Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 10, 2022 Cycle C
by Rev. Jose Maria de Sousa Alvim Calado Cortes, F.S.C.B.
Pastor, Church of St. Peter, North St. Paul, MN

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Sunday Reading Meditations

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen."

The first time I administered the sacrament of the anointing of the sick was to an old man in agony. I went to his house to perform the sacrament and expected to be conducting his funeral any day. However, that was not what happened. The man recovered. He had the time to convalidate his marriage and return to the grace of the sacraments. Several months later, when he was ready, he went to the house of the Father.

With the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus reassures us that although we are wounded and broken, he can heal us by restoring our relationship with God.

Commenting on the parable, Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen says: “That unfortunate man represents each one of us. We too have encountered robbers on our way. The world, the devil, and our passions have stripped and wounded us” (Magnificat, July 2022, p. 139).

The good Samaritan represents Jesus. Origen of Alexandria wrote: “The man who was going down is Adam… The Samaritan is Christ…He carries the half-dead man, and brings him to…the Church.” St. Augustine uses the same allegorical interpretation of the parable: “The whole human race, you see, is that man who was lying in the road, left there by bandits half dead, who was ignored by the passing priest and Levite, while the passing Samaritan stopped by him to take care of him and help him…in this Samaritan the Lord Jesus Christ wanted us to understand himself” (Augustine, Sermons, 171.2 and 179A.7,  trans. E. Hill, cited in Gadenz, The Gospel of Luke, p. 213).

We are wounded and broken. We live in a violent world where God is ostensibly absent from our lives. Loneliness and despair are frequent. Without the Father, we are orphans. However, God is very near. He has compassion on our condition and approaches us: “[…] a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. He approached the victim […]” (Lk 10:33–34).

Modern medicine and psychology can heal the body and the mind, as never before. This is splendid but it is not enough. It is not enough to extend life. We need resurrection! As today’s alleluia refrain says, “Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life, you have the words of everlasting life.”

Jesus heals us because he restores our relationship with God, reconnects us with our Creator. In a mysterious way, sin is at the roots of all sickness. Our relationship with God has been broken since the beginning, which leads us to suffering and death. In the second reading, St. Paul says “all things were created through him and for him” (Col 1:16). As we recognize our origin and destiny, healing starts in our lives. We are healed when we return to the Lord with the wholeness of our person, with all our heart. Today’s first reading says: “return to the LORD, your God, with all your heart and all your soul” (Dt 30:2).

There is no healing without conversion. If we try to justify ourselves, we shall never be healed by the Lord, we shall never experience the fullness of life that Christ brings us: “For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell” (Col 1:19). In order to be healed, we need to seek the Lord. Today’s responsorial psalm says: “See, you lowly ones, and be glad; you who seek God, may your hearts revive!” (Ps 69:33).

There is no healing without forgiveness. In order to be healed, we need to forgive those who have offended us and forgive ourselves. When we do, we open our hearts to receive the healing power of the blood of Christ. Our wounds are healed by Jesus’ wounds. As St. Peter said in his First Letter, “By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Pt 2:24). We are healed when we return to the Lord with the wholeness of our person, with our whole heart, “return to the LORD, your God, with all your heart and all your soul” (Dt 30:10).

“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” (Lk 10:34). The inn is the Church, the place where Jesus’ power of healing reaches us. The two silver coins that the Samaritan gives to the innkeeper are the sacraments and the life of the community.

As we are healed by Jesus’ mercy, we become good Samaritans ourselves. Those who have been healed become physicians to heal others.

As Jesus told the scholar of the law, today he tells us: “Go and do likewise” (Lk 10:37).  Amen.