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| “The Good Samaritan” by Théodule-Augustin Ribot, before 1870 |
Reading 1: Jonah
1:1–2:1-2, 11
This is the word of the LORD
that came to Jonah, son of Amittai:
“Set out for the great city
of Nineveh
their wickedness has come up
before me.”
But Jonah made ready to flee
to Tarshish away from the LORD.
He went down to Joppa, found
a ship going to Tarshish,
paid the fare, and went
aboard to journey with them to Tarshish,
away from the LORD.
The LORD, however, hurled a
violent wind upon the sea,
and in the furious tempest
that arose
the ship was on the point of
breaking up.
Then the mariners became
frightened and each one cried to his god.
To lighten the ship for
themselves, they threw its cargo into the sea.
Meanwhile, Jonah had gone
down into the hold of the ship,
and lay there fast asleep.
The captain came to him and
said, “What are you doing asleep?
Rise up, call upon your God!
Perhaps God will be mindful
of us so that we may not perish.”
Then they said to one
another, “Come, let us cast lots
to find out on whose account
we have met with this misfortune.”
So they cast lots, and thus
singled out Jonah.
“Tell us,” they said, “what
is your business?
Where do you come from?
What is your country, and to
what people do you belong?”
Jonah answered them, “I am a
Hebrew,
I worship the LORD, the God
of heaven,
who made the sea and the dry
land.”
Now the men were seized with
great fear and said to him,
“How could you do such a
thing!–
They knew that he was fleeing
from the LORD,
because he had told them.–
They asked, “What shall we do
with you,
that the sea may quiet down
for us?”
For the sea was growing more
and more turbulent.
Jonah said to them, “Pick me
up and throw me into the sea,
that it may quiet down for
you;
since I know it is because of
me
that this violent storm has
come upon you.”
Still the men rowed hard to
regain the land, but they could not,
for the sea grew ever more
turbulent.
Then they cried to the LORD:
“We beseech you, O LORD,
let us not perish for taking
this man’s life;
do not charge us with
shedding innocent blood,
for you, LORD, have done as
you saw fit.”
Then they took Jonah and
threw him into the sea,
and the sea’s raging abated.
Struck with great fear of the
LORD,
the men offered sacrifice and
made vows to him.
But the LORD sent a large
fish, that swallowed Jonah;
and Jonah remained in the
belly of the fish
three days and three nights.
From the belly of the fish
Jonah prayed
to the LORD, his God.
Then the LORD commanded the
fish to spew Jonah upon the shore.
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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.
Out of my distress I called
to the LORD,
and he answered me;
From the midst of the nether
world I cried for help,
and you heard my voice.
R. You will rescue my life
from the pit, O Lord.
For you cast me into the
deep, into the heart of the sea,
and the flood enveloped me;
All your breakers and your
billows
passed over me.
R. You will rescue my life
from the pit, O Lord.
Then I said, “I am banished
from your sight!
yet would I again look upon
your holy temple.”
R. You will rescue my life
from the pit, O Lord.
When my soul fainted within
me,
I remembered the LORD;
My prayer reached you
in your holy temple.
R. You will rescue my life
from the pit, O Lord.
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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
There was a scholar of the
law who stood up to test Jesus and said,
“Teacher, what must I do to
inherit eternal life?”
Jesus said to him, “What is
written in the law?
How do you read it?”
He said in reply,
“You shall love the Lord,
your God,
with all your heart,
with all your being,
with all your strength,
and with all your mind,
and your neighbor as
yourself.”
He replied to him, “You have
answered correctly;
do this and you will live.”
But because he wished to
justify himself, he said to Jesus,
“And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus replied,
“A man fell victim to robbers
as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho
They stripped and beat him
and went off leaving him half-dead.
A priest happened to be going
down that road,
but when he saw him, he
passed by on the opposite side.
Likewise a Levite came to the
place,
and when he saw him, he
passed by on the opposite side.
But a Samaritan traveler who
came upon him
was moved with compassion at
the sight.
He approached the victim,
poured oil and wine over his
wounds and bandaged them.
Then he lifted him up on his
own animal,
took him to an inn, and cared
for him.
The next day he took out two
silver coins
and gave them to the
innkeeper with the instruction,
‘Take care of him.
If you spend more than what I
have given you,
I shall repay you on my way
back.’
Which of these three, in your
opinion,
was neighbor to the robbers’
victim?”
He answered, “The one who treated
him with mercy.”
Jesus said to him, “Go and do
likewise.”
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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
[3]
The readings are taken from the New American Bible with the exception of the
Psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for
English in Liturgy (ICEL). This re-publication is not authorized by USCCB and
is for private use only.
