September 1, 2019, Fr. Ryan Hilderbrand – The Good Samaritan

Epistle: 2 Corinthians 3: 4-10

4 Brethren, such, through Christ, is the confidence in which we make our appeal to God.

5 Not that, left to ourselves, we are able to frame any thought as coming from ourselves; all our ability comes from God,

6 since it is he who has enabled us to promulgate his new law to men. It is a spiritual, not a written law; the written law inflicts death, whereas the spiritual law brings life.

7 We know how that sentence of death, engraved in writing upon stone, was promulgated to men in a dazzling cloud, so that the people of Israel could not look Moses in the face, for the brightness of it, although that brightness soon passed away.

8 How much more dazzling, then, must be the brightness in which the spiritual law is promulgated to them!

9 If there is a splendour in the proclamation of our guilt, there must be more splendour yet in the proclamation of our acquittal;

10 and indeed, what once seemed resplendent seems by comparison resplendent no longer, so much does the greater splendour outshine it.

Gospel: Luke 10: 23-37

 23 In those days, Jesus said to his disciples, Blessed are the eyes that see what you see;

24 I tell you, there have been many prophets and kings who have longed to see what you see, and never saw it, to hear what you hear, and never heard it.

25 It happened once that a lawyer rose up, trying to put him to the test; Master, he said, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

26 Jesus asked him, What is it that is written in the law? What is thy reading of it?

27 And he answered, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with the love of thy whole heart, and thy whole soul, and thy whole strength, and thy whole mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

28 Thou hast answered right, he told him; do this, and thou shalt find life.

29 But he, to prove himself blameless, asked, And who is my neighbour?

30 Jesus gave him his answer; A man who was on his way down from Jerusalem to Jericho fell in with robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and went off leaving him half dead.

31 And a priest, who chanced to be going down by the same road, saw him there and passed by on the other side.

32 And a Levite who came there saw him, and passed by on the other side.

33 But a certain Samaritan, who was on his travels, saw him and took pity at the sight;

34 he went up to him and bound up his wounds, pouring oil and wine into them, and so mounted him upon his own beast and brought him to an inn, where he took care of him.

35 And next day he took out two silver pieces, which he gave to the inn-keeper, and said, Take care of him, and on my way home I will give thee whatever else is owing to thee for thy pains.

36 Which of these, thinkest thou, proved himself a neighbour to the man who had fallen in with robbers?

37 And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then Jesus said, Go thy way, and do thou likewise.