Parable of the Good Samaritan
The Parable of the Good Samaritan is told by Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. It is about a traveler (implicitly understood to be Jewish) who is stripped of clothing, beaten, and left half dead alongside the road. A Jewish priest and then a Levite come by, both avoiding the man. A Samaritan happens upon him and—though Samaritans and Jews were generally antagonistic toward each other—helps him. Jesus tells the parable in response to a provocative question from a lawyer in the context of the Great Commandment: "And who is my neighbour?"
Quotes about
[edit]- On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
He 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.’”
“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii 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.’
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”- Gospel of Luke 10:25-27 NIV.
- Those who repent are like men stripped of their honour by the devil: their will has been laid bare and their limbs contaminated. The devil robs them of their treasure, which consists of sanity, inner light and the voice of conscience: thus their person is humiliated, their fall revealed, their will shattered. Finally, the devil wounds him deeply with the desire to die as soon as possible: and so he leaves him only with a dead body, incapable of living. For this reason, the good Samaritan has no opportunity to ask questions or time to reproach him: he immediately takes him in his arms.
- Matta El Meskin, Comunione nell'amore, translation into Italian by Guido Dotti, Qiqajon, 1986.
- The Good Samaritan in the parable (Luke 10:30-37) is Christ, and our interpretation hits the mark: Christ does not rebuke those who repent, nor does he ask them to do anything, but he goes to meet them in person right where they have fallen, bends over them with affection, washes and bandages his wound with his own wound, stops the bloodshed with the shedding of his own blood, pours the oil of his compassion and his life upon him, carries him in the arms of his mercy, offers him a ride to the inn of his church, asking his angels to serve him and spending his grace on him until he is healed.
- Matta El Meskin, Comunione nell'amore, translation into Italian by Guido Dotti, Qiqajon, 1986.
- Television has made it clear that my neighbour has no boundaries. Even in the Gospel, the neighbour in the parable of the Good Samaritan transcends boundaries, but television has made this clear to us...
- Carlo Maria Martini, quoted in Karl Popper, John Condry, Cattiva maestra televisione, translation into Italian by Marina Astrologo and Claudia Di Giorgio, CDE, 1996.
- No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he had only had good intentions. He also had money.
- It seems that with this parable Jesus Christ wanted to tell us that most priests were always lacking in charity; and it should also be noted that, while the Jews considered the Samaritans to be unbelievers because they did not accept the Pentateuch, Jesus Christ in this parable praises the Samaritan and condemns the Jewish priests; as in another parable, he justifies the tax collector and condemns the Pharisee. From this comparison, which is shameful for the doctors of the law and the Jewish priests, and very glorious for unbelievers and sinners, such as the Samaritans and publicans, it seems that Jesus Christ wanted us to understand that these men, commonly called deists or atheists, whose spirits are not corrupted and perverted by superstition, are richer in charity and infinitely better than those corrupted by vices and cruelties inspired by superstitions.
- Alberto Radicati of Passerano, Discours moraux, historiques et politiques, I, in Recueil de pièces curieuses sur les matières les plus intéressantes, Rotterdam, 1736, pp. 23-25. Reported in Piero Gobetti, Risorgimento senza eroi, cap. II, Il Piemonte nel Settecento, § 1, Il conte Radicati, in Risorgimento senza eroi e altri scritti storici, foreword of Franco Venturi, G. Einaudi, Torino, 1976.
