As part of the Kingdom's arrival, certain prevelant Jewish beliefs and practices had to be re-described and fulfilled by Jesus on a more transcendent plane as part of His ministry and work.

Neighbor in His day become rather narrowly defined. The questioner was a lawyer, thus representing the Jewish view of neighbor as also were the priest and Levite in the Parable. And we are told that the question posed was meant not as a genuine inquiry, but rather was intended to have Jesus condone the lawyers narrow view of neighbor. That is, in asking, the lawyer sought Jesus's endoresement of the lawyer' view. He sought to "justify himself." ( 10,29.).

But as the parable unfolds,  Jesus does not justify the lawyers ( i.e. Isreal's) concept of neighbor which had come to mean " one who is of our community." Despite OT persciptions to the contrary, the demarcation circle for "not neighbor" was becoming wider. Clearly, Samaritans fell outside that circle.

As integral to the universality of slavation brought by Jesus, by which we are all made to stand in solidarity with each other in Christ as neighbor, and as a proleptic fulfillment of the Abrahamic promises, Jesus in this parable re-directs Israel to her raison d'election - which is to bring forth universal salvation. A narrow circle of us or neighbor would not be possible in the Kingdom wrought by Jesus. 

Our Lord then intentionally chose paradoxically the most non-neighbor conceivable from the Jewish perspective as the exact paragon of neighbor! That choice carries theological weight. Not only does the Samaritan act as neighbor, in doing so, this bad Samaritan embarasses and thereby symbolically overturns the official Jewish position of neighbor  symbolized by the priest and Levite who just pass on by the injured person. 

Benedcit, Jesus of Nazareth, asks us to ponder what is it that precluded the priest and Levite from seeing the Samaritan as neighbor, and what was it about the Samaritan that allowed him to act as he did.

I will not go one further. Just to point at that Our Lord's choice of the persona dramatis was theologically loaded and iwas ntentional. There is first a shocking re-dedription of neighbor and then an exapmle of what being a neighbor is all about concretely. 

This interprtation coheres with the coming of the Kingdom as the main thrust of His parables.

 If Our Lord had only intended to demonstate by the parable, " Now which of these made himself a neighbor ?" That is, if the parable had been intended as a nice little morality skit about our obligatory neighborly response, then the parable would not have contained the force it does contain, namely, the force of an proleptic annunciation of the Kingdom's arrival in Jesus and how its arrival must entail this radical new vision of " Who is neighbor." 

Nor as a skit intended merely to remind us of our neighborly responsiblity would Our Lord have chosen these precise theologically loaded, archetypical persona. He would have needed no bad Samaritan acting in a way that embarsses the good priest and Levite of Israel which then dramatically exposes the narrownessness of Isreal while at the same time calling Her to a massive metanoia of her concept neighbor. Further, the Samaritan is "good neighbor" and the portrayal by Our Lord of a "bad Samaritan" as good anticipates the universality of salvation to come.  

Universality in Christ is what allows and capacitates one to take on a very, very wide circle of " Who is my neighbor." Christ by Whom we are all re-made into a new solidarity with Him and, by that solidarity, with each other.  

The parable is precisely and fundamentally all about "Who is neighbor?" not just about " What behavior constitutes me as good neighbor."

It is all about how the answer to the question, " Who is my neighbor ?" takes on new if not shocking salvific dimensions in Christ and the arrival of His Kingdom.

Your last sentence in which you identify Jesus as the Samaritan is of course an old venerable allegorical interpretation of the Fathers. But it misses entirely the historical richness and the "Kindom-breaking- through" feature of the Parable.