September 1985 Print

Edited by Scholasticus

In our last issue we made mention of the fact that one of the great defects of modern exegesis (Scriptural interpretation), even somewhat before Vatican II, is the insufficient use of the Fathers, the great Doctors of the early ages of the Church. Although every priest receives abundant fare from the Fathers simply by satisfying his obligation of praying the Breviary, the average Catholic rarely gets a chance to benefit from their extraordinary insights. It is true that the Church does not command us to read Holy Scripture, and even condemns the indiscriminate dissemination of the sacred books by the Protestant Bible Societies, with their principle of private judgment. Nevertheless nothing is more profitable than a profound study of Holy Writ, if it is done with the spirit of faith, and according to the mind of the Church. In this issue we continue to "search the Scriptures" by presenting the profound and imaginative commentaries of the Fathers on one of the best-loved parables in the Sunday Gospels.

A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho . . . (Lk. 10, 30)

St. Augustine: This man represents Adam, and stands for the human race. Jerusalem is that heavenly city of peace from whose happiness he had fallen. Jericho signifies the moon, and stands for our mortality, because it is born, increases, grows old, and dies.

St. Chrysostom: First, we must feel pity for the misfortune of this man, who, alone and unarmed, fell among robbers, and who, unforeseeing, and unwary, took the road on which he could not escape the road of the plunderers. For the unarmed cannot escape the armed, the unwary cannot escape the evil-disposed, the thoughtless those who plot injuries: for wickedness is ever armed with deceit, fortified with cruelty, and ready to attack with savagery.

St. Basil: This is also in keeping with the places, if you consider them. For Jericho lies in the deep valley of Palestine; while Jerusalem is seated on a height, occupying the summit of a mountain. Man therefore comes from the heights to the depths, so that he is caught from the robbers who are wont to dwell in the wilderness. Hence:

He fell among robbers . . .

St. Ambrose: Who are these robbers but angels of the night, and of darkness, among whom he would not have fallen had he not, regardless of the divine commandment, exposed himself to them?

St. Chrysostom: The devil in the beginning of the world used treachery against man, to injure him; employing against him the poison of deceit, and devoting his malice to injuring him.

. . . who stripped him and having wounded him, went away . . .

St. Augustine: He fell among robbers, that is, the devil and his angels: who through the disobedience of the first man stripped human kind; that is, deprived them of the adornments of virtue, and wounded them, that is, injuring in them the power of free will. They left him half dead: for in the part of him which can know and understand God, man is alive; in the part however in which he has been weakened by sin, and overcame, he is dead. For one who is half dead is wounded in his vital activity, that is, in his free will, that he is not able to return to the eternal life he has lost. And so he lays there, unable of his own power to rise, and seek the physician, God, to heal him.

Theophylact: Or, a man is "half dead" after sin because his soul is immortal, his body mortal; so that the half of man has succumbed to death. Or, because human nature hoped to find salvation in Christ; that it might not wholly succumb to death. In the measure that Adam sinned "death entered the world" (Rom. 5, 12). But in Christ's justice, death was to be destroyed.

St. Ambrose: Or, they strip us of the garments of spiritual grace we received; and it is so that they wound us. For if we preserve unspotted the garment of grace we put on, we cannot feel the blows of the robbers.

St. Bede: Sins are called wounds, because by them the integrity of our nature is wounded. "They went away," not ceasing however from their assaults but concealing their snares by craft.

St. Chrysostom: This man therefore is Adam, who lay there destitute of the means of salvation, pierced by the wounds of his sins; whom neither Aaron the Priest, passing by could help by his sacrifice, for we read:

And it chanced that a certain priest . . . seeing him, passed by . . . (v. 31)

Nor even his brother Moses, the Levite, could help by the law. So there follows:

In like manner also a Levite . . . saw him, and passed by . . .

St. Augustine: Or, in the priest and the Levite two different times are meant; namely, of the law of Moses, and of the Prophets. In the priest, the law of Moses is signified; for which sacrifices and the priesthood were instituted. In the Levite, the voice of the prophets; in whose time mankind could not be healed because through the Law of Moses came knowledge of sin, not its abolition.

Theophylact: But he says: "passed by" for the Law came, and stood for its predestined time, and went away. See also how by design the law was not given to this end: to heal man.

St. Augustine: Or, because the man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho is understood to have been an Israelite, it can be understood that the priest passing by was his neighbor by race, yet passed by, leaving him there. And a Levite also passed by, likewise his neighbor by race, and he also ignored him.

