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Commentaries
English
Luke
  
THE GOOD SAMARITAN
(Luke 10:25-37)
25And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" 26He said to him, "What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?"27So he answered and said, "’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’"28And He said to him, "You have answered rightly; do this and you will live."


In this event, Christ shows us how God hid the essence of his kingdom from the prudent and educated, but revealed it to the children and harmless. An expert expounder of the Mosaic Law came to Jesus, and asked him in the spirit of the law, "What must I do to inherit Paradise?" This man wanted to make every effort and hard work, not for God but for himself, in order to gain a great inheritance. The poor one wanted to win heaven by his own means, knowing not his sin and faults.
The Lord immediately led this expert in the law, who tempted Jesus to a wrong interpretation, into the heart of the law, and fished him with his net of law, that he had to confess that man’s love to God means eternal life. Then, how do you love God? How many times do you think of him during your day? How much of your strength, time, and money do you practically sacrifice for your Creator? Do not deceive yourself. You turn around yourself, and your problems take your entire attention. God is not the center of your universe. This is why you are criminal, for you made of yourself a minor god, stealing the glory from your Lord. Repent, ask for your Lord truly, and love him with all your heart that you may forget yourself, and suddenly find your poor man brother, for God meets with you in the needy.
The same as you previously loved yourself, the love of God changes you into a bent on lover of all those that are afflicted; and as your thoughts were previously centered on pleasing your self and your unclean wishes, so they become changed now, thinking of God’s mercy to the distresses of your friends, praying and caring for them, seeking those who are going astray, and sacrificing your time for the mob, for what you do to the least of these, you do to God. Love is perfection of law. If you do not love, you do not truly live. Turn soon to the love of God that the firebrand of his tender mercy may make you sunk in love.