Fr. Michael Williams

How do we respond to an evil act when it has been committed against another human being? The parable of the good Samaritan gives us the answer.

The evil act in the parable of the good Samaritan is the violence committed against the man travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho. ‘Brigands took all he had, and beat him…leaving him half dead’. The Brigands who had done this to the man had broken two of the ten commandments. Firstly, they had broken the commandment, ‘You shall not kill (which includes committing acts of violence)’ and secondly they had broken the commandment, ‘You shall not steal’ (which involves unjustly taking what rightly belongs to another). These crimes committed against the man in the parable are wicked acts.

What is the correct response to the wickedness and the evil committed against men and women in our world? The Samaritan traveller in the story reveals the correct response. The Samaritan ‘was moved with compassion’ when he saw the man, lying in the road half dead. The Samaritan, unlike the priest and the Levite in the story, gave both his time and his money to help the man. The Samaritan traveller was concerned to help someone crippled by suffering.

The Samaritan was helping a Jew, even though Jews and Samaritans did not get on with one another, indeed they were openly hostile to one another. The Samaritan helped the Jew because he understood that all human beings- whatever their race, religion or culture are beings made in the image and likeness of God. The Samaritan saw a suffering human being, and wanted to alleviate his fellow human’s suffering. The good Samaritan teaches us that to be truly good we must come to the aid of those in need, whatever their background. All of us are called to be good Samaritans to those in need, rather than ignore and walk past the needy.

There are many examples of good Samaritans throughout history. Last week whilst in Poland I went to visit Auschwitz. Much evil was committed in that place. Many bandits beat and killed many innocent people, just because they were Jewish. Yet despite the evil that was manifested at Auschwitz, many stories of love of neighbour manifest themselves. There were many good Samaritans amidst the Nazi bandits. Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish priest taken to Auschwitz because of his outspoken criticism of the Nazi regime. During the summer of 1941, a Nazi commander at Auschwitz, had designated that ten men would be executed because of the escape of a prisoner from their cell block. Before the execution took place Father Kolbe pointed to a Jewish man and said to the German officer, ‘I am a Polish Catholic priest. I am old. I want to take his place because he has a wife and children’. Maximilian and the nine others were taken to a starvation block and left to die. Father Kolbe did a heroic thing to save someone else’s life. He laid down his life for another, imitating Christ who laid down his life for us. He acted as a good neighbour to the Jewish man, and so inherited eternal life.

We probably won’t be called to anything as heroic as Father Maximilian Kolbe, but we are all called ‘to love the Lord our God and to love our neighbour’.

Let’s pray that we will respond to those who suffer evil and pain by being good Samaritans, offering spiritual and practical help to those who need it.