It’s quick and simple. Just enter your e-mail address to receive your free subscription of our newsletter. If you’d like us to know who you are, you may at your option also include your name and the name of your organization and where you are. We respect your privacy.
Common Grounds
The Evangelical Pope | Where Are the Good Samaritans
Living Words from John Paul II
Edited by Abraham A. van Kempen
Published Sunday, May 1, 2022

Each week we let Saint Pope John Paul II share meaningful signposts to spark socio-economic resolves through justice and righteousness combined with mercy and compassion; in short, love.
“Who is my neighbor?“
__ Luke 10: 29
Saint Peter’s Basilica, 11 February 1984 | A Good Samaritan is a person who gives the gift of self.
Three travelers along the road from Jerusalem to Jericho saw a half-dead man who had been stripped and beaten by robbers. The Samaritan showed himself to be the authentic “neighbor” of the victim. “Neighbor” also means the person who carried out the commandment of love of neighbor.
Two other men passed along the same road; one was a priest and the other a Levite, but each “saw him and passed by on the other side.” The Samaritan, on the other hand, “saw him and had compassion on him. He went to him, … and bound up his wounds “, then “brought him to an inn, and took care of him” (Luke 10: 33-34).
And when he left, he solicitously entrusted the suffering man to the innkeeper’s care, promising to meet any expenses.
The parable of the Good Samaritan indicates what the relationship of each of us must be towards our suffering neighbor. We are not allowed to “pass by on the other side” indifferently; we must “stop” beside him.
Everyone who stops beside another person’s suffering, whatever form it may take, is a Good Samaritan.
This stopping does not mean curiosity but availability.
It is like opening a particular interior disposition of the heart.
The name “Good Samaritan” fits every individual who is sensitive to the sufferings and misfortunes of others.
If Christ, who knows man’s interior, emphasizes this compassion, it is vital for our whole attitude to others’ suffering. Therefore one must cultivate this sensitivity of heart, which bears witness to compassion towards a suffering person. Sometimes this compassion remains the only or principal expression of our love for and solidarity with the sufferer.
Nevertheless, the Good Samaritan of Christ’s parable does not stop at sympathy and compassion alone. They become, for him, an incentive to actions aimed at bringing help to the injured man. In a word, then, a Good Samaritan gets help in suffering, whatever its nature may be. Service which is, as far as possible, effective. He puts his whole heart into it, nor does he spare material means.
He gives himself his very “I,” opening this “I” to the other person. Here we touch upon one of the critical points of all Christian anthropology. Man cannot “fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself.”
A Good Samaritan is a person who gives the gift of self.
Excerpted from:
LATEST OPEN LETTERS
-
16-11To Syria and Bashar al-Assad
-
16-11To Palestine
-
24-10Japan should withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations (UN), WHO's controlling parent body, to protect the basic human rights and lives of its citizens.
-
09-08Open Letter to António Guterres: Will the UN Protect Our Rights and End Our Suffering?
-
09-06Urgent Appeal
-
07-05Protect Our Great Earth And Nation!
-
09-03Peace And Love!
-
06-02Non military defence of Ukraine
-
02-01Avoiding Human Extinction
-
01-06A request to save the disabled children from ISIS
VIRTUAL POST OFFICE
PETITIONS
LINKS
DONATION
Latest Blog Articles
-
01-12Our Friday News Analysis | What the World Reads Now!
-
29-11Our Wednesday News Analysis | Behind the mask
-
28-11Behind the mask
-
28-11Israel-Palestine war: How a slogan became bigger news than the murder of babies in Gaza
-
28-11The masterful propaganda of ‘deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust’
-
27-11The Evangelical Pope | Don't Get Discouraged So Easily!
-
24-11Our Friday News Analysis | What the World Reads Now!
-
22-11Our Wednesday News Analysis | Dear President Biden: The Elders' open letter on Israel and Palestine
-
21-11Dear President Biden: The Elders' open letter on Israel and Palestine
-
21-11ISRAEL AND ITS ALLIES ARE REPURPOSING THE GOALS AND LIES OF 1948 – IN GAZA IN 2023
-
21-11Opinion | Israel's Million-dollar Question: What to Do With the West Bank and Gaza Strip
Latest Comments
One of the most important and illuminating articles that I …
Comment by Benjamin InbarajAnd what's wrong here? After all, there is the homeland …
Comment by Isac BoianDoes this reinforce or deny my argument that Israel is …
Comment by Edward CampbellMany 'say' they support the Palestinian cause but do little …
Comment by Philip McFedriesThe UN is strangled by the "war for profit" cabal …
Comment by Philip McFedriesI can't read the printing on the map.
Comment by Philip McFedriesGood news!
Comment by Philip McFedries
COMMENTS
This article has 0 comments at this time. We invoke you to participate the discussion and leave your comment below. Share your opinion and let the world know.