Archbishop of Sydney

Father George Rutler’s Parish of Our Saviour

New York
Deut 30:10-14; Col 1:15-20; Lk 10:25-37

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
11 July 2004

We have today the intriguing gospel story of the Good Samaritan, two words we run together automatically because we have heard the gospel many times and the title has entered our Catholic memory and culture.  In Melbourne, Australia, we have Good Samaritan College, a high school for boys.  Probably there are other institutions so named.

We also know that the Samaritans and Jews were hostile to one another, so that Our Lord telling his Jewish brothers and sisters of a Good Samaritan would be something like him today speaking of a good Palestinian after pointing out that their own Jewish religious leaders had let the side down and done the wrong thing in passing by.

There are many different theories about why the priest and the Levite did travel by without helping.  I have read that the priest was preoccupied, either preparing his sermon or distractedly worrying about global warming.  More plausibly if the person was dead, contact would have prevented the priest from participating in the ceremonies at the Temple in Jerusalem.

Recently I heard another theory for the first time as one rather acid tongued parishioner told her parish priest that the priest in the parable passed by because he realised that the poor man had been robbed of everything already!  I suppose the fact that she was prepared to make the crack in good humour is evidence that all of us as priests could plead not guilty on at least that score.

Recently too I heard of an outspoken Sydney priest in Australia who used to explain to his parishioners that it was the bishop who passed by the sufferer without helping.  Rumour also has it that the bishop called him in to reprimand him for this creative exegesis, but that did not prevent the parish priest from repeating his theory the next time the text appeared in the cycle of readings.

This story of Our Lord teaches an indelible lesson that boundaries for our Christian love should reach out to everyone we know.  It is sometimes easier to like people we do not know, like the humanitarian who loved everyone except most of those he had to live with.  Love means an underlying presence of active sympathy, which is expressed in action when there is a need.  Just as Christian hope is a virtue sometimes very different from everyday human optimism, so Christian love is different from being naturally friendly and outgoing.  People who are naturally a bit unsociable, perhaps they are shy and reserved, can practise Christian love as well as the innately gregarious.

So too this parable reminds us that Christian love can be expressed by people when we do not expect it.  This is one important purpose, to force us to broaden our categories, not to write off whole categories of people, not to think badly of individuals, unless the evidence compels us to do so.  The kindly Samaritan was a surprise and no doubt every adult here this morning has been surprised and grateful at one time or another by unexpected kindness.

Neither can I resist reminding you of Margaret Thatcher’s take on this parable.  As politician and Prime Minister of Great Britain she was committed to private initiative and to wealth creation.  She pointed out quite correctly that if the Good Samaritan had not been prosperous, with considerable money to spare, he would never have been able to afford to pay for putting the man up in the inn until he was healed.  He would not even have been able to afford the wine which he poured into his wounds to cleanse them and the oil he used to hasten the healing process.

Wealth is not an advantage in the Christian scheme of things, because it is the poor or poor in spirit who are blessed according to Jesus, while the rich, however Jesus defined them, have difficulty entering the Kingdom.

It is a good thing for the economy that few of us are either called or strong enough to be perfect by giving away all our possessions.  If too many were like Francis of Assisi and gave away everything to live simply the economy would collapse.

But everyone is obliged to earn his money justly and those with wealth in any degree are supposed to use some of it for the poor and disadvantaged.  There is a great tradition of private philanthropy in this country, more highly developed than in Australia, and we thank God for it.  We should pray that the Good Samaritan will inspire many good Catholics throughout the world, and particularly where we have a high standard of living, to follow his example of courage, concern and generosity towards the disadvantaged.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.