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Handout #53 |
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The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37) |
| A man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.' We see in this man Adam, man and his true destiny, the fall which followed disobedience. Jerusalem is paradise or the heavenly Jerusalem; Jericho is the world; the robbers represent the hostile powers, the demons or those false doctrines which came before Christ; the wounds are disobedience and sin; the theft of clothing symbolizes the stripping off of incorruptibility and immortality, along with all the virtues; the man left half-dazed represents the present state of our nature which has become semi-mortal in fact the soul is immortal); the priest is the law; the Levite the Prophets; the Samaritan the Christ who took flesh in Mary's womb; the beast of burden is the body of Christ; the wine is the word of his teaching (which cures through reconciliation); the oil is the word of goodwill to men and merciful compassion; the inn is the church; the innkeeper represents the apostles and their successors, the bishops and teachers of the church ... ; the return of the Samaritan is the second manifestation of Christ. Origen, Homily on Luke, II. 120f. |
