Homily for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, 2022

The Good Samaritan Is Jesus Christ

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, Minnesota

Sunday, July 10, 2022

Today’s Gospel is one of the most prominent of Jesus’ parables— the great story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). The parable can be seen as a morality tale that teaches us the kind of life we should lead. It is a godly thing to care for those in need even if we consider them outsiders. I am sure most people are familiar with that kind of reading and will most likely interpret the story of the Good Samaritan from that standpoint. But today, I want to offer a different reading that is more in line with the Church Fathers. They saw this story as the story of sin, fall, and redemption and as a great illustration of who Jesus Christ is.

Our Lord opens the parable this way: “A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.” What is Jerusalem? It is Mount Zion, the Holy City, God’s City. According to the Psalmist, it is where all the tribes go up (Psalm 122:4). Jerusalem is the symbol of the well ordered city, the well ordered life, and of spiritual perfection. What is Jericho? It is the city of sin. As Israelites prepared to enter the Promised Land, they had to deal with Jericho, an enemy city. Under the leadership of Joshua, they liturgically marched round the Walls of Jericho with the Ark of the Covenant. As they marched, they prayed and blew their trumpets. Eventually, Jericho’s Walls came down and Israel was able to conquer the dark power of the world. Jericho is the symbol of disordered city, of dysfunctional soul and anything that stands in contradistinction to God’s plan and purpose. Going down from Jerusalem to Jericho means the fall. It is the fall of all of us. The man is all of us who through sin have descended from the height of God’s friendship to the depth of sin. As the man descended from the height of righteousness to the depth of transgression, he got robbed. What does sin do to us? It robs us of God’s friendship! It robs us what is best in us. When we lose friendship with God, our minds become fuddled; we are robbed of the proper functioning of our minds, the proper functioning of our will, and the proper functioning of our passions and desires. Even if we know a lot of true things, we don’t know the deepest truth. It becomes far too easier to choose wrong things. Losing friendship with God in certain ways robs us of our human dignity. Most people who have been robbed will tell you that the worst part of the act is not the things they lose, rather their dignity that was violated and stripped. So in sin we are robbed of our human dignity. The glory, the proper functioning, the beauty we ought to have are lost.

After robbing and stripping the man, the robbers “beat him, and then went off leaving him half-dead.” That last phrase is brilliant. After sin has cost us our friendship with God, what else does it do to us? It leaves us half-dead. When you are living in sin, are you still alive? In the eyes of the world, you are still alive and functioning well. But you are half-dead. You are not fully alive. The great St. Irenaeus said that the glory of God is the human being fully alive. The indication is that when we are in sin we are not fully alive. We are not the people that God wants us to be. We have wandered from the heights of Jerusalem down to Jericho, got robbed of our dignity and left half-dead and helpless by the side of the road. This story of the Good Samaritan is a perfect portrait of us all. This man beaten and robbed is all of us beaten up by sin. Who will now save us? The story says a priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw the helpless man, he passed by on the opposite side. A Levite also came to the place. He saw him but went on. Notice something here. Jesus says they are going the same way as the man— from Jerusalem to Jericho. The priest and the Levite represent fallen religion that is affected by sin, a religion and religious practice that have become an avenue for the self-aggrandizement of the ego. Such religion won’t save. G.K. Chesterton said “We’re all in the same boat, and we’re all seasick.” If you are stuck in a boat, you are not going to be saved by someone who is also stuck in the same boat. Fallen religion is not going to save us. And this remains true today as it was two thousand years ago. 

But here now is the good news. When a Samaritan who was on a journey saw the helpless man, he “was moved with compassion at the sight.” There is so much in that line. We have been depicted in the story. We are the man beaten and left half-dead by robbers on the road. Religion has also been depicted. Now Jesus is being depicted. But why is he a Samaritan? The Samaritans were hated and considered as outsiders. Was Jesus loved universally? Not really! At the beginning, he was loved by some, but hatred for him progressively grew worse culminating in his death on the cross. Furthermore, who are the Samaritans? They were half-breeds, part-Jewish and part-pagans. The Church Fathers noted that Jesus himself is a kind of hybrid? He is both divine and human. What does the Samaritan do to the helpless man? He approached him, dressed his wounds, poured in oil and wine as means to heal. “He approached him” describes Jesus coming to us precisely in our misery and degradation. Jesus loves sinners. He lives with them. He stays with them. Jesus approaches us. The use of oil and wine as means to heal points to the sacramental life of the Church. Oil is used for baptism, confirmation, ordination of a priest, and the anointing of the sick. The wine is transformed into the Blood of Christ. What is symbolized here is Jesus Christ approaching us who are wounded and humiliated by sin and pouring his life into our wounds by means of the sacraments. What the Church does in its sacramental life is to pour into wounded souls the life of Jesus Christ. After that, the Good Samaritan took out two silver pieces and gave them to the innkeeper and said, “Take care of him.” He pays for him. The word redemption comes from the Latin word “redemptio,” which means “to pay for,” “to buy back.” By his death on the cross, Jesus has redeemed us. He has paid the price. He has bought us back. So in the life of the Church, we celebrate the fact that by the cross of Jesus, we have been saved. The next time you read this story or hear this story read to you, identify yourself with this man wounded and left half-dead by the side of the road, and then rejoice in Christ who has come to save and redeem you. 

Praise God!