3 October 1983
San Salvador, El Salvador

My dear Confreres,

Of all the parables that fell from the lips of Our Lord, I think the parable of the Good Samaritan, along with that of the Prodigal Son, must be considered the most tender and appealing. You will notice how it was a professional person, a lawyer, who stood up to pose the problem to Jesus. "Teacher, what must I do to inherit everlasting life?" (Lk 10:25). It was a question put by a professional man to One Who all the world knew had not done any professional studies in law. As all good teachers will do from time to time, Jesus answered the question by asking another. "What is written in the law?" (Ibid., 26). To that the lawyer replied: "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." (Ibid., v. 27). This reply, especially when it was given with others present, must have caused the lawyer to lose a little bit of face. So, as St. Luke remarks, "to justify himself," he said to Jesus: "And who is my neighbor?" (Ibid., v. 29). It was that question which brought forth the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Whenever I reflect upon this parable, I think of the Fathers of the Church who liked to see the poor man, who was wounded and half-dead on the road, as representative of humanity after original sin. Then Jesus Christ, God made man, comes along. He does not pass by. He shows interest and love. He pours oil and wine on the wounds of the poor man. The Fathers of the Church liked to think of the oil and the wine as Sacraments of Christ. Then the Good Samaritan lifts the poor man off the road, places him on his own beast, and brings him to an inn, which the Fathers of the Church saw as an image of Christ's Church.

So this beautiful story is descriptive of the whole work of our redemption. It is descriptive, too, in a special way of the work of Jesus Christ. Did you ever notice, when reading the parable, that the Good Samaritan only speaks at the end to the innkeeper, when he is making arrangements for the poor man's accommodation? We think of St. Vincent's expression: "Let us love God, but let us love Him with the strength of our arms and the sweat of our brows." (Coste XI, Fr. ed., p. 40). The Good Samaritan did just that.

There are scripture scholars who say that there is a very subtle twist to the end of the parable. Jesus asks the lawyer: "Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the man who fell in with robbers?" (Lk 10:36). The answer came, "The one who treated him with compassion." (Ibid., v. 37). It would seem that in asking the lawyer that question, Jesus was saying equivalently to him, "You asked Me `who was my neighbor?'. That was not a good question. The question you should have asked me was: `To whom can I be neighbor?' And the answer to that question is, `the first poor person you meet on the road.'"

In speaking to you, I am conscious that here in El Salvador you are daily finding people, like the man in the parable, "lying on the road half-dead." The parable of the Good Samaritan for all its beauty and tenderness is also a parable about violence. Goodness and violence live side by side in this world. At a repetition of prayer one day, St. Vincent gave expression to the pain of his heart as he contemplated the sufferings of poor, innocent people. I am certain you here in Salvador can appreciate fully what he said: "I renew the recommendation which I made and which cannot be made too often to pray for peace....For twenty years there has been war. If the people sow the crops, they are not sure that they will reap them. The armies come and plunder and carry away.... What is to be done? What is going to happen? If there is a true religion....what have I said, wretched man!....If there is a true religion....I speak in a materialistic way....It is among the people, it is among the poor that true religion is preserved and the faith lives. They believe simply, without being critical...the poor vineyard keepers who give us their work and ask that we pray for them, while they spend themselves to nourish us....The poor nourish us. Let us pray to God for them. Let no day pass that we do not offer them to Our Lord, so that He will grant them the grace to make good use of their sufferings." (Coste XI, Fr. ed., pp. 200-202).

As in St. Vincent's day, goodness and violence live side by side. Need I remind you of St. Paul's conviction that evil will not be conquered by evil, but by goodness. "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (Rom 12:21).

I pray that you will not be disheartened by the violence you witness almost every day. I pray that in opposing violence you will be enlightened to use, as the document of Puebla expresses it, "evangelical means which have their own distinctive efficacy...." May you rely on what Puebla calls "the vigorous energy and activity of Christians who are moved by the Spirit to respond to the countless millions of their brothers and sisters." (Puebla p. 486).