In parabolam Samaritani

On the Parable of the Man Who Fell Among Robbers. We heard, brothers, in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ saying that a certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among robbers, who stripped him and, after inflicting blows, left him half-dead. A priest and a Levite, passing along that road and seeing him, passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, coming to the place and seeing him, took pity on him, and, putting wine with oil and mixing it, poured it over him, and bound up his wounds, and, taking him up on his own beast, brought him to an inn, and gave the innkeeper two denarii, saying, "Take care of this man, and if you spend anything extra, I will repay you when I return." Let us therefore see the parable of these things, so that, understanding with an intelligent heart, we may recognize the mysteries of God. The man is Adam, Jerusalem is the heavenly polity and wisdom, and Jericho is the world. As long, then, as Adam before the disobedience had the heavenly mind and the angelic way of life, he had unimpeded entry into the heavenly city Jerusalem, and, making his dwelling and sojourn in the commandments of God, he was overcome by nothing, nor was he wounded; but when he disobeyed God and did not keep the commandment, but was carried away by the deceit of the serpent, then he went down to Jericho, that is, to the earth, and worked the works of the earth; for Jerusalem is interpreted "ascent," and Jericho "deluge.

He went down, then, as from Jerusalem to Jericho, so from the heavenly polity to the polity of the devil's deceit. For when someone keeps the commandments of God, then he dwells in the heavens, as the Apostle says, "Our citizenship is in the heavens." He went down from glory to dishonor, from the luxury of paradise to thorn-bearing land, from life to death. For it says, "When you eat of the tree, you will die by death," that is, by sin; for sin is the death of the soul, disobedience to God. He went down from the righteousness that was in paradise, from the holiness that was in the heavens, and came to Jericho, that is, to the fall of disobedience, to the death of sin. And he falls among the robbers, that is, among the devil and the powers opposed to him. And this life is a road, where Adam, having walked, fell among the robbers, and they stripped him. And what did they strip from him? The garment of obedience, the friendship with angels, the undefiled glory, the sojourn with Christ, the luxury of paradise, the heavenly life. They stripped this garment from him. And they inflicted blows upon him, that is, the sins: fornications, adulteries, idolatries, sorceries, murders, envies, strifes, wrath, and all the rest of the working of evils. For these works scourge a man, these produce foulness and corruption.

And that this is precisely so, learn from David, how he depicts Adam's wounds upon himself, rightly calling them sores: "My sores festered and putrefied from the face of my folly." Every sin produces a sore and a wound. He was wounded, then, through disobedience, he was struck through lawlessness, as the prophet says: "I was struck like grass, and my heart withered, because I forgot to eat my bread"—that is, to keep the commandment of God. "Half-dead," he says, "they left him," not as though they did not wish to kill him, but because God did not permit it. For He says, "I do not desire the death of the sinner, but his repentance." And where do they leave him? On the road—that is, in this life; for this age is called a road, since all men pass through it. "And coming upon him," says the priest, "on the road, and seeing him, he passed by." By "priest" he means the blessed Moses and Aaron. For David bears witness, saying, "Moses and Aaron are among his priests, and Samuel among those who invoke his name." This wondrous Moses, then, having become glorious—he who scourged the Egyptians with a tenfold lash, who divided the Red Sea and dried it up and led the people through it, who sweetened the water at Marah, who conversed with God through a cloud, who worked many miracles—traveling the road of this life and seeing the man lying wounded, passed him by and did not raise him up. Likewise also the Levite—that is, the prophetic order.

For even those who came later after Moses, and who walked the same path of life, finding Adam a wounded man, did not raise him up. Neither Moses through the law, nor the prophets through signs, healed Adam’s wound. No one raised him, no one granted him life, no one redeemed him from death, no one stanched the wound of sin; for they themselves were held in sins. Even if through a holy life they became friends of God, yet because they were of the same flesh as Adam, and were borne from the dead root, being branches they were unable to tear the root away from sin. But a certain Samaritan, it says, diligent in deeds, compassionate in intention, sympathetic toward his fellow servants, coming to the place and seeing him wounded, felt compassion, and applied oil and wine, and bound up his wounds—that is, his sins. Our Lord Jesus Christ assumes the person and image of a Samaritan. But one of the hearers will say: What? Do you call the Lord a Samaritan? Yes, I call him a Samaritan, not by the nature of his divinity, but by the imitation of his compassion. For just as the Samaritan was by the nature of his body like the others, but by the intention of his compassion was not like them, but appeared better, so also the Lord appeared a man in the appearance of his body, like the prophets and patriarchs according to the man from Mary, but in the power of his divinity he was shown greater than all; equal in human form, not equal in supramundane glory.

