Anonymous Samaritans

Paying our debt of thanks to unknown Good Samaritans

10/08/2018

Luke 10:25-37 Jesus replied, "A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead. A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn, and cared for him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, 'Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.' Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers' victim?" He answered, "The one who treated him with mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

We are all beneficiaries of anonymous benefactors, meaning more people love us and bless us than we often realize. Last week I was having supper with some friends at a local restaurant and when the waiter brought the check, my portion of the ticket had already been paid. When I inquired who my benefactor was, the waiter said he or she preferred to remain anonymous. So, thank you, whoever you are! When Catholics baptize their babies, the infant receives the gift of sanctifying grace and is utterly oblivious to the Benefactor of that blessing, namely, God. Some Catholics remain sadly ignorant of the Source of that saving grace when they leave the Church later in life.

How many of us acknowledge the gifts and blessings our parents gave us – life, education, a moral code, our value system, our first friends, food, clothing, shelter, etc. But sometimes we act like the Corinthians St. Paul criticized in 1 Corinthians 4:7, saying: “What do you possess that you have not received? But if you have received it, why are you boasting as if you did not receive it?” Atheists arrogantly assert that an anonymous Benefactor has blessed them with existence, and the more anonymous he stays the better. That is as foolish as sawing off the branch that you are sitting on from the tree. Atheists are cutting themselves off from the tree of life. We are far more indebted to anonymous benefactors than we often realize, and it is worth taking a moment to say thank you to whomever they may be.

Jesus recounts the parable of the Good Samaritan. What struck me about the Samaritan’s generosity is its anonymity. The man be helped was “half-dead,” so we can safely assume he was unconscious as he was taken to the inn and treated. Later the anonymous Samaritan promises to pay for additional charges the invalid may incur. Presumably, the victim may have inquired as to the identity of his benefactor – like I asked about who paid for my dinner – and the innkeeper probably answered, “Who cares? He was just a Samaritan!” The insignificance of the Samaritan is part of the point of the parable, highlighting his generosity to a total stranger. In other words, the goodness of the Good Samaritan is showcased not only in that he stopped to help when the priest and the Levite did not; it really shines in his staying a stranger, unknown and anonymous. We are far more indebted to anonymous benefactors than we really realize and we should take a moment to thank them. They are the Good Samaritans in our lives.

Would you mind if I took a moment to acknowledge humanity’s debt to the Catholic Church, a debt most modern people are entirely oblivious to? Christianity stands in many ways like an anonymous benefactor to the modern world; we are the world’s Good Samaritan. Just consider these few examples. The notion of “personhood” – that people are persons and not merely animals or things – comes from Christianity, and is rooted in the Persons of the Holy Trinity. Etienne Gilson wrote: “Christian personalism, also, like the rest, has its roots in the metaphysics of Exodus; we are persons because we are the work of a Person” (The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy, 205). If we moderns saw the branch we are sitting on today off the Christian tree, we may lose our sense of being persons and become little more than animals or things.  We may be more in danger of that than we realize.

Another blessing we have received from the Church is the dignity and vocation of women. Now, some would say the Church has held women back from reaching their full potential, and that may be true in some respects. But Pope Saint John Paul II never tired of talking about a woman’s “feminine genius” (which both the Church and the world need), and William Wordsworth, the great poet, extolled Mary as “our tainted nature’s solitary boast.” Indeed, we hold one woman, Mother Mary, in such high esteem that our Protestant brothers and sisters mistakenly think we worship her. Women cannot get much higher than that! Society owes a debt of thanks to the Church for her teaching on women, even if we have a long way to go to fully appreciate it.

By the way, did you know the Catholic Church contributed “double entry accounting” to the world of economics and finance? A Franciscan friar, named Luca Paccioli, who was the tutor of Leonardo DaVinci, invented double entry accounting, a fundamental principal of modern accounting practice. We owe him and the Church a debt of thanks, and the eternal ledger would not be balanced until we do.

At this Mass, let us thank all those anonymous benefactors who have blessed us, all those unknown Good Samaritans who helped us when we were down-and-out, or half-dead. We may not know who they are, but God does, and he will repay them. Failure to do so would be like sawing off the branch you are sitting on from the tree.

Praised be Jesus Christ!