To Love Means to Act Like the Good Samaritan

Jul 15, 2007 / 08:56 am

From a red-draped balcony of the Castle of Mirabello, next to the villa where the Pope is residing for his days of vacation, the Holy Father addressed a few words of encouragement and spiritual guidance to the faithful, mostly citizens of the mountain town of Lorenzago, in his Sunday Angelus address.

Drawing on the figure of the Good Samaritan from today’s Gospel, Benedict XVI noted that this passage, “leads us into the heart of the message of the Gospel: love for God and love for our neighbor.”

Answering the question “who is my neighbour?”, Jesus turns the question on the questioner, “stating that each one of us must make himself the neighbour of every person he meets. “Go and do the same!’”

The Pope noted that loving means acting like the Good Samaritan.  “We know”, he continued, “that the Good Samaritan par excellence is Jesus Himself: though being God, he did not hesitate to lower himself to the point of becoming man and giving his life for us.”

The Holy Father greeted those who were on vacation and commented, “before this spectacle of valleys, forests, and mountains extending towards the heavens, there arises spontaneously in the soul the desire to praise God for the marvels of his works”.

Finally, after the Angelus, the Pope took occasion to recall the upcoming World Youth Day to be held in Sydney, Australia.  He invited the youth to mediate on the verse "You will be strengthened by the Holy Spirit that will descend upon you and you will be my witnesses”(Acts 1:8).

Concluding his remarks, Benedict entrusted to Mary, “who tomorrow we will invoke as the Virgin of Mount Carmel,” all of the preparations for the next World Youth Day.