By Deborah Castellano Lubov
“Once we are healed and loved by Christ, we too can become witnesses of His love and compassion in our world.”
Pope Leo XIV gave this comforting reminder during Mass at the papal parish of St Thomas of Villanova in Castel Gandolfo, where he is staying for his summer vacation, as he reflected on the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
The Pope began by expressing his joy of celebrating this Eucharist with them, greeting all those present.
He then recalled how in this Sunday’s Gospel according to St Luke, “we hear one of Jesus’ most beautiful and moving parables,” that of the Good Samaritan, a parable that he acknowledged “constantly challenges us to think about our own lives,” “troubles our dormant or distracted consciences,” and “warns us about the risk of a complacent faith that is satisfied with the outward observance of the law but incapable of feeling and acting with the same merciful compassion as God.”
How we look at others is what counts
The parable, Pope Leo said, is really about compassion, telling the faithful, “how we look at others is what counts, because it shows what is in our hearts.”
“We can look and walk by, or we can look and be moved with compassion,” he said, recalling that the parable speaks to us first about God’s way of seeing us, “so that we in turn can learn how to see situations and people with his eyes, so full of love and compassion.”
The Good Samaritan, he recalled, is really a figure of Jesus, “the eternal Son whom the Father sent into our history precisely because he regarded humanity with compassion and did not walk by.”
“Like the man in the Gospel who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, humanity was descending to the depths of death,” Pope Leo said, observing, “In our own day too, we have to confront the darkness of evil, suffering, poverty and the riddle of death.”
Healing wounds with His love and mercy
Yet, the Holy Father reassured, “God has looked upon us with compassion; he wanted to walk our same path and come down among us. In Jesus, the Good Samaritan, he came to heal our wounds and to pour out upon us the balm of his love and mercy.”
He recalled how the late Pope Francis often reminded us that God is mercy and compassion, once referred to Jesus as “the compassion of the Father toward us,” and Saint Augustine explained that, as the Good Samaritan who came to our aid, Jesus “wanted to be known as our neighbor. Indeed, the Lord Jesus Christ makes us realize that he is the one who cared for the half-dead man beaten by robbers and left on the side of the road.”
“We can understand why this parable is so challenging for each of us,” he recognized. “If Christ shows us the face of a compassionate God, then to believe in Him and to be His disciples means allowing ourselves to be changed and to take on his same feelings.”
Having a heart that is moved
The Pope said this means learning to have a heart that is moved, eyes that see and do not look away, hands that help others and soothe their wounds, shoulders that bear the burden of those in need.
“If we realize deep down that Christ, the Good Samaritan, loves us and cares for us,” he said, “we too will be moved to love in the same way and to become compassionate as He is.”
“Once we are healed and loved by Christ,” Pope Leo continued, “we too can become witnesses of His love and compassion in our world.”
‘Revolution of love’
With this in mind, Pope Leo insisted, “today we need this ‘revolution of love.'”
The Pope suggested that today, the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Jericho is the road traveled by all those who descend into sin, suffering and poverty.
“It is the road,” he said, “travelled by all those weighed down by troubles or hurt by life…,” “by all who fall down, lose their bearings and hit rock bottom…,” “by all those peoples that are stripped, robbed and pillaged, victims of tyrannical political systems, of an economy that forces them into poverty, and of wars that kill their dreams and their very lives.”
‘What can we do?’
Thus, the Holy Father asked, “What do we do?”
“Do we look and walk by, or do we open our hearts to others, like the Samaritan? Are we content at times merely to do our duty, or to regard as our neighbor only those who are part of our group, who think like us, who share our same nationality or religion?”
He then recalled that “Jesus overturns this way of thinking by presenting us with a Samaritan, a foreigner or heretic, who acts as a neighbor to that wounded man,” “and He asks us to do the same.”
Benedict: ‘Jesus turns whole matter on its head’
The Samaritan, wrote Benedict XVI in Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Leo quoted, “‘does not ask how far his obligations of solidarity extend. Nor does he ask about the merits required for eternal life. Something else happens: his heart is wrenched open… If the question had been, ‘Is the Samaritan my neighbor, too?’ the answer would have been a pretty clear-cut no, given the situation at the time.’
“‘But Jesus,'” Pope Benedict writes, “‘now turns the whole matter on its head: the Samaritan, the foreigner, makes himself the neighbor and shows me that I have to learn to be a neighbor deep within and that I already have the answer in myself. I have to become like someone in love, someone whose heart is open to being shaken up by another’s need.'”
Let us imitate Christ
“Looking without walking by, halting the frantic pace of our lives, allowing the lives of others, whoever they may be, with their needs and troubles, to touch our heart,” the Holy Father reasoned, “is what makes us neighbors to one another, what generates true fraternity and breaks down walls and barriers. In the end, love prevails and proves more powerful than evil and death.”
Finally, Pope Leo XIV gave this invitation: “Let us look to Christ, the Good Samaritan. Let us listen again today to His voice. For He says to each of us, ‘Go and do likewise.’” – Vatican News
