Theological Reflection

There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test him and said, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

Jesus said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read it?"

He 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."

He replied to him, "You have answered correctly; do this and you will live."

But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

Jesus 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. A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. 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. The 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.' Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers' victim?"

He answered, "The one who treated him with mercy."

Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

Lk 10:25-37

The General Introduction to the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services uses the parable of the Good Samaritan to explain how Catholic health care and its sponsoring communities "have exemplified authentic neighborliness to those in need." 

The parable, however, not only speaks to what we in Catholic health care are doing in our own communities, it also challenges us to expand our horizons. Jesus used the parable in response to a scholar of the law who, wishing to justify himself, asked: "Who is my neighbor?"  In his reply, Jesus changed the emphasis of the question. He himself asked, "Who was neighbor to the person in need?" For the Christian, neighborliness becomes not a characteristic in the other which makes me want to help but rather a characteristic in me as I go out to be neighbor to the other. 

The Samaritan went out of his way to help a person in need, a person of a different cultural background and religion. He used wine and oil to care for the person's wounds, and in doing so found new uses for items that he had been carrying along the way. He cared for the other at personal expense. In doing all of this, the Samaritan witnessed to the fact that the "other" is really a brother or sister and expressed the virtue of solidarity in a concrete way. The same parable calls upon us to understand our being neighbor not in terms of family resemblance or physical proximity but rather in terms of the other's need and the common good.

Contemporary popes, from Paul VI to Benedict XVI, have written about this virtue. Most recently, Pope Benedict called solidarity a "pressing moral need" and explained "God's love calls us to move beyond the limited and the ephemeral, it gives us the courage to continue seeking and working for the benefit of all." (Caritas in Veritate, 78). 

Through the international outreach of Catholic health care, we expand our understanding of who is our neighbor. We move out in solidarity not only to those in need whom we are able to see in our clinics and emergency rooms but to those across the continent and throughout the world. We show ourselves as neighbor to our sisters and brothers in Africa and Asia, in Latin America and the Caribbean. And, as our international outreach moves out in concrete ways throughout the world, we — like the Good Samaritan — begin to break down boundaries and borders and become more and more the sacrament of service and solidarity which the Church is called to be.

Tom Nairn, O.F.M., Ph.D.
Senior Director, Ethics
Catholic Health Association