Lk 10:25-37
25There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test [Jesus] and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” 27He 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.” 28He replied to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.”
29But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30Jesus 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. 31A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. 32Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. 33But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. 34He 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. 35The 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.’ 36Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?” 37He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
True Religious Heroes: A.J. Cronin’s novel The Keys of the Kingdom tells the story of Fr. Francis Chisholm, a missionary in China. The priest has a friend, Dr. Willie Tulloch, who follows him to the mission, not because he shares the priest’s belief in God, but because he loves his friend and is a dedicated physician. In fact, the doctor is an atheist.
While attending to Chinese patients during an epidemic, Dr. Tulloch is likewise stricken. Dying in the arms of Fr. Francis, the doctor says he has loved him for not trying to bully him into heaven.
The priest in turn tells his friend that though he cannot believe in God, God believes in him. Fr. Francis pictures God at the Judgment Seat welcoming Dr. Tulloch: “I’m here, you see, in spite of all they brought you up to believe. Enter the Kingdom which you honestly denied.”
The doctor resembles the Samaritan in the Gospel parable. Both are not “religiously” motivated when they come to the rescue of the needy. Both are anti-heroes in a religious drama. The doctor is an agnostic; the Samaritan is a schismatic, treated worse than an unbeliever by the Jews. Yet they become the embodiment of love for neighbor. They are sincere, dedicated and merciful; they are fully human. And this humanity brings them to God and eternal life.
The parable of the Samaritan does not belittle the status of the priest and the Levite. Nor does it honor the Samaritans as a religious group. After all, Jesus says that the Samaritans worship what they do not understand while the Jews worship what they understand, and salvation is from the Jews (Jn 4:22).
But religious obligations, if not rightly interpreted, may inhibit a person from showing pity and kindness which are at the heart of the greatest commandment of love. The regulations on defilement from contact with a bloodied and possibly dead body restrain the two representatives of official Jewish religion from practicing the love of neighbor. The Samaritan knows that these regulations also apply to him, yet his pity and kindness transcend the restrictions of the Law.
We cannot look down on people who are at the fringes of official religion. We should also be wary of presumption, the thought that occupying a sacred office means automatic salvation. The commandment of love of God and neighbor is the only supreme criterion of holiness. And love of God and service to neighbor are inseparable.