9 March 2027 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“Go and do likewise.” Luke 10:37
Paul is collecting money. For years he gathered a collection from the Gentile churches of Greece and Asia for the poor believers in Jerusalem, and in this chapter he encourages the Corinthians to finish what they had promised. He does not scold; he speaks of God as a farmer who supplies the farmer: “He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.” Giving is sowing, and God is the one who makes it grow. “You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us.” What is remarkable is where Paul's eyes rest. The collection will feed the hungry, but it will do more: it will make the poor of Jerusalem give thanks to God, and pray for the Gentiles who once seemed strangers. The gift builds the one Church: “they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God that he has given you.” And then, as if all talk of money had brought him to the greatest Gift of all, Paul breaks into praise: “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” The Great Fast has always had three companions: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Almsgiving here is not a tax paid to God, but seed sown in his field, which returns as thanksgiving and communion.
The Gospel takes us to the road from Jerusalem down to Jericho, a steep and lonely road where robbers waited. A man lies there half dead. A priest and a Levite pass by on the other side. “But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity.” Jesus' hearers did not expect the hero to be a Samaritan, a member of a people with whom they had long quarrelled. Everything the Samaritan does is concrete: “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.” He pays two denarii, about two days' wages, and promises more. The lawyer had asked, “who is my neighbor?”, a question about where to draw the line. Jesus turns it round: “Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” “The one who showed him mercy.” “Go and do likewise.” The Fathers saw Christ himself in the Samaritan, who came down to our road, poured the oil and wine of the sacraments on our wounds, and brought us to the inn of the Church. The Latin Church today remembers St Frances of Rome, a noblewoman, wife and mother who, through famine and plague, turned her family's house into a storehouse and hospital for the poor of Rome. She did not leave her home or her marriage to be a neighbour; she opened them.
Theme: “Go and do likewise.”
God who gives seed to the sower, the Samaritan who was moved with pity, and the indescribable gift that turns all our giving into thanksgiving.
“Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, “Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.”” Deuteronomy 15:11
“He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.” 2 Corinthians 9:10
Apply: Fix a definite Lenten alms today and give it before Hosanna Sunday.
“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
“But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity.” Luke 10:33
Apply: Come near this week to one person you have been passing by.
“What shall I return to the LORD for all his bounty to me?” Psalm 116:12
“Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” 2 Corinthians 9:15
Apply: Before Communion at your next Qurbana, thank Christ by name for one wound he has healed in you.
Almsgiving is sowing in God's field, and its harvest is thanksgiving and communion.
Christ came near to us on our road; let us go and do likewise.
Take-home resolution: Choose one person you have been passing by, and come near to them before Sunday.
Dear friends, Paul tells the Corinthians that God supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, and will multiply the harvest of our righteousness (2 Corinthians 9:10). When we give alms in this Great Fast, we are not paying God a tax. We are sowing in his field.
And the harvest is more than bread for the hungry: it is thanksgiving to God, and prayer and love between people who were strangers. That is why Paul ends with a cry of praise: thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! (2 Corinthians 9:15).
In the Gospel a priest and a Levite pass by a wounded man. But a Samaritan, a stranger, sees him and is moved with pity. He bandages his wounds, pours oil and wine, carries him to an inn and pays for his care (Luke 10:33–35).
Jesus says to us: go and do likewise (Luke 10:37). St Frances of Rome opened her house to the poor during famine and plague. This week, let us come near to one person we have been passing by. That is how the fast becomes mercy. Amen.
Children, a man was hurt and lying on the road. Two people walked past, but a kind stranger stopped and helped him. Jesus says: be like that kind man. Who can you help this week, even in a small way?
Lord Jesus Christ, you came down to our road, saw us half dead, and were moved with pity. You poured oil and wine on our wounds and brought us to the inn of your Church. Make us neighbours to everyone we meet; open our hands to sow generously, and our lips to give thanks for your indescribable gift. Through the prayers of St Frances of Rome, make our homes places of mercy. Amen.
Today the Great Fast turns to its other hand, almsgiving. Paul tells the Corinthians that their gift for the poor of Jerusalem is a sowing that God himself will multiply, a service that ends in thanksgiving. In Luke a Samaritan stops on the road, and at his own cost he cares for a wounded stranger. The two readings together say that mercy is not an extra. It comes from God’s own giving, and it becomes praise of him.
Setting.
Chapters 8–9 of this letter concern the collection Paul was gathering among his Gentile communities for the poor among the believers in Jerusalem (see Galatians 2:10; 1 Corinthians 16:1–4; Romans 15:25–28). To him it was more than relief. It was a sign that Jewish and Gentile believers belong to one Church. He writes from Macedonia (2:13; 7:5), probably about AD 55–56, and he urges the Corinthians to complete what they began a year earlier (8:10). Our verses close the appeal.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.” (9:10)
Paul’s words echo Isaiah 55:10 and Hosea 10:12. The giver is not losing anything of his own. He is passing on seed that God supplied, and God remains the farmer.
“for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God.” (9:12)
This is the movement of the whole passage: gift, relief, thanks. Almsgiving does not stop with the person who is helped. It goes on and comes home to God.
“Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” (9:15)
Paul has been speaking of what the Corinthians will give, and he ends with what God has given. Earlier he said why: “though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor” (8:9). All Christian giving is a reply.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that from the very beginning Christians brought, together with the bread and wine for the Eucharist, gifts to share with those in need, and it links this custom to the example of Christ who became poor to make us rich (CCC 1351). Giving alms to the poor is one of the chief witnesses of fraternal love and is also a work of justice pleasing to God (CCC 2447).
Setting.
The reading is the second half of a parable. A lawyer has asked, “And who is my neighbor?” (10:29). Jesus tells of a man robbed and left half dead on the road from Jerusalem down to Jericho, a steep and lonely way. A priest and a Levite pass by. The parable gives no reason, and it is no attack on Judaism or on the law: both the question and the commandment of love come from Israel’s own Scripture (Leviticus 19:18). Then the surprise comes. Relations between Jews and Samaritans were bitter (John 4:9), and a Samaritan village has just refused Jesus (Luke 9:52–53). The hero of the story is a man the listeners would not have expected.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“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 also saw (10:31–32). Seeing is the same in all three. The difference comes in what happens inside, and then in the feet.
“The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper,” (10:35)
One denarius was a day’s wage for a labourer (Matthew 20:2). He does not simply offer first aid. He stays, he pays, and he promises to come back. Mercy takes time and costs money.
“Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” (10:36)
The lawyer wanted a limit: who counts as my neighbour? Jesus changes the question: whose neighbour can I become?
“Go and do likewise.” (10:37)
The lawyer began by asking what he must do to inherit eternal life (10:25). Here is the answer, and it is a command for the road.
How the Church reads it.
Origen (Homilies on Luke 34) and St Augustine read the parable as the story of salvation: the wounded man is Adam, the Samaritan is Christ, the inn is the Church (in substance). This reading does not replace the plain command. Together they show that we can show mercy because we were shown mercy first. The Catechism draws from it the duty to make ourselves neighbours to others (CCC 1932). Pope Benedict XVI calls the parable a standard that requires universal love toward the needy we meet “by chance” (Deus Caritas Est 25), and Pope Francis gives it a whole chapter in Fratelli Tutti (chapter 2).
Is it enough to give money, or must I also go myself?
The Samaritan does both, and each fits its time. He uses his own hands first, and then pays the innkeeper to continue the care he cannot give himself. The Church needs both the personal act and the organized work of charity (Deus Caritas Est 20, 31). Money sent is true help. A gift that never lets us see the wounded person, however, can leave the heart unchanged.