Day 305 - Matthew 11, Luke 10

That extraordinary Samaritan did not himself shun him whom the priest and the Levite had shunned. In the name of a sect, you may not shun him whom you will admire by interpretation of the word. Indeed, “guard” is signified by the name Samaritan. The interpretation means this. Who is the Guard, if not, “The Lord preserves the infants”? [Ps 114:6 LXX.] Thus, as there is one Jew in the letter and another in the spirit, [Rom 2:28-29.] so there is one Samaritan in public, another in secret. Here the Samaritan is going down. Who is he except he who descended from heaven, who also ascended to heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven? [Jhn 3:13; cf. Jhn 6:33.] When he sees half-dead him whom none could cure before, like her with an issue of blood who had spent all her inheritance on physicians, he came near him. [Mat 9:20; Luk 8:43-44.] He became a neighbor by acceptance of our common feeling and kin by the gift of mercy—St Ambrose of Milan