What parable does Jesus share right after reiterating the greatest commandment? (Luke 10:27) The parable of The Good Samaritan.
The symbolism in this particular parable can be absolutely amazing. Have you ever thought about it like this?
• The victim is Adam who left Jerusalem, which was Eden and fell upon
hard times through sin.
• The Priest represents all the sacrifices
offered again and again to no avail.
• The Levite represents the
hypocritical observance of the Law, which also provided no relief.
• The Samaritan was actually Jesus who is the perfect rescuer.
• The inn
is the Church and the coins were the Sacraments and other Graces Christ
has bestowed on us through the Church.
It is the message that Christ is
the way to our salvation and the Church is our place of refuge on our
journey to recovery, which is to be reunited with our Supreme
benefactor, Jesus Christ.
_______________________________________________________
Saint Ambrose (c.340-397), Bishop of Milan and Doctor of the Church Commentary on Saint Luke's gospel, 7,73 ; SC 52
The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37)
"A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho"...
Jericho is the
symbol of this world where, after he had been cast out of Paradise, that
is to say the heavenly Jerusalem, Adam went down...
It was his change
of behavior, not of place, that made his exile. And what a change! This
man Adam, who enjoyed undisturbed happiness, had no sooner lowered
himself to this world's sins than he encountered some brigands...
Now
who are these brigands if not the angels of night and darkness who, on
occasion, disguise themselves as angels of light (2Cor 11,15) but are
unable to remain thus? They start by stripping us of the garments of
spiritual grace we have received: this is how they usually behave so as
to cause us harm...
Take great care, then, not to let yourself be
stripped, like Adam, deprived of the protection of God's commandments
and lacking the garment of faith. This is why he received the mortal
wound to which the whole human race would have succumbed if the
Samaritan had not come down to cure his frightful wound.
This
is not just any Samaritan: this one did not disdain the man whom the
priest and the Levite disdained...
This Samaritan came down. “Who has
come down from heaven except the one who has gone up to heaven, the Son
of Man who is in heaven?” (cf Jn 3,13). Seeing that man half dead whom
no one before him had been able to heal... he came up beside him. That
is to say, by consenting to suffer with us he became our fellow and by
showing us mercy he became our neighbor.
____________________________________________________________
Another great resource . . . A homily by Msgr. Charles Pope:
2 comments:
who are the artist for these paintings?
Caitlin, here are the links to the artwork. I was unabe to find thenames of the artists.
http://mybackpages.typepad.com/mybackpages/2010/07/the-good-samaritan.html
AND
http://onevoice.org.nz/2013/07/09/songs-for-sunday-the-good-samaritan/
There were no artist names given. You might want to ask these bloggers. :-)
Post a Comment