Patrick Comerford
We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and today is the Fourth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity IV, 13 July 2025). In the Calendar of the Orthodox Church today is also the Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the Fourth Ecumenical Council. The Council of Chalcedon in 451 CE defined the doctrine of the hypostatic union, clarifying the relationship between the divine and human natures of Christ.
I am still feeling sore and very sorry for myself after Friday’s surgical procedure in Oxford, but I am hoping to attend the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, later this morning. But, before I make any decisions about what to do, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, reading today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
Luke 10: 25-37 (NRSVA):
25 Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ 26 He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?’ 27 He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.’
28 And he said to him, ‘You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.’
29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?’ 30 Jesus replied, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan while travelling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, “Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.” 36 Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’ 37 He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’
Today’s Reflection:
The Lectionary readings this year [2025 Year C] are inviting us to work our way through Saint Luke’s Gospel, which is full of healing stories and parables.
Most of us are familiar – or think we are familiar with – these great parables:
• the rich man with his barns who wants to ‘eat, drink and be merry’ (Luke 12: 13-21, 3 August 2025)
• the thief in the night (Luke 12: 32-40, 10 August 2025)
• the guests at the wedding banquet (Luke 14: 1, 7-14, 31 August 2025)
• the lost sheep and the lost coin (Luke 15: 1-10, 14 September 2025)
• the Prodigal Son (Luke 15: 11-32, 30 March 2025)
• the unjust steward (Luke 16: 1-13, 21 September 2025)
• Dives and Lazarus (Luke 16: 19-31, 28 September 2025)
• the widow who nags and nags at the judge (Luke 18: 1-8, 19 October 2025)
• the Pharisee and the tax-collector (Luke 18: 9-14, 26 October 2019).
Regular churchgoers are so familiar with these parables, we know who to identify with, who is being chided, what the lesson is, and what to expect in the sermon.
Or do we?
The story of the Parable of the Good Samaritan, which we read this morning, is so familiar to all of us that we all know how to use the term Samaritan … well, don’t we?
A Good Samaritan is someone who comes to our aid in time of need, who goes over and beyond the demands of duty, a good listener, a good neighbour, a giver, a helping hand …
In conversations, I sometimes identify my own Good Samaritans in the world today. I think of Francesca Albanese, the UN Rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, who is vocal about the plight of people in Gaza. The Trump regime has imposed sanctions on her for investigating abuses of human rights in the Palestinian Territories, but nominations for her to receive the Nobel Peace Prize are gaining momentum. There is Carola Rackete, the German sea captain who defied Italy’s ban on migrant rescue ships some years ago by forcing her way into the port of Lampedusa with 42 migrants rescued at sea. Or the ordinary, everday people everyday people throughout the US every day who try to masked and unnamed ICE and Homeland Security agents from breaking up families in their homes, in the courtrooms and on the streets.
There are countless Good Samaritans across the US today, trying to stop ICE and Homeland Security from breaking up families and taking away migrants, immigrants, students, tourists … neighbours.
In an extraordinary move, the Bishop of San Bernardino has dispensed or freed a person from the obligation to attend Masses on Sunday and Holy Days of Obligation if the person fears ICE. Bishop Alberto Rojas says that he is guided by the desire to extend pastoral care to all in his diocese, particularly those who ‘face fear and hardship’. It is a vivid reminder that even churches are no longer considered safe places.
The one who shows mercy is the good neighbour.
But there are other characters, other dramatis personæ, in this parable too … who would identify with the man who has been beaten up and left by the road?
We all pretend we have not but probably have met characters who might easily be in that band of robbers.
I should worry that people might compare me less with the Good Samaritan and more with the priest and the Levite hurrying and scurrying to the Temple, two men who might well have made very good and upright deans and canons today.
How many of us would identify with the innkeeper, worried about somebody who is going to make a mess of one of the last rooms left available at a busy time of holidays and pilgrimages?
How many of us, instead, would identify with the man who has been beaten up and left half dead on the side of the road?
How often have I been beaten up on the pathway through life?
Beaten up by family rows and divisions?
Beaten up by depression, anxiety and low self-esteem?
Beaten up by job loss or finding it difficult to find meaning in life?
Beaten up by rejection in love, in friendship, by bullies, in employment?
Beaten up by ill-health, physical and psychological, when people pass by and think I ought to pull myself up by own bootstraps?
Beaten up by addictions that other people think are my own fault, so they pass me by on the other side of the road?
Well that man brought it all on himself, didn’t he, straying off the straight and narrow, instead of keeping focussed on the holy city, the Jerusalem of this parable, turning his face towards Jericho, the oldest city in the world, representing every city with its fleshpots and decadence?
There is another way of reading this parable, however. It is the way it was read by the early Fathers of the Church, a way of reading it for almost 1,500 years, a way that it is still read in the Orthodox Church.
The man who goes down from Jerusalem to Jericho is Adam, or humanity, each and every one of us.
Jerusalem is the holy city of God, but also symbolises God’s future plans for us.
Jericho, the oldest city the world, symbolises the oldest earthly pleasures.
On the way, the man loses his freedom, becomes captive to his passions, wounded by sin, so incapable of prayer and worship that on the road of life he has become spiritually half-dead, stripped of his virtues, left without the cover of God’s grace and protection.
