My Dear People, 

When asked outright how to have eternal life, Jesus does not say, “Just have faith in me and then do whatever you want.”  This is what many think today. Jesus talks about action. In another passage, Jesus says, “It is not those who say ‘Lord, Lord’ who enter the kingdom of heaven but those who do the will of my Father.”  Jesus emphasized action, doing the will of the Father. Those who hear the word of God and keep it, the Trinity will dwell in their hearts. To keep the word of Christ means specifically to do certain actions and, most importantly, to avoid certain actions. Jesus points to the law of God and the moral life. Living a life in accordance with God’s law—which is a law of love—is not optional. It is an integral part of what it means to be saved, or what is necessary to have “eternal life.” Because of the Protestant emphasis on “salvation by faith alone,” large sectors of Americans who identify themselves as Christians have lost sight of the fact that living according to God’s law is a nonnegotiable dimension of salvation. Living according to  God’s law involves action. What we do and how we live. I can have all good intentions and even expressions, but if I am not living according to God’s law, I will not enter the kingdom of heaven. We see today there are many who are not living according to God’s law. They may be people who the media “glorify” often. They may be in a leadership position; however, they are not living according to God’s law. They may be in positions of local government or in teaching positions in universities or public schools. They may be admired for their leadership in public office which they hold. They are not following God’s law. Especially if they are promoting abortion (killing of babies) or gay rights (which is gay promiscuous lifestyles). They are not living God’s law. We should love everyone, however we should condemn immoral actions. Also, we should not approve of actions where there is judgment toward certain people, and therefore love is withheld especially as we see in the case of the Good Samaritan. Jesus emphasizes this and says that the priest and Levite “passed by the opposite side.”  It was not that these persons were “too busy.” Contact with a dead body would result in ceremonial uncleanness, preventing the priest and Levite from performing duties in the temple. It was not possible to tell whether the man was alive or dead, so the priest and Levite gave him a wide berth to avoid potential contamination. Both forget the teaching of the prophet Hosea: “For I desire mercy and not sacrifice; the knowledge of God ; rather than burnt offerings” (Hos. 6:6). In other words, deeds of mercy take precedence over cultic concerns even in the Old Testament itself. The priest and Levite may have been liturgically correct, but they failed to grasp the heart of God’s law. In the same way, people “cancel” each other today. They see that someone is expressing something they do not agree with, and they are canceled by social media. Some are even demonized for standing for Christian values, and values endowed by God, such as parents defending children from being indoctrinated with Marxist ideas. (Critical gender theory and critical race theories are from the Marxist playbook.) Anyone who opposes them is attacked. 

On the other hand, a Samaritan passed by. Samaritans were mixed-race descendants of Israelites and Gentiles. In 722 BC, the Assyrian army conquered the northern kingdom of Israel and deported the middle and upper classes. The king of Assyria brought in several Gentile ethnic groups to replace the deported Israelites (2 Kings 17:7-41). These Gentiles mixed with the low-class Israelites left behind, producing the Samaritans. The Samaritans offered to help build the temple in Jerusalem when the Jews returned from Babylonian exile circa  537-520 BC, but they were rebuffed by the Jews (Ezra 4:1-4). The Samaritans then decided to build their own Temple on Mount Gerizim in northern Israelite territory, Eventually they developed a different system of cultic purity (“Kosher”) and different legal tradition (“halakha”) than the Jews. Jews regarded them, with some justification, as schismatics and heretics. There was no theological justification for building a Temple to the Lord on Mount Gerizim (see John 4:16-26) in rivalry to the one in Jerusalem. The Samaritans had rejected God’s covenant with David, which included the choice of Jerusalem as the place of God’s sanctuary (see Ps. 78:60-72).

So, a Samaritan—a mixed race person of heretical and schismatic religious doctrines—happens to pass by on the road and takes notice of the man. Although the Samaritan has admittedly wrong views about where to worship and how, he does understand that mercy takes precedence over cultic purity, and thus—ironically—he has a better fundamental understanding of the law of God than the priest or Levite. He bandages the man’s wounds and cares for him as if he were a family member. 

At the end of the parable, Jesus says, “Which of these was neighbor to the robber’s victim?” and tells the scholar of the law, “Go and do likewise.” Notice how Jesus shifts the discussion. The scholar had asked “Who is my neighbor” to other people. It is a lesson that, no doubt, sat very uncomfortably with the scholar of the law because Jews absolutely despised Samaritans. The idea that the mercy of God should be expressed across borders of heresy, schism, and cultic purity was very hard to accept. 

Jesus is asking the same of us, to love those we are in conflict with, and the ones who oppose us, or even despise us. They are all our neighbors. Even our enemies are our neighbors.

Yours in Christ,

Fr. Vincent Clemente