Homily on Luke 10:25–37 : Why the Good Samaritan Was Not a Priest or Levite

A Must-Read and Challenging Homily on the Good Samaritan You’ve Never Heard Before A Powerful Homily on Luke 10:25–37 (13-7-25)

Praise be to Jesus Christ  

There was a woman who had just returned home from the hospital after a surgery. She lived alone. For three days, no one from her church or prayer group came to visit her. Her neighbours, who followed a different faith, noticed she was unwell and started bringing her food, helping her clean, and even took her back to the hospital for her check-up. When asked how she felt about it, she replied with tears, “My own people were silent. But someone else stood by me.”

In today’s Gospel, we meet such a story. A man is wounded and left half-dead. A priest sees him and walks away. A Levite also passes by. But then, a Samaritan, a stranger, an outsider, stops, bandages his wounds, lifts him onto his animal, and takes care of him. And we call him the “Good Samaritan.”

The question that must burn in our hearts is this: Why didn’t Jesus say “a Good Priest” or “a Good Levite”? Why did He bring in a Samaritan, someone considered impure, outside the faith? It was because , He wants to teaches us that  the one who knows the commandments, who attends every Sunday Mass, who teaches catechism and preach, he/she can still fail to love. And those whom we dismiss as outsiders sometimes live the Gospel better than us.

The verse that shakes me is this: “But a Samaritan… came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity.” That one word, “pity,” or in some translations “compassion,” is the turning point of the Gospel. Compassion is not a feeling. It’s a decision. A Christian without compassion is a contradiction. We can know all prayers, we can build beautiful churches, but if we don’t come close to the wounded, we’re walking away from Jesus Himself.

Let’s come to our own life. When someone in our parish is sick, do we visit? Or do we say, “Let his family take care of him”? When someone starts a shop in our community, do we support it with our purchases, or do we find fault and go to someone else’s? If a child in our neighbourhood is preparing for a competition or exam, do we encourage them or stay silent? The Gospel becomes real not in big programs but in small, daily gestures of love.

We often complain that Christians are decreasing in number. But the truth is, we are decreasing in unity. We are divided by caste, language, group, family pride etc. No And when we are divided, others take over our space. Today’s world is full of new “Samaritans.” Many are stepping in with other intentions because we Christians fail to care for our own.

Even in mission areas, we hear: “That person became something else because when he was in need, no one from the Church came.” It is a great shame. We are the body of Christ, and when one part suffers, all suffer. If we don’t wake up, history will repeat. Others will come not to love but to replace. And we will ask, “Why did this happen?” forgetting that it started with our own coldness.

Saint Teresa of Calcutta once said, “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” This Gospel is not just about helping strangers. It’s about helping our own first. Not with pride but with love.

If we Christians don’t become Good Christians, good brothers and sisters, then someone else will come. And by then, it might be too late. Let us not allow another Samaritan to take our place because of our laziness, carelessness, and lack of love.  Let us become what we are called to be, visible signs of Jesus’s mercy.

Let us look around today and ask, “Who is wounded in my family? In my community? In my parish?” Go to them. Don’t delay. That is your path to heaven.

Lord, teach me to be truly moved with compassion, and to love not with words but with action.

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God Bless…