Pope Francis: Love thy neighbour like the Good
Samaritan
(Vatican Radio) The
story of the Good Samaritan and its lesson of “love thy neighbour” were at the
heart of Pope Francis’ catechesis during the General Audience on Wednesday 27
April.
Let us never forget: we
cannot stand by as onlookers when we see so many people worn out by hunger,
violence and injustice: that’s Pope Francis’s call to Christians to
become Good Samaritans in their everyday lives. “To ignore man’s
suffering means to ignore God,” says the Pope who recalls how, in the parable,
the Levite and the priest walk by the man who had been attacked by thieves and
lay moribund on the side of the road.
Both men of the temple cult,
their inaction was contrary to the Law of the Lord, Pope Francis says.
The Law obliges us to stop and help anyone in distress. And here, the
parable offers us a lesson: that it’s not a given “that those who
frequent the house of God and are aware of His mercy know how to love the
other.”
The Samaritan, a schismatic
Jew, was despised in Jesus’ day as “an outsider, a pagan and impure,” notes the
Pope. And he too had things to do – but when he saw the wounded man, he
did not pass by as the other two men did. He stopped and “had compassion for
him.”
“Compassion is an essential
characteristic of God’s mercy” and “in the gestures and actions of the Good
Samaritan, we recognize the action of God’s mercy throughout salvation
history.”
“It is the same compassion
with which God encounters each of us: He does not ignore us. He
recognizes our pain, He knows when we need help and consolation. He comes
close and never abandons us.”
The Samaritan, the Pope
stresses, acts with true mercy: he binds the man’s wounds, takes him to a
hostel, and “personally takes care of him.”
All of this, the Pope says,
teaches us that compassion and love are not “vague” sentiments; but mean
“caring for the other to the point of personal sacrifice.” If we have
compassionate hearts, he adds, like Jesus, we can be close to anyone who is in
need of help...
Below, we publish the Holy
Father’s message to the English speaking pilgrims present in Saint Peter’s
Square:
Dear Brothers and
Sisters: In our catechesis for this Holy Year of Mercy, we now turn to
the parable of the Good Samaritan. Jesus had taught the great commandment
of love for God and neighbour. In reply to the question: “Who is my
neighbour?”, he recounts the story of the priest and the levite who pass by a
man in need at the side of the road. Their religiosity is ultimately
inauthentic, for it does not find expression in service to others. Love,
the Lord tells us, is never abstract or distant; it “sees” and it
responds. The compassion shown by the Samaritan is an image of the
infinite mercy of God, who always sees our needs and draws near to us in
love. The command to love God and neighbour, then, is supremely
practical; it entails caring for others even to the point of personal sacrifice.
By the end of the parable, we see that the “neighbour” is not so much the man
in need, but rather the one who responded to that need with compassion.
Jesus tells all of us to be neighbours in this sense: “Go and do
likewise”. He himself is the model of the Good Samaritan; by imitating
his love and compassion, we show ourselves truly to be his followers.
I greet the English-speaking
visitors taking part in today’s Audience, particularly the pilgrims from
England, Sweden, Slovakia, China, Indonesia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, the
Philippines, Canada and the United States of America. In the joy of the
Risen Lord, I invoke upon you and your families the loving mercy of God our
Father. May the Lord bless you all!
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