Jesus & the Good Samaritan

There’s this popular song that came out just a few years ago by John Legend, perhaps some of you have heard it. It’s called All of Me…

Here are the lyrics of the chorus:

‘Cause all of me
Loves all of you
Love your curves and all your edges
All your perfect imperfections
Give your all to me
I’ll give my all to you
You’re my end and my beginning
Even when I lose I’m winning
‘Cause I give you all, all of me
And you give me all, all of you

The song is about a love of a man who sees the imperfections, the quirks, as well as the mystery of a woman and still desires to give all of himself for her as she gives all of herself for him.

You know, when we hear a song like this or some other love song, I think it touches something deep inside of us. It touches a desire within us. In some sense, there’s great longing and searching for a kind of love that is complete; for a love that will be a complete gift. We desire the other person to perfectly give themselves to us and we desire to perfectly give ourselves to them. This is what we hope for in a marriage.

But the problem is that we are imperfect. We love imperfectly. That even though we desire to give ourselves completely, our sinfulness, our selfishness keeps us from doing so.

What I want to argue, is that within each and everyone of us, God has placed a great desire for a love that is infinite, a love that is completely a gift, a love that is perfect. And that love, that perfect love can only come from God. Moses says in the first reading that the desire to go to God “with all your heart and all your soul” “is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out.”

In every person, there is a great desire for union with God. There is an ache and woundedness. You know when I was discerning to become a priest, some people would ask me, “Are you sure you want to be a priest? Won’t you be lonely?”

And I’d tell them, “Yes, I will be lonely at times.” But just because you are married or have lots of friends doesn’t mean that you won’t be lonely. In fact, loneliness within marriage is pretty common. And actually what I also want to argue is that loneliness can be a good thing.

Loneliness is a sign that we are not only meant for the things of the world.That as much as we try to fill our lives with material things and even people and relationships, it will always be incomplete, it will be imperfect. And what our loneliness is trying to tell us, is that in our hearts we desire more, we desire a perfect and everlasting love, we desire God’s love.

In the Gospel today, Jesus shows us what this love looks like and what it means to love our neighbor. And I’m sure you’ve heard the moral explanation of how we should go out of our way to love our neighbor even when it is risky or inconvenient. We should love as the Good Samaritan loved the wounded man. And you should do this, it’s always good to be reminded of this. But there is another message in this parable that I want to focus on today.

The early Church Fathers would often read this reading not only as a moral lesson about loving others, but rather they would see it as a model of Christ’s love for us, for us wounded sinners.

What we see in the Good Samaritan is precisely how Jesus Christ goes out of his way to love us and cure us completely.

“A man, a person fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.” That’s us. Each one of us has fallen victim to sin. On our journey from Jerusalem, the holy city, the ordered city where God reigns, to Jericho, the city of sin and destruction, we have been robbed. Sin has robbed us of our original holiness. This is the fall of man. When human nature fell we were robbed of our original innocence. This is what Sin does. Sin strips us of our dignity, it robs us of our joy and happiness. We are robbed of friendship with God. The very thing we desire and long for. Sin beats us down and leaves us half-dead. Because of sin, often times we are only half-alive. We are left wounded, aching and longing for healing.

And it is Jesus, the Lord, the Good Samaritan, who looks on us with compassion and “pours oil and wine over our wounds and bandages them.” Oil and wine, my brothers and sisters, are the very symbols we use in the sacraments. Oil is used to anoint at Baptism, Confirmation and in ordinations to the priesthood. Wine is offered to become the life giving blood of Christ in the Eucharist. The sacraments are poured out by Jesus for us. The sacraments are the sources of healing for our wounds, a remedy for sin.

Then the Lord kneels down and lifts us up with his touch and cares for us. And he pays for our salvation. And he even promises to pay for any extra expense that we may have when he returns again.

My brothers and sisters, we have been wounded by sin and at the same time there is a deep yearning for love, for union with God. And just as the priest and the Levite in the Gospel simply passed on the other side, the material things of this world will not satisfy this longing, they will not heal our wounds.

The priest and Levite in some sense represent the fallen humanity that is found within religion within the Church. It is Christ who ultimately heals us, who is the source of every sacrament.

Now there is nothing wrong with religion, and I have given my life for this. But I don’t know if you know this, but I’m not perfect…. And although I will give my all to try to love you as Christ does, as a spiritual father, I will fail at times. But I am still called to try to love anyways. It’s what we’re all called to do.

As a Church, we are the mystical Body of Christ. Just as Christ kneels down and lifts us up in our woundedness, we as the Body of Christ in the world, are called to kneel down and lift up others in the world. Jesus wants to heal our wounds, he wants to make us whole again. He’s given all of himself for us on the Cross, and now he asks us to give all of ourselves for him. In this way, he can use us, his mystical body, to also heal all of the wounded in our world today.