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| “The Good Samaritan” by Théodule-Augustin Ribot, before 1870 |
Commentary:
Reading 1: Jonah 1:1–2:1-2, 11
Commentary on Jon 1:1–2:1-2, 11
We begin the Book of the Prophet Jonah with the command from God to go to the Assyrian town of Nineveh Spain
The ship Jonah has sailed upon runs into a serious storm and the sailors (although not identified as Jews) have the mindset that the storm is a punishment sent by God for someone on board. Jonah knows he is the one and tells the sailors to cast him over the side, which they do after praying to God not to punish them.
The story tells how a giant fish swallowed up Jonah and kept him in his belly for three days (significant from a Christian perspective), and then spewed him out on dry land. Note, the prayer uttered by Jonah while inside the fish is the Psalm Response we use today.
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Responsorial Psalm: Jonah 2:3, 4, 5, 8
R. You will rescue my life from the pit, O Lord.
Commentary on Jon 2:3, 4, 5, 8
Jonah’s prayer from inside the giant fish that swallowed him is an individual lament. The prophet calls to God out of fear, pleading to be restored to favor and asking that once more he might “look upon your holy temple.”
CCC: Jon 2:3-10 2585
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Gospel: Luke 10:25-37
Commentary on Lk 10:25-37
In this passage from St. Luke’s Gospel, we find Jesus being challenged by a person referred to as a “scholar”. It seems clear that this man has a good idea of how Jesus is likely to respond to his initial question about what he must do to inherit eternal life. As soon as the man tells Jesus what the law says, the scholar asks for still more clarification asking “And who is my neighbor?”
The illustration Jesus uses in answering him does clarify the answer and at the same time uses a cultural tension to heighten the lesson. First he says a Priest of the Jewish Temple passes the victim of robbery by, one who is most scrupulous in observing the letter of the Law, next a member of the priestly class, a Levite does the same. The one who helps the victim, presumably a Jew, is a member of the Samaritan culture, antagonists of the Jewish people. In this way the Lord provides a moral lesson along with an explanation of the Law.
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Reflection:
The message today is very clear – God is the Father of all mankind and His expectation is that the love he has shown for us is the same love we should show to each other. The message comes at us hard from both the old and the new testaments.
We begin with the story of Jonah, a Prophet called by God to take a warning to Nineveh Assyria , enemies of the Jews, Jonah, like many of his contemporaries, could not believe God would help non-Jews. On top of that, since they were hostile to the Jews, what kind of a reception would he receive, and why would they even listen to him. Faced with these views and feelings, Jonah did the logical thing – he ran in the opposite direction.
If we read the whole story, the lesson to be learned is clear – God did not come “just” for one group of people; He came for the whole human race, his children.
Moving ahead from the story of Jonah and his prayer from inside the giant fish used as the Responsorial Psalm to the Gospel; we examine events which took place some seven hundred years before the Lord walked the earth. We are given a more pointed and personal story with the same message – the story of the Good Samaritan. Here a person hoping to “justify himself” before Jesus as a faithful member of the Jewish community asks Jesus to explain the Lord’s own Great Commandment by asking, “Who is my neighbor?”
The Lord answers this question with a parable that can be seen as analogues or parallel to the Jonah tale. The parable of the Good Samaritan, also a group known as hostile to the Jews, tells the questioner that all peoples of all races are his neighbors. And like the story of Jonah, the parable of the Good Samaritan should be an example for him to follow.
This pair of examples should be reminders to all of us. In the world climate in which we find ourselves, it is easy to develop stereotypes and biases that would lead us to behave as if some groups are not worthy of our love. When we run into a vocal group whose message is hate and violence it is easy to forget the Good Samaritan.
Our prayer today must be that we, as faithful followers of the Lord who spent three days in a tomb that we might find a path to eternal life, might emulate the Good Samaritan. We pray that all those we meet today will see in our actions that we treat them as “neighbors” and extend to them the love of Christ.
Pax
[1] S.S Commemoratio
[2] The picture is “The Good Samaritan” by Théodule-Augustin Ribot, before 1870
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