The parable of the Good Samaritan, which we read at Mass1 and which is only recorded by St. Luke, is one of the most beautiful and touching stories in the Gospel. In it, the Lord teaches us who our neighbor is and how to live charity with everyone. It is possible that the Lord was not far from the road leading from Jericho to Jerusalem, for he often clothed his teachings with details taken from the circumstances around him. A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers who, having stripped him, covered him with wounds and departed, leaving him half dead.
Many Fathers of the Church and ancient Christian writers identify Christ with the Good Samaritan; the man who fell into the hands of robbers is a figure of humanity wounded and stripped of its goods by original sin and personal sins. "They stripped man of his immortality and covered him with wounds, inclining him to sin, "3 says St. Augustine. And St. Bede comments that sins are called wounds because by them the integrity of human nature is destroyed4. The highway robbers are the devil, the passions that incite to evil, the scandals...; the Levite and the priest who passed by symbolize the Old Covenant, incapable of healing. The inn was the place where everyone can take refuge and represents the Church. "... What would have happened to the poor Jew, if the Samaritan had stayed at home? What would have happened to our souls, if the Son of God had not set out on his journey?". But Jesus, moved by compassion and mercy, approached man, every man, to heal his wounds, making them his own6. In this was demonstrated God's love for us, in that he sent his only Son into the world so that through him we might have life.... Beloved," writes St. John to the first faithful, "if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
"The parable of the Good Samaritan is in profound harmony with the behavior of Christ himself," for his whole life on earth was a continual reaching out to man to remedy his material or spiritual ills. We must have the same compassion, so that we never pass by in the face of the suffering of others. Let us learn from Jesus to stop, without haste, before those who, with the signs of their bad state, are asking for physical or spiritual help. In attentive charity, others will see Christ himself who makes himself present in his disciples.