The man wounded by robbers represents fallen humanity before the coming of Christ.
The Priest and the Levite, ministers of God, represent the saints and prophets sent by God from the beginning of time, before Christ’s coming.
They saw the plight of humanity, lying on the road. Moses came by, Elijah came by, other prophets came by, but the illness of humanity remained without being healed.
Only God who has created us can recreate us. God humbles himself and becomes human, takes on our human flesh, in the incarnation. It sounds so unlikely, so impossible, it is like imagining a Jew becoming a Samaritan, one of those in the territory between Judea and Galilee, between Jericho and Jerusalem.
Indeed, the Pharisees mockingly labelled Christ a Samaritan, saying, ‘Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?’ (John 8: 48).
Christ humbly attributes to himself the name given to him by his detractors.
The Samaritan binds up the wounds of wounded humanity, pours oil and wine on them: oil symbolises mercy and wine the true teaching of God. He then brings us to an inn where we can be taken care of.
The Gospel says that the Good Samaritan ‘put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.’ However, in traditional icons, Christ carries the man on his own back. Christ in the incarnation takes on our human nature, our soul and body. That is why in the parable he ‘set him on his own beast,’ interpreted by the Early Fathers that Christ makes us members of his own body.
There is a similar image in the parable of the Lost Sheep (see Luke 15). When the Good Shepherd finds the lost sheep, he puts him on his shoulders, rejoicing.
The inn represents the Church, the innkeeper the bishops and priests. Christ establishes his Church which, like an inn, accepts and provides shelter for all. The wounded man should stay here to be taken care of. The Samaritan has to leave, however. He takes out two silver coins and gives them to the innkeeper, saying: ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’
Christ indicates his second coming, he will return.
The silver given to the innkeeper is the divine grace Christ gives to the Church; it heals and saves souls through the sacraments. Bishops and priests, the ministers of the sacraments of the Church, are the distributors of God’s gifts and freely-given grace for the lost and the outcast and those of us who have fallen by the way.
In this reading of the parable of the Good Samaritan, Christ offers himself as the prime example of mercy and compassion. Through his compassion, he takes on our sufferings and becomes the true neighbour of all fallen humanity.
We are not being challenged in this morning’s reading to be Good Samaritans. We don’t all have that opportunity, that encounter, that wealth to spend.
We are not even being challenged to be a good neighbour.
We are being challenged to ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself’ (Luke 10: 27).
The Jewish theologian, Professor Michael Fishbane, says this great exhortation is at the heart of the Hebrew Bible, and adds: ‘These words are also at the heart of Judaism and constitute its religious idea.’
Christ then echoes a verse in the Law: ‘You have given the right answer; do this and you will live’ (verse 28). ‘You shall keep my statutes and my ordinances; by doing this one shall live: I am the Lord’ (Leviticus 18: 5).
The one who shows mercy is the good neighbour.
Today’s Prayers (Sunday 13 July 2025, Trinity IV):
The theme this week (13 to 19 July) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Shaping the Future: Africa Six.’ This theme is introduced today with a programme update from Fran Mate, Senior Regional Manager: Africa, USPG:
Earlier this year I arranged a meeting with the Advisory Council of the Africa 6 – the Centre for Anglican Women’s Leadership and Research in Africa (CAWLRA). We gathered at the Thaba Bosiu Cultural Village in Lesotho for an inspiring week of strategic thinking and reflection. The retreat, which brought together some of the most influential Anglican women leaders in Africa, focused on empowering senior women bishops to lead with strength and vision in the years to come. It was a pleasure to be alongside the Right Revd Dr Dalcy Dlamini (Bishop of Eswatini), the Right Revd Filomena Teta das Neves Estevão (Bishop of Bom Pastor, Angola), the Right Revd Dr Vicentia Kgabe (Bishop of Lesotho) and the Right Revd Dr Emily Onyango (Assistant Bishop of the Diocese of Bondo, Kenya).
Although unable to attend, the Africa 6 also includes the Right Revd Elizabeth Awut (Diocese of Rumbek, South Sudan) and the Right Revd Rose Okeno (Diocese of Butere, Kenya).
The Africa 6’s inspirational mission is clear: to ensure that Anglican women leaders across the continent are equipped and empowered to make a lasting impact, not just for today, but for future generations.
USPG are proud to walk alongside the Africa 6 Women Anglican Bishops as they lead the way in establishing and shaping the future of the Centre for Anglican Women’s Leadership and Research in Africa. Together, we continue to support the growth of women’s leadership within the Anglican Church, ensuring that these remarkable leaders are ready to guide the Church into the future.
The USPG prayer diary today (Sunday 13 July 2025, Trinity IV) invites us to pray by reading and meditating on Luke 10: 25-27.
The Collect:
O God, the protector of all who trust in you,
without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy:
increase and multiply upon us your mercy;
that with you as our ruler and guide
we may so pass through things temporal
that we lose not our hold on things eternal;
grant this, heavenly Father,
for our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Eternal God,
comfort of the afflicted and healer of the broken,
you have fed us at the table of life and hope:
teach us the ways of gentleness and peace,
that all the world may acknowledge
the kingdom of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Gracious Father,
by the obedience of Jesus
you brought salvation to our wayward world:
draw us into harmony with your will,
that we may find all things restored in him,
our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Yesterday’s reflections
Continued tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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