But a certain Samaritan, being on his journey, came near him . . . (v. 33)

St. Augustine: Our Lord Jesus Christ willed that He Himself should be understood in this Samaritan. For Samaritan is interpreted to mean guardian, and is used of Himself: "Behold he shall neither slumber nor sleep that keepeth Israel" (Ps. 120, 4).

Greek interpreter: Here Christ rightly speaks of Himself as a Samaritan. For when speaking to the lawyer who had prided himself in the law, He willed to make clear that neither the priest nor the Levite, in both of whom was presupposed a knowledge of the law, had fulfilled the intention of the law, whereas it was for this He had come: to fulfill the purpose of the law.

St. Ambrose: The Samaritan was going down. For Who descends from heaven save only He Who ascends into heaven: the Son of Man Who is in heaven. And coming He became our closest neighbor, through compassion for us. And He came near us by the gift of His mercy.

And seeing him was moved with compassion . . .

St. Augustine: Seeing him lying there powerless, without movement, He was moved by compassion, for He found no merit in him which gave him the right to be healed.

And, going up to him, bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine . . . (v. 34)

St. Augustine: The binding up of the wounds is the correction of sin. Oil stands for the comfort of good hope, through the pardon given us to restore us to peace. Wine stands for encouragement to work most fervently in the spirit.

St. Gregory: Or, in the wine He suggests the sharpness of punishment; in the oil the mildness of love. With this wine let our corrupt parts be dressed; with the oil let the parts that are healing be soothed. Therefore let mildness be mingled with severity, and let there be a just measure of both the one and the other, so that those subject to us may neither be provoked by too great severity, nor weakened by too much mildness.

St. Chrysostom: Or, He poured in wine, that is, the Blood of His Passion, and the oil of His Anointing: that He might give us pardon through His Blood, and sanctify us through anointing with chrism. Our wounded parts are bound up by the heavenly Physician and, retaining His medicine within them, they are restored by its action to their former state of health.

And, seating him upon his own beast, brought him to an inn and took care of him . . .

St. Ambrose: He places us on His own beast when He bears our sins and suffers for us (Is. 53, 4). For man is become "like to a beast" (Ps. 48, 13). So He places us upon His own beast, lest we "become like a horse and the mule" (Ps. 31, 9); so that by His assumption of our body He might take away the weakness of our flesh.

St. Augustine: "His own beast" is the Body in which He deigned to come to us. To be placed upon His beast is to believe in the Incarnation of Christ . . .

Theophylact: Or, He placed him on His own beast, that is, upon His own Body, for He made us His own members, and the partakers of His Body.

And brought him to an inn . . .

St. Chrysostom: The Church is the inn which in the journey of this world receives the weary and those that are overcome by the weight of their sins; where, casting aside the burden of sin, the wearied traveller may rest, and is restored with healthful food.

And the next day he took out two pence and gave to the host and said: Take care of him . . . (v. 35)

St. Ambrose: The two pence are the two Testaments, upon which are impressed the Image of the Eternal King, by Whose price our wounds are healed.

St. Augustine: Or the two denarii are the two precepts of charity, which the Apostles received through the Holy Ghost to preach to others.

And whatsoever thou shalt spend over and above, I, at my return, shall repay thee . . .

St. Augustine: The innkeeper was the Apostle Paul, who "spent over and above" [by his zeal]. The other Apostles also spent much "over and above"; as did in due time the Doctors also who spent "over and above" in the interpretation of the Old and New Testament.

St. Ambrose: Blessed therefore is that innkeeper who can take care of the wounds of another; blessed is he to whom Jesus says: "I, at my return, will repay thee." But when, Lord, will You return, save on the day of judgment? For though Thou art everywhere always, and standing in the midst of us all, we see Thee not. Yet there shall be a time when all flesh shall behold Thee coming again. Then shalt thou pay what thou owest to the Blessed to Whom thou art a debtor.

Which of these three, in thy opinion, was neighbor to him that fell among the robbers? But he said: He that showed mercy to him. And Jesus said to him: Go, and do thou in like manner, (vv. 36, 37).

St. Chrysostom: As though to say: Should you see someone afflicted, do not say: he no doubt is wicked; but rather, whether he be Jew or Gentile, but in need of help, do not hesitate to help him whatever the evils he may have yielded to.

St. Augustine: From this we are to understand that our neighbor is he to whom we should render the offices of compassion, should he be in need of them, or to whom we should have rendered them, had he needed them. Who does not see that no one is excepted from our duty of compassion? For the Lord has said: "Do good to them that hate you" (Matt. 5, 44), and the Lord Himself for this reason willed to be called our neighbor; making clear to us, that it was He Who had taken care of the man lying half-dead by the wayside.