Those men, employing neglect and heartlessness, passed by the wounded man mercilessly; but the Samaritan appeared more compassionate, more pious, and more merciful. So also Christ, when patriarchs and prophets overlooked the man who had fallen through disobedience, alone appeared compassionate and merciful, according to the prophet who says: "The Lord is compassionate and merciful, long-suffering and very merciful"; and again, "For you, Lord, are compassionate." And just as the Samaritan was not of the nation of the Jews, but came from another country, so also Christ was not from the world, but from heaven. He came upon the earth; being God, he became man for our sake; being Master, he put on the form of a slave. He took pity on us, came down from heaven to earth, saw man cast down, despoiled, wounded in fornications, idolatries, adulteries, murders; he saw, and took pity on his own creation, and applied wine with oil; that is, mixing both, he made a draught, and applied it to man. What is it, mixing wine with oil? That is, mixing divinity with humanity, mixing compassion with salvation, he saved man. Mixing wine with oil, that is, mixing the Holy Spirit with his own blood, he gave life to man. For when the Lord's blood dripped

from the side to the ground, he washed away our bond of sins. And what is, "He bound up his wounds"? That is, he bound the devil and freed the man; he bound the vessel and brought the shipwrecked ship to life; he bound and enslaved the powers of the evil one, and liberated the man. If you wish to understand it in another way, listen. Mixing wine with oil: oil brings the word of comfort, while wine, being astringent, brings the teaching that gathers the scattered mind, according to what was said by the Apostle: "Reprove, rebuke, exhort." He placed him on his own beast: that is, Christ, taking the flesh upon his own shoulders of divinity, brought him up to the Father in the heavens. For he brought up not gold, or silver, or precious stones, but the man made in the image, from earth to heaven, into the great and wondrous and spacious inn, into this catholic Church. And he delivered him to the innkeeper, to the blessed Paul, the pillar of Christians, the genuine innkeeper, giving him two denarii; and through Paul to the high priests and teachers and ministers of each Church: two denarii, the Old and New Testament, saying, "Take care of this man, and whatever you spend additionally, I will repay you when I come." And he says, this is: "Take care," he says, "of the people from the nations, whom I have entrusted to you in the Church.

Since men are weak, wounded by sins, heal them, applying to them the stone of plaster, the prophetic sayings and the evangelical teachings, making them healthy through the admonitions and exhortations of the Old and New Testaments, persuading them to stand away from sin and to abandon the deception of the devil. But if even so they remain incorrigible, persuade them by your own achievements, bend them through your severe words; become a type for them and a good example, in word, in deed, in conduct, in faith, in love, in dignity, so that they may follow your type and become imitators of your good way of life. And if you do this and provide some additional contribution of words or deeds, if you expend anything extra, I, having returned, will repay you; that is, at my second coming I will give you the reward worthy of your labors. Therefore Paul, confident in these promises, says: I will gladly spend for Christ and be spent for your souls, speaking of the teaching to the Gentiles and the ministry of the word. For he is the one who builds up and strengthens the Churches of God and heals all men through spiritual admonitions, distributing to each what is suitable, guiding our souls to eternal life. For to all, he says, I have become all things, in order to save all. This is the good innkeeper of the Church, who receives all and cares for all.

It does not reject a fornicator, nor a drunkard, nor a reviler, nor does it turn away a robber, nor abhor an idolater, nor drive away any other impious and unclean person, but receives all. Just as a physician washes the wounds, and through the bath of regeneration cleanses and purifies, and applies the astringent words, like wine, so that one is not led by the sins or vices committed in ignorance. And again he heals through consolation, anointing our souls like oil; for he says: We exhort you, brothers, through the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living, holy, acceptable sacrifice, your rational worship. Therefore, all of you who are disciples of Paul’s words, let us keep the commandments of Christ, so that we may not fall from the heavenly Jerusalem and the city of the living God. May it be that we, healed of both soul and body wounds, stand before Christ sound and unbroken, lacking in no good work, and enjoy the good promise in heaven, by the grace and philanthropy of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom glory to the Father, together with the all-holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.