Jesus makes an extraordinarily vivid and profound construction and tells the Parable of the Good Samaritan, as it became known in the Christian tradition, speaking of a man who was left half dead on the road after being mugged. And that three people passed by him on their way down from Jerusalem to Jericho: a priest, therefore, raised to the possibilities of Torah knowledge; a Levite, who was the helper of the Temple, therefore, also a religious, and finally, a Samaritan, who was known as a heretic. A person who did not commune with the Jews, a person who did not worship the main center of reverence for the Jews at the time, which was located in Jerusalem, but in Samaria.
They were people, so to speak, dissidents, and, therefore, they were looked at with a lot of prejudice. Jesus uses a man, victim of prejudice, and puts it in a very curious and interesting way. Instead of saying that the man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, He says that the Samaritan was going on a journey.
Who goes on a trip goes with a purpose, goes with an intention. And he says that, seeing that half-dead man, therefore, who did not have the capacity for an interlocution to be able to gather information from him, about his importance to be helped or not, if he was a significant person or not, since he was in a condition of precariousness, in today's language, perhaps in a coma, he received precisely from this man who meant nothing in those days, in the Jewish tradition, the Samaritan who welcomes him, who tends his wounds, who offers him all the resources he has in the emergency care field. Put him on the animal, take him to an inn, spend the night with him.
And, the next day, after attending to the half-dead man, he calls the innkeeper and says: “Take good care of this man”. it's not that man, this man, meaning that he, going on a trip, had appointments and now recommended that he be attended to whom he had leaned over to attend to, from the road to an entire night. Now, he entrusted the innkeeper, in his presence, to assure him of confidence, saying to him: Whatever you spare with this man more (what he paid for), when I return I will indemnify you.
And continues his trip. The configuration that Jesus makes is beautiful. He was a doctor of the law.
He says he is a Samaritan, a heretic who behaves like that. He is dealing with a vital theme, which is happiness, fullness, the state, therefore, that we all aspire to have. And he says that that man not only provided emergency care, but also provided follow-up care, spending the night with him.
Going through the difficult moment is living, starting painful experiences until the person leaves the acute state for the state of convalescence. And by leaving him in a state of convalescence, he leaves him in the care of the other, indemnifies him and says that he will come back to follow-up. It was a very embarrassing construction for the Doctor of Law.
Then Jesus said to him: “Who do you think was neighbor to him who was half dead, to him who had fallen by the way? ” And the doctor of the law, not wanting to pronounce the word Samaritan, despite it being a construction there of a story, a parable, a figuration, he could not pronounce the word Samaritan, who was the central figure in the care of that half-dead, that fallen man. Then the Doctor of Law said: “Who is your neighbor?
” He says: “it seems to me that the neighbor is the one who was taken with compassion and answered him. It's the one who took care of him. He took care of the other, he took care of the fallen one”.
But he doesn't say he was a Samaritan, he doesn't pronounce that word. So Jesus concludes: “Go and do likewise. ” The closing was extraordinary.
There it was concluded that what defines the encounter with the Divine, what makes us reach the state of bliss, is not our title. It's not just going to a Sacred Temple, it's not knowing by heart a bible from any origin, from any culture. That it is not having, therefore, information, this is not enough, although it is important.
He defines, therefore, in the Samaritan, in that occurrence that it is fundamental for a man to reach that instance of eternal life, of perennial goodness, of enjoyment of the truth, of goodness within himself. It is necessary to act, as the Samaritan did, filled with compassion when he saw the fallen man, because the three passed equidistant from the one who was fallen. The first two, intentionally linked to religion, saw and just passed by him.
They didn't want to see, but the Samaritan, moved by compassion, therefore moved by his heart, goes and makes a movement of approach and makes a helping movement. Making us understand, therefore, at that time and today, the importance of those who seek, identifying themselves with nature, not experiencing existential emptiness, the need, the lack. Lovingness, therefore, this raw material that must fill us deeply and in the instance we are considering, the religiosity that we seek.
This contact with a divinity, around which we must gravitate, is of fundamental importance to understand that, in addition to studies, as the Spirit of Truth told Kardec: “Spiritists, love one another. Here is the first teaching. ” “Instructing yourself is the second”.
It is necessary to study, but if we do not love, we are left in a process of ambiguity. We collapse in front of a knowledge that cannot make a home, does not penetrate the soul, because only what is alive can penetrate the soul, it is the living experience. Otherwise, they just pass as illustrations that can be charming, but they do not reverberate within the being, if we don’t put them into practice.
Loving God in the proposition that Jesus rescued, there in the speech of the doctor of the law of the Jewish tradition as a greater commandment, one must do it through the heart, strength, understanding and soul. These are the different dimensions with which we must reach the Divine. These are the various manifestations through which we approach the Creator.
But who speaks of the Creator, who is the bridge of the Creator is the other, is the neighbor and that is why the commandments are placed together. Loving God above all, is the main commandment and a second similar to the first, loving your neighbor as yourself. This is from the speech of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, which brings in the Jewish tradition, this beautiful content.
And Jesus, unlike those who preceded Him, experienced this commandment and, at the appropriate moments, evoked the theory of practice that He exercised and demonstrated. So, those of us who are on the path, sometimes, seek the Creator in a solitary attempt to find ourselves in an apartment movement, distancing ourselves from society. And we delve into meditative processes, which are very useful, but useless if we remain limited to an immersion in isolation, which does not give us back the possibility of social contact, bringing this content, so that it can be formatted into an experience attitudinal, experiential.
