Homilies on Luke — Homily 34 (Luke 10:25–37)
Latin source: Origen's Greek homilies on Luke, surviving only in Jerome's Latin translation (c. 391), from the reading text of M. Rauer (ed.), Origenes Werke IX (GCS 35, Leipzig, 1930). This English translation is released into the public domain.Concerning what is written: "Master, what shall I do to possess eternal life?" up to the place where he says: "Go, and you also do likewise".
Although there are many precepts in the law, the Savior set down in the Gospel only these, which by a kind of summary would lead the obedient to eternal life. For he has regard to that which the doctor of the law had asked him, saying: "Master, what shall I do to possess eternal life?" — the reading which according to Luke has today been recited to you. He answered: "What is written in the law? how do you read? You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole strength, and with your whole mind; and your neighbor as yourself". And then he said: "You have answered well; do this, and you shall live". There is no doubt that it is everlasting life about which both the doctor of the law had inquired and the Savior's discourse had treated. And at the same time we are plainly taught that it is commanded in the law that we should love God. In Deuteronomy he says: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God", and: "You shall love the Lord your God with your whole mind" and the rest, and "your neighbor as yourself". And the Savior bore witness concerning these things, saying: "On these two commandments the whole law hangs, and the prophets". But when the doctor of the law "wished to justify himself" and to show that no one was neighbor to him, and said: "Who is my neighbor?", the Lord introduced a parable whose beginning is: "A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho", and the rest. And he teaches that he who was going down was neighbor to no one except to him who was willing to keep the precepts and to prepare himself, so as to be neighbor to every man who is in need of aid. For this is what is set down at the end after the parable: "Which of these three seems to you to be neighbor to him who fell among the robbers?" For neither the priest nor the Levite was his neighbor, but, as the doctor of the law himself also answered, "he who did mercy" was his neighbor. Whence it is also said by the Savior: "Go, and you also do likewise". A certain one of the elders, wishing to interpret the parable, used to say that the man who went down is Adam, Jerusalem paradise, Jericho the world, the robbers the hostile powers, the priest the law, the Levite the prophets, the Samaritan Christ, the wounds disobedience, the beast the body of the Lord, the pandochium — that is, the inn, which receives all who wish to enter — he interpreted to be the Church. Further, the two denarii are to be understood as the Father and the Son, and the innkeeper as the president of the Church, to whom its stewardship has been entrusted. And as for the fact that the Samaritan promises he will return, he figured this according to the Savior's second coming.
Although these things are said reasonably and beautifully, it is nevertheless not to be supposed that they pertain to every man. For not every man "goes down from Jerusalem to Jericho", nor do all on that account tarry in the present age, even though he who "was sent because of the lost sheep" — "of the house of Israel" — came. The man, therefore, who "went down from Jerusalem to Jericho", because he himself willed to go down, for that reason "fell among robbers". But the robbers are none other than those of whom the Savior says: "all who came before me were thieves and robbers". Yet he fell not among thieves, but among "robbers" much more wicked than thieves, who, when he was going down "from Jerusalem" and had fallen among them, "stripped him and laid blows upon him". What are the blows, what the wounds, by which the man was wounded? Vices and sins. Then, because the robbers who had stripped him and wounded him do not sit by the naked man, but, blows having again been laid on, abandon him, for this reason it is written: "stripping him and laying on wounds, they departed and left him" not dead, but "half-dead". And it came to pass that on the same road there went down first a "priest", then a "Levite", who had perhaps done certain good things to other men, yet not to this one who had gone down "from Jerusalem to Jericho". For the "priest" saw him — the law, I think — the "Levite" saw him — the prophetic word, as I suppose — and when they had seen him, they passed by and left him. For providence was keeping the half-dead man for him who was stronger than the law and the prophets, namely the Samaritan, which is interpreted "guardian". This is he who "neither slumbers nor sleeps, keeping Israel". On behalf of the half-dead man this Samaritan set out, not going down "from Jerusalem to Jericho" as the priest and the Levite went down; or if he did go down, he went down for this reason, that he might save and guard the one about to die — the Samaritan to whom the Jews said: "You are a Samaritan and have a demon", and who, when he had denied that he had a demon, would not deny that he was a "Samaritan"; for he knew that he was a "guardian". And so when he had come to the half-dead man and had seen him wallowing in his own blood, he took pity and approached him, that he might become his neighbor; "he bound up the wounds, poured in oil mixed with wine", and did not say what is read in the prophet: "there is no salve to lay on, nor oil, nor bandages". This is the "Samaritan" of whose care and aid all who are ill have need — of whose aid especially that man had need who, going down "from Jerusalem", "had fallen among robbers" and, wounded by them, had been left half-alive. And that you may know that it was according to the providence of God that this Samaritan went down, so that he might heal him who "had fallen among robbers", you will be plainly taught from this: that he had bandages with him, oil with him, wine with him — which indeed I think the Samaritan carried with him not on account of this one half-dead man alone, but also on account of others who for various causes had been wounded and were in need of bandages and oil and wine. He had "oil", of which it is written: "that he may make the face cheerful with oil" — without doubt the face of him who had been healed. He heals with "oil", that the swellings of the wounds might be soothed, but also cleanses the wounds with "wine", mixing in something of sharpness, and him who had been wounded he "set upon his own beast", that is, upon his own body, in accordance with the fact that he deigned to take up manhood. This Samaritan "bears our sins" and grieves for us, bears the half-dead man, brings him into the "pandochium", that is, into the Church, which receives all and denies its aid to none, to which Jesus calls all, saying: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you". And after he had brought him in, he does not at once withdraw, but for one day he perseveres in the inn with the half-dead man and tends his wounds not only in the day but also in the night, bestowing upon him the remainder of his care and diligence. And when he wished to set out in the morning, from his tested silver, from his tested money, he "takes out two denarii" and pays the innkeeper — without doubt the angel of the Church — whom he charges to tend him carefully and to bring him through to health, the one whom, because of the shortness of time, he himself also had tended. The "two denarii" seem to me to be the knowledge of the Father and the Son and the understanding of the mystery — how the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father — which is given as a kind of wage to the angel, that he may more diligently tend the man commended to him; and it is promised to him that whatever of his own he shall have spent for the healing of the half-dead man is to be repaid forthwith. Truly this "guardian" of souls is nearer than the law and the prophets — he "who did mercy to him who had fallen among robbers" — and he appeared as his "neighbor" not so much by word as by deed. Since, therefore, it is possible, according to that which is said: "Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ", for us to imitate Christ and to have mercy on those who "have fallen among robbers", to approach them, to bind up their wounds, to pour in oil and wine, to set them upon our own beast and to bear their burdens — for this reason the Son of God, exhorting us to such things, speaks not so much to the doctor of the law as to us all also: "Go, and you also do likewise". And if we shall do likewise, we shall attain eternal life in Christ Jesus: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.