7 November 2026 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”” Luke 10:37
A lawyer asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” and then, “Who is my neighbour?” Jesus answers with a story in which the despised Samaritan is the one who stops, binds the wounds and pays the cost. The question changes: not “Who is my neighbour?” but “Will I be a neighbour?”
Paul describes the same love from the inside: “Let love be genuine… outdo one another in showing honour… extend hospitality to strangers… live peaceably with all.” The Church, God's house, is meant to be the inn where the wounded are cared for, and every Christian is sent out to the road to Jericho.
Theme: “Go and do likewise.”
The Good Samaritan and Paul's portrait of genuine love.
“You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.” Leviticus 19:18
“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 neighbor as yourself.”” Luke 10:27
Apply: Do one act of love for God and one for your neighbour today.
“For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” Hosea 6:6
“He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”” Luke 10:37
Apply: Give time to someone others pass by.
“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28
Apply: Welcome a newcomer or migrant worker in your parish.
The Samaritan is Christ; the inn is the Church; the road to Jericho is ours.
Go and do likewise.
Take-home resolution: Visit or phone someone lonely this week.
Dear friends, a lawyer asks: what must I do to inherit eternal life? And then: who is my neighbour? Jesus answers with a story in which a despised Samaritan is the one who stops, binds the wounds and pays the cost (Luke 10:30–35). The question changes: not who is my neighbour, but to whom can I be a neighbour?
Paul says: let love be genuine; love one another with mutual affection; rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep (Romans 12:9–15). This is the way of life in God's house.
The Fathers of the Church compared the Church to the inn where the Samaritan brought the wounded man: a house of healing. This week let us practise love that stops: when we meet a need on the road, let us not pass by. Amen.
Children, the good Samaritan stopped and helped the hurt man. If you see someone sad today, go close and help!
Lord Jesus, Good Samaritan of humanity, you stopped for me when I was wounded. Make me a neighbour to all, with genuine love that stops, binds and pays the cost. Amen.
Both readings describe love that is real. Paul gives a string of short commands: "Let love be genuine", bless your persecutors, weep with those who weep. In the Gospel a lawyer asks, "who is my neighbor?", and Jesus answers with the Samaritan who stopped on the road. In God's house love is not a feeling only; it is the way to eternal life.
Setting.
In Romans 1–11 Paul has explained the gospel: all have sinned, and God justifies sinners by his grace through faith in Christ. Chapter 12 turns to life. It begins: "present your bodies as a living sacrifice" (12:1), and describes the Church as one body with many members (12:4–8). Today's verses show what that body looks like in daily life.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good;” (12:9)
Genuine love is not weak. It hates evil and holds on to good, like someone holding something precious with both hands.
“Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” (12:15)
The second is often easier than the first. To rejoice sincerely in another's success, without envy, is a sign of real love.
“Do not repay anyone evil for evil” (12:17)
Paul echoes Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:39, 44). Peace with all is asked "so far as it depends on you" (v. 18): we cannot control others, but we can refuse to answer evil with evil.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism quotes St Paul's praise of love and teaches that charity animates and inspires the practice of all the virtues (CCC 1826–1827). St Augustine's short rule, "Love, and do what you will", means that when the root of a life is genuine love, good actions grow from it (in substance; Homilies on 1 John 7).
Setting.
Jesus is on his long journey to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51–19:27). A lawyer, an expert in the law of Moses, asks a test question. Jesus lets him answer from the Scriptures: Deuteronomy 6:5 (love of God) and Leviticus 19:18 (love of neighbour).
The road from Jerusalem down to Jericho drops about a thousand metres in some twenty-seven kilometres, through lonely desert hills where robbers could hide. Jews and Samaritans were divided by long hostility over the Temple and the Scriptures (see John 4:9). A Samaritan is the last hero Jesus' hearers would expect.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“And who is my neighbor?” (10:29)
The lawyer asks "wanting to justify himself". He wants a limit. Love that looks for limits is not yet the love the law commands.
“But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity.” (10:33)
The priest and the Levite "saw" and passed by; the Samaritan "saw" and came near. They may have feared ritual impurity from touching a body that seemed dead (Leviticus 21:1), but the parable gives them no excuse. The Samaritan takes the risk and pays the cost.
“Go and do likewise.” (10:37)
The lawyer cannot bring himself to say "the Samaritan"; he says "the one who showed him mercy". Jesus sends him out to become that kind of person.
How the Church reads it.
Many Fathers, among them Origen, St Ambrose and St Augustine, read the parable also as a picture of salvation: the wounded man is Adam, fallen on the way from paradise; the Samaritan is Christ, who comes near to us; the oil and wine are the sacraments; the inn is the Church; and the promise to return is Christ's second coming (in substance). Pope Francis devotes the second chapter of the encyclical Fratelli Tutti to this parable, asking each of us which character we are.